The Curve of Civilization

Most of my life, I believed the arc of history bent toward better humans.

Each generation seemed a little kinder, a little more just, a little more committed to fairness.

Books like The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker backed that up with hard evidence: violence has declined over centuries, and civilization has slowly but surely expanded.

It felt like progress was inevitable.

But progress is not automatic.

Right now, it feels like we've hit a blip in the curve - a step backward toward selfishness, cruelty, and the idea that power is more important than principle.

We've seen this before in history, and it never ends well.

A civilized society is built on more than laws and rights.

It's built on the shared belief that those laws and rights apply to everyone, and that our freedom is balanced by our responsibility to one another.

Without that balance, we slide toward a world where the strong do whatever they want, and the rest of us live with the consequences.

Revelation paints a picture of a time when people are deceived by leaders who speak like saints but act like predators. Whether or not you take that as prophecy, it's a timeless warning - and in that story, the deceiver is ultimately defeated. There's hope in that. But it also says the road to that victory is marked by great suffering. We have a choice: we can shorten that road by refusing to be deceived.

The good news is that this blip doesn't have to last. If enough civilized people stand up - with their voices, their votes, and their refusal to be pulled into chaos - the curve can bend back toward justice and decency.

The question is, do you want a civilized future?

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Next in the series:
My Reason for Hope -- a reason for hope - a way we might get back on the curve toward a better, more civil future.

Series index:
The Curve of Civilization � Table of Contents