The progress of human achievement - sort of

It might be the circles I am moving in or the people that I associate with, a lot of people I come across actually believe that things are getting worst and worst. They seem to have an apocalyptic image and destruction of the world. This might be so, as regards some aspect of human endeavour, but it is no longer the case as regards others. In health, disease, food, time, education, wars, human longevity, human rights, etc. in almost every area, a man most specifically humanity has been improving. The notion we have that things are getting worse does not make sense when judged on the figures. The world population has been increasing, and the simple reason why is that fewer people are dying from the disease, and more people are surviving. Fewer as by proportion of, people live in poverty and extreme poverty.

This a book that is very positive and will change your outlook in life. That shows with figures, statistics, graphs, and reason, whatever the "Nay Sayers" might say, life is improving, and things are getting better. That recent world catastrophes and destruction rather than being the norm are outliers, and despite those, life is getting better and fewer people are dying overall. That the enlightenment has made lives better and the recent populism and drawback and belief that things are getting worse - are due to our concept of them. As we fail to contextualizes our opinion of the early time, and we are falsely idolizing history based on a pseudo narration. They are getting an illusion belief that earlier time was much better or "great" and things are now deteriorating. The nostalgia for imagery. Even People are becoming more open-minded and liberal, less dogmatic and restrictive. The number of people living in extreme poverty globally has been reducing.

The book has shown Progressophobia and the likely cause. Progression is the norm, and we have improved in Life, Health, Sustenance, Wealth, Less Inequality, The Environment, Peace, Safety, Less Terrorism, Democracy, Equal Rights, Knowledge, Quality of Life, Happiness, etc. and dedicating each chapter of the topics highlight to it. Even with the predicted doom day scenarios from the hole in the ozone, acid rain, smoking bans, etc., the progress has always been forward, but it has not been easy. They have always been predictions of doom and destruction, but as humans were have been able to conqueror them. But we must be on our guard has there have been near misses.

But why then the rise of populism and the discontented, the book explains it's human nature. There is seduction in apocalyptic end world scenario thinking. Man has always imaged us ending our civilization due to science. From Frankenstein to the Matrix, there have been hundreds if not thousands of films and movies that paint a gloomy picture of the future. We in the tech field all knew about the Y2K bug or problem the book explains that it was thought that had elevators would stop with people in them, planes dropping out of the air, financial market collapsing, baby incubators would shut down, nuclear power station meltdowns and electrical grids shut down, etc. But after all the auditing and research, it was found that there was not such a big problem and the effect was overblown.

The book, when reading in the appropriate content, will give you a lot of reassurance for the future. But some people believe that man is not improving in culture and the things that produce meaning to life. In Chapter 17 "Quality of Life". He made the argument that people spend less time at work due to changes in law and technology due to automation. We have more time to spend on hobbies and family and friends. In the old times, a poor person in the US may be thin and starving. Nowadays a destitute person most is likely to be overweight and most probably be fat and owns a mobile phone, TV, refrigerator and colour TV, less likely to die from infection, starvation, war, etc. Even our poor are relatively low according to our standards and would live as Kings at an earlier age.

So what could explain such resentment and disparity, a lot of psychological theories have been postulated. Among which is the Social Comparison Theory, that people's happiness depends on how they perceive themselves to everybody else or the Jones. Hence, their satisfaction is relative, and it is dependent not only on their mental state but their relative state. There is also reference group theory, which is based upon "the principle that people take the standards of significant others as a basis for making self-appraisals, comparisons, and choices regarding the need and use of information". Hence, the reason why people are linked to celebrity culture. Then there is Relative Deprivation theory, where you judge yourself concerning a group. 

But all these are theories, and maybe we are just bad people, who are narcissistic, spoilt and who have a sense of entitlement.

But the writer went dark afterwards, especially towards the end, and it had an atheistic spin to it. Although in the end, he tried to explain the happiness of the church life and association is due to other factors than religious, but it is an exciting read.