Where You Should Go
If you believe in reason
If you think it should rule our world
If you like logic,
And knowledge and insight and brains
Steven Pinker is your man.
If you believe in science.
If you think it’s the pride of mankind
If you think that it aids our freedom
Our life, our pleasures and loves
It’s his books that you should read.
If you call yourself a believer in progress
But don’t know that it really is there
If you want to hold off the doomsayers
With their blindness, distortions and lies.
Then Steven will tell you all
You doubt him at your peril
Discount him and you die
Ignoble is the fellow
Who doth his words defy.
So settle in your armchair
His book in your embrace.
And read in gentle lamp glare
On saving human race.
Wanna know the causes of violence
Wanna know why it fades really fast
Haven’t heard about the passing of murder
Child abuse, and terror and rape
There is no question where you should turn
Wanna know the warring statistics.
Having lived in the long peace
Wanna shed the nuclear fear
And enjoy our modern bliss
Pinkerian Church is where you should go.
𝐐: 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝘿𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙋𝙧𝙪𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬?
A: First listeners actually hear all kinds of things (Dead Can Dance, music to 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙞𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙧), only not the Beatles, but if you listen carefully, the structure of the melody is identical.
𝐐: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬?
A: Maybe it would be possible, for example, to save the world from climate extinction if, instead of complaining and abusing politicians as scoundrels and treacherous mugs, as Greta Thunberg did in New York (scoundrels and treacherous mugs rewarded her for that with applause), we could focus on what is realistic to achieve and would actually result in a significant reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, i.e., at the construction of nuclear power plants, stopping taiga felling by the Chinese, accelerating the reduction of the area under cultivation by mass use of GMOs, releasing cows to pastures and many other things about which Pinker writes.
𝐐: 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐞x𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧?
A: If you read Pinker, you will realise that compared to all other times, and in the West, compared to all other places on earth, we live in a veritable paradise, and if we stop the populist madness and bring about the rule of reason, we will see further unimaginable improvement.