Steve Pinker tells us that we aren't getting dumber, no, we are actually getting smarter. I think this is a really, really hard sell. Especially if you live with your eyes wide open. Also, I think we must recognize our species possesses absolutely amazing powers of grandiosity and self-deception!
Pinker: "It’s easy to focus on the idiocies of the present and forget those of the past. But a century ago our greatest writers extolled the beauty and holiness of war. Heroes like Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Woodrow Wilson avowed racist beliefs that today would make people’s flesh crawl. Women were barred from juries in rape trials because supposedly they would be embarrassed by the testimony. Homosexuality was a felony. At various times, contraception, anesthesia, vaccination, life insurance and blood transfusion were considered immoral."
Yeah, but I think this just shows us that we were Idiots then, and we are Idiots now too. Our essential Idiot-Nature just manifests itself in new, progressive and infinitely innovative ways!