Hi TOK List,
  I thought this article on Woodrow Wilson and the Spanish Flu pandemic was fascinating. Consider the claim that, despite the fact that upwards of 600,000 Americans died (and 50,000,000 died worldwide), historians "have been unable to find a single occasion on which he mentioned it in public."
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/04/08/how_woodrow_wilson_let_death_run_viral_in_the_great_war_123047.html

If anyone doubts whether we live in a different world than a century ago, that quote should be evidence enough. As much as we might complain (with good justification) about the current lack of coordination and other serious concerns about the state of the globe, it is striking to consider this contrast. And it does give a nod to the basic point that Steve Pinker makes in Enlightenment Now, that at least as far as human lives have been concerned, over the past two centuries, the general trend has been positive. And "downward social comparison"<https://study.com/academy/lesson/self-comparison-theory-upward-vs-downward-social-comparison.html> does help us gain perspective on things.

Best,
Gregg

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