The world does not need to be fixed by a 20-year-old

People who have lived in both the internet and pre-internet eras may have a slightly better appreciation of the World Wide Web than the generations who have grown up glued to screens since infancy, but what neither can complain of is a lack of access to information. Unfortunately, as the late futurist John Naisbitt observed: “We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.”

This question arises because of the apparent absence of a clear ideological motive behind a young American man’s failed attempt to kill Donald Trump. If history is any guide, investigators will explain the assassination attempt away as the actions of a loner or an emotionally disturbed man. But for all we know, it was the handiwork of an impressionable mind unhinged by overconsumption of conflicting and depressing domestic political narratives circulating in cyberspace.

Young Americans such as Thomas Matthew Crooks are constantly goaded by political leaders (not least Trump himself), professors, preachers, partisan journalists and social media influencers to subscribe to a particular ideology or school of thought. Instead, ideally, they should be told that the world is not black and white but rather many shades of gray, and that they should see nuances instead of absolutes. But such advice falls on the deaf ears of young men such as Crooks, for whom the desire to spill blood and achieve notoriety becomes irresistible because, to quote the American journalist Elle Reeve, they are convinced that “the present reality is corrupt and dying.”

The odd thing is that this male affinity for sour, disappointed misanthropy is growing at a time when breakthroughs in science and engineering, information technology, astronomy, medicine, psychology and archaeology are pushing the limits of knowledge and human understanding, empowering women and girls, increasing life expectancy and boosting prosperity. Far from being the worst of times, ours are in fact the best of times: the age of wisdom, the season of light and the spring of hope all rolled into one.

The present age is in fact the best of times: the age of wisdom, the season of light and the spring of hope all rolled into one

Arnab Neil Sengupta

A skyscraper that took up to five years to build a decade ago now materializes in industrially advanced countries in the space of just one year. People with a specific vision flaw once had to wear special bifocal lenses to enable them to see objects both near and far away, but multifocal progressive lenses now allow distance vision and reading at the same time.

LASIK surgery can free people who can afford it from dependence on eyewear altogether. Many treatments that once could not be done without painful invasive surgery now belong in medical history’s dustbin. Scientific progress and the convergence of technologies are leading to advances in space exploration, while advances in space exploration are resulting in the development of new technologies and applications.

From 1900 to 1950, households in America benefited from many of the biggest technological advances of any generation in history. The inventions of that era — radios, refrigerators, washing machines, irons, electric power, indoor toilets and air conditioning — are now taken for granted even by citizens of low-income countries.

Meanwhile, a mere tap on a smartphone screen is all that is needed to view images of stars, planets and galaxies billions of light-years away, transmitted to Earth by distant space telescopes. For all the talk of a Second Cold War and the return of history, the World Economic Forum says the Fourth Industrial Revolution, in common with previous industrial revolutions, has the potential to improve the quality of life for populations across the globe, ensuring economic growth and structural transformation.

All things considered, there is incontestable evidence that the present age is the most memorable since the discovery of fire or the invention of the wheel. Of course, not everything is perfect and many intractable problems will be left behind for future generations to tackle. But that has been the story of mankind down the ages. The idea that the past was a better time, when all thinkers were like Socrates and all leaders were like Alexander the Great, is nothing but a comforting delusion.

Put simply, a dysfunctional and fractious political landscape can coexist with a strong economy, rapid technological progress and rising consumer materialism. There is no need for anyone, certainly not a 20-year-old, to kill or be killed trying to fix the world.

• Arnab Neil Sengupta is a senior editor at Arab News. X: @arnabnsg