Hyper-bullish writers on liberal democracy like Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell talk a lot about how modern living is the best it’s ever been. Paradoxically, libertarians like John Stossel would tell you the same thing. That murder, famine, war, and disease are at historic all-time lows. That more people have access to electricity, housing, refrigeration, and TVs, because somehow TVs always factor into this notion of how life is better.
Our ancestors certainly spent a lot of time thinking about surviving. Crop failure, disease, and pain, and the specter of death was everywhere. But I’m not so sure we’re all that different today. It seems to me that heart disease and cancer are just as problematic as they were in the 1970s when Nixon wanted a cure for cancer. Or the 1870s or 1770s. We fixed some problems that let people live longer and, given enough time, you end up with cancer anyway.
Still, I buy this line of thinking for people. That violence is lower, that housing is the most stable it’s ever been, and that more people have a generally higher standard of living in terms of comfort and ease than ever before. Even if that progress came at the cost of higher-than-ever anxiety, stress, and constantly being “on” for work.
But we aren’t the only living creatures. It’s hard to imagine there’s ever been more pain and suffering for cattle, hogs, birds, fish, and virtually every other living creature. For the billions of non-human living things on this planet, the level of stress, pain, and suffering they feel is surely orders of magnitude greater than anytime in recorded history. It’s hard to imagine the world is “better” for them.
