PROGRESS? - Steve Tomkins

“We don’t click on the story that, once again, the annual global air safety record has slightly improved this year. Nor are we attracted to the headline that tells us the child mortality decreased by 0.005% again in Botswana. We click for news about the air crash and the devastating famine. Norberg suggests other factors too: Bad news has a greater emotional impact than good and stays with us longer; nostalgia dulls our memories of past hardships; we are biologically hardwired to take dangers and worries seriously. He might have added another: historical ignorance. Most of us have very little idea how violent, short, painful, unfair and unfree our ancestors’ lives were.” – Steve Tomkins explores Johann Norberg’s PROGRESS, in issue #2 of The Porch, available here to subscribers. (Not yet a subscriber? We’d love to have you in this community dedicated to a slow conversation about beautiful and difficult things. Click here to find out more.)