"The Moral Arc"

(How Science and Reason Lead Humanity Toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom)
-by michael shermer
2015
One of those exceedingly rare books in which you can actually feel yourself getting smarter as the chapters roll by. The central thesis is that since the Enlightenment and Age of Reason, humynity has been on a measurably upward moral swing (and in the big picture, a stunningly speedy one), a direct result of the embrace of science over superstition. So many of our ancient inhumynities are based upon assumptions (wimyn and non-pinks inferior, etc.) which science conclusively de-pants. And this process will only continue, as we accumulate more data which shows that democratic, egalitarian, free-trade societies flourish (a brilliant example being North and South Korea over the past half-century), and that as autocracies decrease, so does war. Notwithstanding a media that feeds us unrelenting images of violence and deprivation, shermer contends that a smaller percentage of the world's population are impoverished and a smaller percentage die from violence, than at any time in recorded history. Slavery is outlawed everywhere, rape is outlawed in all western states, and the death penalty/torture are almost universally outlawed...nor have you seen many witch-burnings lately. Compare all that with just a century or two ago.
The driving force is the expansion of the moral sphere, those to whom we show ethical consideration. Not long ago, this included only our families, then our tribe...but it has grown to encompass the entire humyn race (and now beyond). The advent of game theory has contributed to the rejection of the winner/loser mentality. Shermer details the moral march from civil rights to wimyn's rights to gay rights to animal rights. He contrasts retributive and restorative justice, to show the future (and for New Zealand, the present) of jurisprudence. He graphs the statistical superiority of non-violent protest over violent. An in-depth analysis of nazi Germany shows how easy it is for any state to backslide...a lesson which probably would have been hammered with more force had this book been written post-2016.
Shermer writes with style, humor, concision, and statistics. He perhaps plays a bit fast and loose with his contention that all prehistoric humyns were startlingly violent, as he lumps pre- and post-agricultural people together. And the latter half of the first chapter drags. But get through that, and it's sparkling sailing. This is a work of far-reaching breadth, which belongs on the must-read list of any thinking humyn.