Book recommendation: “Humankind: A Hopeful History”
by Rutger Bregman
Elective pessimism
It is easy to be pessimistic about humanity in a world of fake news, social media trolling, climate change, the war in Ukraine and floods in Pakistan. We seem to gravitate to bad news; confirming our worst fears about societies. Historical events such as The Holocaust, through to the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas demonstate the cruel, unspeakeable acts groups and individuals are capable of. Many mental health professionals see hundreds of clients suffering from a myriad of mental health conditions, including eco-anxiety, burnout compounded by doom scrolling to survivors traumatised by natural disasters. Life in the 21st century can feel like a paradox: surrounded by doom and gloom, we are reminded to just be kind.
But what if being pessimistic is elective? Are we reading the spirit level of humanity wrong? What if optimism and hope are hiding in plain sight?
Rutger Bregman is a Dutch historian and author, his latest book offers a powerful polemic for human kindness and decency. He challenges the prevailing view that we are by our own nature: selfish, bloodthirsty and ruled by self-preservation. Challenging the heavyweights from Hobbes, Dawkins, Milgram and Zimbardo, he torpedoes the fallacy of selfishness into stasis with robust counter-evidence. We are asked instead to reconsider human history, discovering that kindness, cooperation and altruism were there all along.
