There is Hope!
Lou Ann and I were watching Bill Maher tonight. He had a guest named Steven Pinker who has written a landmark book. Bill Gates said ” It is now my all time favorite book!” The title is Enlightenment Now, The Case For Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress.
His book scientifically shows that life expectancy is the longest ever. Ninety per cent of the world’s population under 25 can read and write. 200 years ago ninety per cent of people lived in extreme poverty, now it is ten per cent. There are 137,000 people a day escaping extreme poverty. Rates of death from wars is one quarter of what it was as recently as the 1980’s. In general, we are ninety five per cent safer than we were a century ago.
Of course, this doesn’t mean we can rest on our laurels. We have a long way to go before all of the planet will live in prosperity. I am encouraged by the premise of the book. It gives me hope that those of us who are accentuating the positive, are in alignment with scientific statistics.
I think back to 2004, when the then unknown, Barack Obama shared his vision of hope for America. He said “I’m talking about something more substantial. It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a mill worker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!”
I encourage all of us to take hope with this extremely important book for us. Then go out and make planet Earth an even safer, more prosperous, more loving, more caring, more healthy and more inclusive place. From my hopeful heart to yours, Thomas