Is Humankind Bettering Itself?

Today is the 100th birthday of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.  According to the Writer’s Almanac, the show was the first sci-fi series to depict a generally peaceful future, and that came from Roddenberry’s fundamental optimism about the human race. “It speaks to some basic human needs,” he said in 1991, “that there is a tomorrow — it’s not all going to be over in a big flash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans. No, ancient astronauts did not build the pyramids — human beings built them because they’re clever and they work hard. And Star Trek is about those things.”

Until fairly recently, it certainly did appear that the human race was improving.  Recently, however, we see the trend to world fascism, and the rejection of science, which, given the pandemic and climate change, may prove catastrophic.

If one wants to argue that humankind is bettering itself at this point, think of how Donald Trump would have been regarded as a presidential candidate in 1991.  Hmmmm.  How to choose?  We have George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Ross Perot, and a vulgar conman.  Trump would have been considered a bad joke.