Why the gloom [about the modern world]? Partly it's the result of market forces in the punditry business, which favours the Cassandras over the Pollyannas. Partly it arises from human temperament: as David Hume observed: 'The humour of blaming the present, and admiring the past, is strongly rooted in human nature, and has an influence even on persons endowed with the profoundest judgement and most extensive learning.' But mainly, I think it comes from the innumeracy of our journalistic and intellectual culture.
S. Pinker, The better angels of our nature (2011), 356
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