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