Straw Dogs and Black Mass: The Core Claims

“Gray, Straw Dogs: 'Humans are like other animals in being moved by forces they cannot fathom or control. This is not a counsel of despair. It is a relief from the hubris of humanism. [...] Progress is a myth, and not a harmless one. By promising heaven on earth it has licensed the worst atrocities of history.' [...] Gray, Black Mass: 'Modern politics is a chapter in the history of religion. The greatest political disasters of the last century were caused by utopian movements that had their roots in the religions of the West.' [...] Pinker's response: 'The world has made spectacular progress in every single measure of human well-being. The facts speak for themselves: fewer wars, less poverty, less violence, longer lives. This is not myth; it is data. Gray mistakes the contingency of progress for its impossibility.' [...] Gray's rejoinder: 'Pinker's optimism is the latest version of the faith it claims to have abandoned. The data is selected; the theoretical framework is Whiggish; and the underlying picture of human nature is as shallow as the ideas it claims to replace.' — Gray, Straw Dogs (2002); Black Mass (2007); Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011)”