1. Capitalism: The Liberal Revolution

2. The aspirations and potential achievements of our human species are unlimited.

3. In just the last 12,000 years out of the species’ 100,000 years on the planet, mankind has advanced from small bands of nomadic hunters and gatherers to where we are today.

4. In travel, in less than 300 years we have advanced from wooden sailing vessels…

5. …to city-sized cruise liners

6. …to modern flight

7. …and even space travel.

8. In medicine, we have evolved from bloodletting and amputations without anesthesia

9. To a staggering array of medical advances that save lives and alleviate suffering.

10. In all areas of the arts, humans have created sublime works that uplift the human spirit.

11. The standard of living of an average person in any developed nation is far superior to that of kings and queens even a few hundred years ago. The Palace of Versailles (above) may have been beautiful, but its dwellers did not have the comforts of the most basic modern conveniences that most people enjoy today – hot and cold running water, as just one example.

12. All progress comes through peaceful activity, peaceful cooperation, and the right of individuals to pursue happiness each in his or her own way, so long as they don’t infringe upon the rights of others.

13. Human destruction, on the other hand, has been colossal, and it is all the result of… politics.

14. The 20 th century alone witnessed the deaths of over 100,000,000 people. They died from wars between nations...

15. ..Mass exterminations and genocide, such as in the murder of 20,000,000 individuals under Stalin in the Soviet Union, or the brutal extermination of Jews and other minorities in the Holocaust.

16. And countless other “smaller” conflicts such as in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge regime ruthlessly murdered a quarter of that country’s population.

17. We are living in the most critical phase of human history. Physical and biological science provide the technological capability to destroy all human life on this planet, while our social structures lack the means to prevent this from happening.

19. However, there is a solution.