Darkened Enlightenment: The Deterioration of Democracy, Human Rights, and Rational Thought in the Twenty-First Century

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of boxes
About the author
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 Enlightened rational thought
Introduction
Antecedents to the Enlightenment
The Renaissance (c.1300–1600)
The Scientific Revolution (c.1600–1700)
The Enlightenment (c.1700–1840s)
European Enlightenment thinkers
American Enlightenment thinkers
The Age of Reason
The Century of Criticism
The conservative reaction
Critical thinking and higher education
Twentieth-centuryscientific achievements
Connecting enlightened rational thought with popular culture
Summary
2 The darkness that surrounds us: the deterioration of
democracy and human rights
Introduction
Lies, falsehoods, and misleading claims
Declaring the news media as the “enemy of the people”
Populism and nationalism
Examining populism and nationalism
Are we in an “Age of Populism?”
Populism in the United States
Populist movements in Europe
Populist movements in other parts of the world
The deterioration of freedom and human rights
Deterioration of freedom, globally
Deterioration of freedom, the United States
Social stratification and economic disparity
Social stratification: wealth and income disparity
Poverty
The attack on collective bargaining and unions
Global economic inequality
Connecting enlightened rational thought with popular culture
Summary
3 The darkness that surrounds us: unenlightened and
irrational thinking
Introduction
Attempts to devalue education
The multi-facetedvalue of higher educati
Attacks on higher education
A disbelief in science
A disbelief in science in the United States
A disbelief in science around the world
Attacks on the environment
Dependency of fossil fuels and climate change
Human contributions to the sixth mass extinction
Pseudoscience: a by-productof unreasoned and irrational
thinking
Believing in false science
Thinking that is devoid of reason
Connecting enlightened rational thought with popular culture
Summary
4 A flooded swamp
Introduction
The political swamp
The meaning of the swamp
The longevity of the swamp
“Drain the swamp”
The swamp has not been drained; it is deeper and murkier
Circumventing ethics in lobbying
The muck of Trump’s White House
Judicial appointments and the potential for a long-termmess
The acting government
The clogged swamp
The Deep State
Explaining the Deep State
Dangerous secret societies
Too big to fail … from flooding the swamp
Big Business
Big Tech
Big Data
Big Pharma
Big Banks
Big Religion
Connecting enlightened rational thought with popular culture
Summary
5 Will the light of rational thought chase away the
darkness?
Introduction
Signs of light
Progress, guided by enlightened rational thought
Social movements
Signs of further darkness
The future
Bibliography
Index