Steven Pinker has written a sensible book for our senseless times—a post-lockdown wake-up call whose overflowing optimism in the end rings hollow. His targets are what he calls the “cockamamies” and “doozies” of our era—a very mixed bag of conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers, Trump supporters and people blind to the benefits of taking out a pension. It is they who have prompted this further addition to Pinker’s growing number of books celebrating the light of reason. (His last book was called Enlightenment Now.) His favourite arguments are reiterated: progress is real, wealth is a man-made miracle and, despite the irrationality we see around us, Enlightenment values always win in the end.