Our ability to use empathy and reason allows us to see how everyone’s life would be improved if we were more tolerant of our differences.

There’s good evidence that global society is making progress in this way, especially over the last century. There is a way to go, of course, and sometimes our own experiences with the media may make us think there is no progress at all. But over the last few generations, in many countries, we have seen people becoming less intolerant and more compassionate, with fewer people dying in violent conflicts, even though it may not seem so when we watch the news.