OPTIMISM: Jay Manifold sends us to this column by Miriam Pepper in the Kansas City Star that quotes a hundred-year-old editorial:
“The infant century has naturally encountered some of the ills that usually beset things of such tender age, but altogether his career must be considered as a peaceful though not uneventful one.
“It is probably early to predict, but let us speculate upon what he may accomplish when he arrives at maturer years.
“It is tolerably safe to say at the outset that his achievements in the holds of art, science, literature, discovery, invention, and in fact in all things that go to make life worth living, will be far greater than those of his predecessors.
“During his reign, all of the powers and forces of nature will be controlled and made subservient to the will of man ….
The column concludes: “Such optimism is startling to read today. It’s passionate, hopeful and full of futuristic speculation. It’s debatable, interesting, and most of all, fun to read. A hundred years later, editorials should strive to achieve some of those same goals.”
What’s interesting is that — although some of the specific predictions are wide of the mark — overall the Twentieth Century vastly exceeded expectations for technological progress and betterment of the human condition. Where it fell vastly short was in political progress, since it saw the birth of monstrous and murderous ideologies like communism and fascism far worse than anything experienced in the Nineteenth Century. And, as Brink Lindsey points out, not by accident did we also see a global retrenchment of free trade and free markets, which condemned many to unnecessary poverty in support of the power of the apparats. Lenin, Hitler, and their numerous apologists did far more harm than Nobel, Einstein and Oppenheimer.
Yet the political ideologues persist in criticizing science and technology, and in portraying them as the great dangers to humanity. I’m optimistic, though, because fewer people are listening to them.
