{"id":34740,"date":"2018-06-04T06:52:13","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T11:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=34740"},"modified":"2018-06-04T06:52:13","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T11:52:13","slug":"enlightenment-now-rationalizes-the-violence-of-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=34740","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Enlightenment Now\u2019 rationalizes the violence of\u00a0empire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2018Enlightenment Now\u2019 rationalizes the violence of\u00a0empire<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Through an impressive array of data and visual metrics, Steven Pinker\u2019s most recent book, Enlightenment Now<\/em>, presents a fiercely optimistic portrait of the achievements of the human race.<\/p>\n

Pinker uses stats and charts to show how, as one reviewer put it<\/a>: \u201cWars are fewer and less severe, homicides are down, racism is in decline, terrorism is a fading fad, democracy rules, communicable diseases and poverty are on their way out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pinker claims that technocratic progress \u2014 based upon the ideals of the Enlightenment (science, reason and liberal humanism) \u2014 has made humans happier, healthier and less violent than ever before.<\/p>\n

His brand of popular science, rooted in the superiority of mankind, seems to appeal to the masses. An experimental psychologist at Harvard University, Pinker has been included in lists like \u201c100 Global Thinkers\u201d by Foreign Policy<\/em> and \u201cThe Top Most Influential People in the World Today\u201d by Time<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Recent critiques<\/a> have been made of Pinker\u2019s latest work. However, few have explored Pinker\u2019s implicit defence of empire and colonialism: the violent exploits in the name of Eurocentric understandings of \u201cprogress.\u201d<\/p>\n

I believe Pinker\u2019s mechanical understanding of environmental problems in the age of climate change and massive species loss to be irresponsible. As a postdoctoral scholar of critical socio-ecological theory, I feel it is important to counter the data offered in Enlightenment Now<\/em>, which aims to demonstrate how our world is less violent, less environmentally destructive and less poor than ever before.<\/p>\n

We need to counter Pinker\u2019s view with a broader understanding of what our relationship to nature and to each other has been within the context of Western \u201cprogress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rationalizing colonial violence in the name of \u201cprogress\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pinker implicitly rationalizes historical colonial violence and ecological destruction as invariable consequences of advancements towards greater emancipation as human beings.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Enlightenment Now\u2019 rationalizes the violence of\u00a0empire Through an impressive array of data and visual metrics, Steven Pinker\u2019s most recent book, Enlightenment Now, presents a fiercely optimistic portrait of the achievements of the human race. Pinker uses stats and charts to show how, as one reviewer put it: \u201cWars are fewer and less severe, homicides are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,6],"tags":[3641,259,20338,1825,20337,8487,20336],"class_list":["post-34740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-geopolitics","category-liberty","tag-colonialism","tag-empire","tag-enlightenment-now","tag-progress","tag-steve-pinker","tag-the-conversation","tag-vijay-kolinjivadi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34741,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34740\/revisions\/34741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}