Thoughts on the Class of 2018, and A Question for Readers

This weekend I attended my niece’ s high school graduation in Knoxville, Tennessee. I suppose it’s a testament to my short memory that I always dread going to graduations and then almost invariably end up enjoying them.

The Farragut High School Class of 2018 graduation was no exception. I wasn’t excited to attend, but I’m very glad that I did, both because I got to see my niece walk, and because I got to witness some incredibly impressive young folks (her among them).

Fully 25% of the (rather large) class graduated with a 4.0 or higher! The cynic in me is tempted to assume that’s just grade inflation (which became a real issue once states like Tennessee started giving away free college to folks with sufficiently high GPAs), but after listening the the commencement addresses and hearing other stats about the class, I’m not so sure. They were an impressive group of kids by any measure, and to say that I was comforted that our future world will be in good hands is an understatement.

However, one thing stunned me about the commencement speeches. Despite the impressiveness and success of this graduating class, and despite the Golden Age that we currently live in, each speaker made comments suggesting that America’s Class of 2018 as a whole had faced down unprecedented levels of difficulties during their upbringing. While the speakers were optimistic about their own and their high school graduating class’s prospects, they were very down on the prospects of the world as a whole. Seemingly, they fully believe that the challenges faced by the Class of 2018 rival those of The Greatest Generation.

Given humanity’s known Negativity Bias (the tendency to remember and re-experience the bad things in our lives more than the good) and Optimism Bias (the tendency to believe that, while I may be fine, most other people are really suffering), perhaps this dour worldview is no surprise. Even so, it’s demonstrably false, and clinging to falsehoods can’t be good for this class or for humanity as a whole.

To demonstrate just how good the Class of 2018 has had it, I’m going to make a daily post here comparing various measures of human wellbeing as experienced by the Class of 2018 verses their ancestors. I will draw heavily on the extensively researched and documented work of Harvard Professor Steven Pinker as published in his most recent book “Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress”. I humbly suggest that this book should be required summer reading for every member of the Class of 2018 (and frankly everyone else who has not already read it).

However, having had multiple conversations on this subject with many people already, I can vouch for the fact that humanity’s collective ego is currently HEAVILY invested in, and attached to, the idea that we live in an especially difficulty and challenging time—that the world is both more challenging and more dangerous than ever. For that reason, any evidence that I (or Pinker) may offer that contradicts this view is likely to be dismissed, most often on the basis that we are “measuring the wrong thing.” For instance, if I show conclusively how worldwide life expectancy has doubled (and in the richest nations nearly tripled) over the last century and a half, a common retort is often “a longer life of misery is nothing to be proud of”, or something like that.

I can’t persuade folks that we live in a Golden Age unless I specifically address the things that are important to them. So, in my promised future posts, I both want to measure and compare the things that you, the reader, believe to be important indicators of human well-being while also preventing readers from constantly moving the goal post on me. With that in mind, I have a question that I’d like as many people as possible to answer via comments on this post:

What do YOU consider to be the most important indicators or measures (whether objective or subjective) of humanity’s overall well-being?

Don’t research the issue. Don’t let other people’s opinions change yours. Just search your feelings and let me know from your gut what factors you believe indicate or measure human wellbeing.

Please respond via comments. Over the next many days, I will address those things and more.