In “Humankind” Rutger Bregman tries energetically to discredit pieces of evidence cited by others to demonstrate humanity’s badness
Little, Brown; 480 pages; $30. Bloomsbury; £20.of a Dutch Protestant cleric, Rutger Bregman was brought up in a religious tradition that regards mankind as incorrigibly prone to wickedness, yet called by the Creator to veer towards goodness, a transformation that the faith promises to abet. As a young, bestselling proponent of catchy ideas about history and economics, he has rejected parts of that outlook while retaining others.
In every case, Mr Bregman insists, the true story is different. Take the famous experiments in which subjects were persuaded to administer painful electric shocks to strangers: that research was dishonestly conducted and reported, he argues passionately. Or consider the brutal murder in 1964 of a young woman in New York, who might have survived if somebody had alerted the police in time. That, he says, was also misreported. A stranger comforted the victim before she died.
He cannot deny that people sometimes commit unspeakably evil acts. One section looks at the character of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal who was hanged in 1962; what strikes the author is the monster’s adamant, twisted belief that he was doing good. Mr Bregman also considers why Nazi troops went on fighting tenaciously when their cause seemed doomed.
Still, in a world of sophisticated pessimism, the book is a refreshing change. Where Mr Bregman grates is in his claim to be the first to wrestle with deep, paradoxical truths about mankind. In the opening lines, he says he is presenting an idea “denied by religions and ideologies” yet of vital importance, for example in management theory or criminal justice.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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