Meaning

Pinker is identifying what he sees as a contradiction at the heart of a certain kind of intellectual culture. People who align themselves with progressive ideals, he argues, often resist the evidence that the world has actually been getting better in concrete, measurable ways. His point is that accepting documented progress is not the same as accepting the status quo or abandoning ambition for further improvement. The resistance to good news, he suggests, is itself a kind of ideological reflex rather than a sober reading of facts.

Context

This sharp observation appears in Pinker's 2018 book, where he devotes considerable attention to explaining why his optimistic reading of historical data meets such resistance among educated people. He argues that several forces combine to make pessimism feel more sophisticated, including the nature of the news media, certain strands of academic criticism, and a cultural tendency to treat acknowledgment of progress as complacency or naivety. He is not dismissing the desire for further improvement, but questioning the motives behind refusing to recognize gains already made.

About the author

Steven Pinker is a cognitive psychologist and professor at Harvard University whose career spans both specialized research on language and mind and widely read books for general audiences. He is a prominent defender of Enlightenment values and a frequent critic of what he considers irrational or evidence-resistant trends in contemporary intellectual life. His work has attracted both enthusiastic support and pointed criticism, and he is known for engaging those debates directly and publicly. His writing style favors clear argument and empirical evidence over rhetorical appeals.