An Idea Worth Spreading: “Why we need to teach young adults about human progress” TEDxCanberra Open Mic Night, Audition Speech
An Idea Worth Spreading
“Why we need to teach young adults about human progress”
“People with something precious to lose – a long, good life ahead – are not as willing to gamble everything for temporary gain. People who believe in the future also invest more in the future.” — Progress, Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future, Johan Norberg c2017
Over the last two hundred years, humanity has experienced the greatest improvement in global living standards in the history of our species. From Bangladesh to Belgium and from Australia to Angola, the average global citizen is living a longer, healthier, more prosperous life.
Travel back to the Industrial Revolution, and you would find an average global life expectancy of just forty years, a child mortality rate of roughly 40%, and an extreme poverty rate of 90%. Today life expectancy in the world’s shortest-lived country, Lesotho, is 53 years, while the global average is now 73 years. At the same time, modern average global child mortality has plummeted to under 5%, while global extreme poverty has fallen to 8%.
And yet, despite the astounding progress in global living standards, for many, the times feel darker than ever. The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, civil war in Sudan, Chinese tensions with Taiwan, high levels of inflation, and an ongoing climate emergency. Yet against the backdrop of these very real challenges, humanity faces an existential risk little spoken of, that is, a global zeitgeist, increasingly willing to throw in the towel on civilization and succumb to despair.
In a sea of negative media coverage, it is young adults who stand to lose the most from a lack of hope for a better future. A recent Lancet survey of ten thousand individuals (aged 16–25 years) across ten countries found that more than half, 56%, said that “humanity is doomed” due to climate change, and 45% of respondents said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily lives.
Despite the incredible progress humanity has made, we are failing to instill in the next generation a solutionist culture, one that sees the progress of the past as an inspiration to work toward a better future.
Why grow up to be a researcher, engineer, doctor, architect, entrepreneur, or strive to make the world a better place if it’s all for nothing? Many young people are growing up and are unsure if their lives are better than the past or if their future will be better than the present.
Teaching children and young adults the story of human progress in school and in the media will help inspire a generation with hope and a drive to build a better future. Progress forward isn’t progress completed, the world can be a much better place, and it’s our job to inspire the next generation to build that future.
To quote Johan Norberg, “People who believe in the future also invest more in the future.” And that, I believe, is an idea worth spreading.
Thank you.
So true, Tony! Finding ways to creatively bring the study of human progress into schools is important, for so many reasons. It will be fun to work through the specifics on how we can make this happen—and to think specifically about how this teaching can inspire kids.