To be modern is to embrace reason. It is to pursue the Enlightenment aspiration for truth freed from the chains of dogma and superstition. It entails a coming into intellectual maturity, leaving behind the childish comforts and pleasures of ritual, magic and tribe. It is to aspire to a society based on rational planning and well-informed judgment, leaving behind social life based in mere tradition or collective passions. The truly modern person ultimately stands alone with only their rationality and good faith to guide them, but may find themselves supported by the company of other fellow travellers along the path to Enlightenment. Those unable, through immaturity or impairment, to contribute to the rational progress of knowledge may be nurtured or cared for. Those who persist in holding on to religious dogma or other forms of prejudice place themselves beyond the progressive moral and intellectual centre of society. They are to be marginalized, disparaged, even feared and fought against, for the hope of the better world lies with the clear rationality of the truly modern. Through their reasoned reflection on the world, the modern person will be able to not only establish what is truly good, but ascertain how this good is most likely to be promoted. They will, if supported by similar people of good faith, create societies that are better, healthier and more just. This is the promise and calling of the truly modern.