Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

Latin America. See South and Central America

Latinos, 239, 336

law enforcement. See police; rule of law

Lawrence, D. H., 446

Lears, Jackson, 388

Leavis, F. R., 34, 92–3, 446

Lebanon, 490n96

Leetaru, Kalev, 50

Lehrer, Tom, 48, 126

Lenin, Vladimir, 447

Lennon, John, 166

Lepper, Mark, 359–60

Lesotho, 172

Lessing, Doris, 261

Levi, Michael, 313

Levitsky, Steven, 206

Lewis, Sinclair, 284

Lewis, Wyndham, 446, 447

Lewontin, Richard, 114

LGBT rights. See homosexuality and homophobia

Liar’s Paradox, 352

liberal values. See emancipative values

Libya, 193, 313

Liebenberg, Louis, 353–4

life and living things as anti-entropic, 18–19, 20

life expectancy, 53–61, 54, 58

child mortality, 55–7, 56

developed vs. developing countries, 54–5, 95–6

fallacious pessimism about, 53

immortality, 60–61

and quantifiable index of global well-being, 245–6, 246, 473n45

light, artificial, 253–4, 253–4

lightning strike deaths, 189, 189

Lilla, Mark, 447, 449

Lincoln, Abraham, 45–6

linguistics, 407

Linker, Damon, 390, 448

Lister, Joseph, 63

literacy, 235–6, 236

African Americans and, 219

of females, 239–40, 239, 473n27

literature

and human knowledge, 433

scholarship in, as discipline, 407–8

See also arts and culture; humanities

Lithuania, 278

living standards

of the 1950s, 113–14

intellectual scorn for, 34, 446

Optimism Gap and, 115

sympathy and, 34

Locke, John, 230, 412

London, England, 63, 130, 135

London, Jack, 446

Long Peace, 43, 157–8, 451

and civil wars, 158–60, 466n11

and democracies, rise of, 162–3, 200

Kellogg-Briand pact and, 163–4

realpolitik and, 163

trade and commerce and, 162

See also international community

Lord, Charles, 359–60

lottery, winning, 270

Louis C.K., 262–3, 264

Lovelock, James, 465n76

Loving, Richard and Mildred, 376

Lucas, Robert, 89

Lutheranism, 412

Macaulay, Thomas, 327–8

McCloskey, Deirdre, 84

McGinn, Colin, 427–8

McKibben, Bill, 465n76

McNally, Richard, 281

McNamara, Robert, 74, 319

Macron, Emmanuel, 339

Madfis, Erik, 198

Madison, James, 13, 407

Maduro, Nicolás, 91, 171

magical thinking, 5, 249

Mahbubani, K., 459n16

Maher, Bill, 374

Maher, Shiraz, 5, 443

Mahmood, Omar, 443

Mailer, Norman, 447, 456n1

Malamud, Bernard, 284

malaria, 66, 66

Malaysia, 57, 200, 203, 442, 457n8

Malthusian Era, 54

Malthus, Thomas, 73–4

Mandela, Nelson, 91

Mann, Thomas, 446

Mao Zedong

death of, 90, 208

as leader, 78, 91, 143

and nuclear weapons, 313

repression under, 203, 208

Western intellectuals as admirers of, 447

Marcotte, Amanda, 358–9

Marcuse, Herbert, 39–40

Marcus, Gary, 477n20

marijuana, 175, 185

Maritain, Jacques, 418

Marxism

Critical Theory as quasi-Marxist, 396–7

human costs of, 78, 90–91, 101, 107, 165, 200, 247–8, 271, 364, 430

intellectuals’ sympathy with, 31, 364, 372, 447

See also communism

Marxist guerrillas and terrorists, 158, 195, 197, 198

Marx, Karl, 103, 165, 349, 405

Maslow, Abraham, 224

massive open online courses (MOOCs), 238

Mateen, Omar, 215, 216

maternal mortality, 57–68, 57

Maurras, Charles, 448

meaningful life, 3–4

contrasted with happy life, 267–8

Enlightenment ideals and, 3–4

freedom and, 265–6

humanistic caring and, 434–5

Humanist Manifesto III on, 411

measles, 66

Medellín, Colombia, 172

media

about things that happen vs. don’t happen, 41

anxiety produced by, 286–7

Availability heuristic and, 42, 201

Betteridge’s Law of Headlines, 282

child labor exposed by, 230

climate change coverage, 151

dystopian rhetoric of, 50, 343

fact-checking and, 375–6, 380

gravitas market, 49, 293, 452

liberal tilt of journalism, 372–3, 484n54

mental health perceptions and, 282–3

“nuclear war” less mentioned, 310, 479n80

and pessimism, 40–41, 50, 343

political coverage, improvement of, 381, 383

populism and, 343–4

and shift from glorifying to exposing leaders, 50

terrorism coverage, recommendations for, 197–8

time scale of positive vs. negative events, 41

tone of the news (1945–2010), 50–51, 51

Trump’s election, role of, 50, 343, 376, 449

Trump’s threats to, 336

and violence, portrayal of, 42, 215–16

workplace safety coverage, 186

—NEGATIVE NEWS AS FOCUS OF, 42, 50

anxiety and depression and, 286–7

children and, 229

cumulative psychological effects of, 292

equal rights and, 215

incremental system change, loss of belief in, 50

upticks of problems and, 44

viewed as duty of journalists, 49

Medicare, 109

medicine

blood groups, 64

evidence-based, 380

future gains not calculated in life expectancy, 60

and immortality, hope for, 60–61

new technologies for, 331

progress in, as incremental, 55, 61

sterilization of hands and equipment, 63, 67

See also drugs, pharmaceutical; health; health care; infectious disease; vaccines

Medvedev, Dmitry, 316

Meehl, Paul, 403–4

Mellers, Barbara, 367–8, 370–71

memory, autobiographical, 3, 48, 407

Mencken, H. L., 446

men. See sex differences; women

mental health and illness

cognitive behavioral therapy, 175, 282

depression, 280–83, 284, 476n74

disease mongering/concept creep, 281–2

drugs for, 281, 282

and freedom, 285

paradox of, 282

as percentage of global burden of disease, 282

rates of depression and anxiety, 282–3, 476n74

See also anxiety; suicide

mental models, 22–3

Mercier, Hugo, 380