Harvard Professor Highlights Role of U.N. in Human Advancement

Author Steven Pinker holds that, against news reports to the contrary, the world is actually improving. And he has the data to prove it. This is the thesis of his 2018 book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress (Penguin Books). In a talk at the United Nations Bookstore in New York on 20 May, 2019, Prof. Pinker, who teaches psychology at Harvard University, explained why he believes that the world is getting better, and he analyzed the role that the United Nations (U.N.) has played in its betterment.

Later that day he delivered the Economic and Social Council inaugural Presidential lecture, “Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress in Creating the Future We Want,” in the ECOSOC Chamber at the U.N. Headquarters.

In the book, Prof. Pinker points out that on several measures humanity is progressing. Since the Enlightenment, the time in history when reason and scientific achievement came to dominate over blind belief and superstition, humanity has made significant progress in the areas of health, freedom, and longevity. In support of this statement he cited global data on school attendance for children, homicide rates, deaths through warfare, and extreme poverty, all of which are moving in the right direction, he asserts.

He also pointed out that the U.N. has contributed greatly to improvements in living conditions around the world, though these accomplishments are not often acknowledged. Such a list of accomplishments would include the following:

• The U.N. has fought slavery and human trafficking in every corner of the globe, with much success. Whereas these practices used to be the norm everywhere in the world, they are now banned almost universally.
• The U.N. has stigmatized and outlawed war. Today we consider large, organized wars such as World War II to be abnormal and deplorable.
• Under U.N. influence, countries’ borders around the world have remained roughly the same as they were 75 years ago, bringing stability to most regions.
• On balance, NATO peace-keeping forces have been the most effective in history.      
• The U.N. provides a dashboard of data on many humanitarian issues, including access to clean water, poverty levels, gender parity, population trends, and more. This dashboard tracks our progress toward the humanitarian goals that the U.N. sets regarding these issues.

After opening the floor up to questions, Prof. Pinker delved more deeply into some of the ideas he’d introduced.  One audience member asked how the rise in school shootings and terrorist activity jibed with the statement that states have become less war-like. Prof. Pinker responded that the threat of terrorism is actually overblown; each day hundreds more people die from accidents and addictions than from terroristic violence. He added, however, that because the news media place an outsized focus on the latter that we might believe it to be a greater threat than it actually is.

To give clearer focus to actual violence levels, he added, news gatherers should report on current events using data, as sports and business journalists do. And the U.N. global dashboard should be used more often as an authority in reporting on global conditions. Such a data-driven approach to current events would leave us with a stronger belief in the safety of the world than currently.

Another audience member asked about the impact of human activity on the natural world, pointing out that 60% of the earth’s animal species is projected to be extinct by the end of the century. While Prof. Pinker admitted that human progress comes at the expense of the environment, he added that it didn’t have to be that way. We can use laws and technology to reduce environmental damage in at-risk areas, and modern industrial development—the building of high-rises and food technology, for instance—tend to concentrate human activity in one spot, thus allowing nature to thrive.

As the talk began to wind down, Prof. Pinker offered some advice for enhancing human progress. He suggested that a new model of development would take into account the global marketplace of ideas rather than just Western ideas; ideas that can be measured and tested against an objective reality will aid the entire world, no matter where they come from. To facilitate such a change, he urged the audience to focus on multilateralism and cosmopolitanism brought about through persuasion, rhetoric, and free-flowing communication.

Because the challenge, he asserted, lies in the persistent hold of tribal beliefs on our societies—tribe-centric actions cause untold damage in the world. But it is possible to teach people the value of universal truths. “Data may help,” he said. “Experiments and graphs do change minds.”

The talk closed with a reading from Enlightenment Now, offering a vision of what is possible through an ongoing search for objective truths: “We will never have a perfect world. But there is no limit to the betterments we can attain if we continue to apply knowledge and enhance human flourishing.”

ECOSOC Presidential Lecture Video: http://webtv.un.org/watch/ecosoc-inaugural-presidential-lecture-reason-science-humanism-and-progress-in-creating-the-future-we-want/6039002072001/

Slides accompanying ECOSOC talk: https://www.un.org/ecosoc/sites/www.un.org.ecosoc/files/files/en/2019doc/UN_ECOSOC_Presidential_Lecture_2019_by_Steven_Pinker.pdf