We stand with science. We believe in progress.

Our staff book club recently read “Enlightenment Now,” by Steven Pinker, professor of psychology at Harvard University. Published in 2018, the book still resonates today, as it responds to the increased trend of alarmist and negative news media with data and science – giving reason, science and humanism centerstage in revealing the positive progress we have made, and are making, toward a more equitable and safe existence.

We came away from our reading with the desire to share what we learned – providing a snapshot of the book’s themes in a visual-one-pager, created for us by Todd Clarke, Todd’s Got a Pen, who we’ll highlight in a partner spotlight in a future blog.

Enlightenment Now’s four principles – reason, science, humanism and progress – take center stage as Pinker debunks many of the prevailing beliefs fed by a swirling daily news cycle which leads to “doom scrolling,” the proverbial sleep-robbing activity so many of us fall into as we go from one negative alarming news story to the next.

In fact, our world is getting safer, people are being lifted from extreme poverty, there are less carbon emissions worldwide, wars and conflicts are fewer, and human ingenuity fueled by reason, science and humanism prevail – making steady progress inevitable.

As an example, famine has decreased. This is likely the last century where tens of millions die of hunger. We use 12% more land to grow 300% more food. Extreme poverty is down 80% since 1820, with half that decline in the last 35 years. Remarkably, 137 thousand people have climbed out of poverty every day for the past 25 years.

There is reason for hope. We have seen incredible advancements and improvements in our lifetime. And we believe human ingenuity will continue to do so in future generations.

For more information on Enlightenment Now, we invite you to download our Enlightenment Now visual one-pager which may be found on our website at https://koneconsulting.com/resources.

Koné Consulting
CELEBRATING 10 YEARS INSPIRING CHANGE
AND LASTING IMPROVEMENTS

Follow us on our Facebook, Twitter and LinkdIn.