By 'collective growth in our emotional intelligence' I meant that because of factors like the internet, mobiles, globalization and the speedy virality of ideas, for a lot of the world their frame-of-reference is so much broader. Our ways of communicating and discussing ideas are broader. We network quicker.
So I agree that we're not going to meet some 'perfect state' of emotional intelligence, but I like to think that in the context of today, our ability to process and empathize with a diversity of thought is, on the collective, greater.
I recall a comment once made - "statistics is the most important creation of our time, I foresee a future where even the simplest of men would have a basic knowledge of the field."
It hasn't happened, nor will it ever. People are born constantly into this world, and the large amount of development required to get to a point where you have sufficient emotional intelligence is a path littered with mistakes.
By the time you have a cohort stable enough and mature enough, you also have a counter cohort learning from the first obvious mistakes, or arguing against the older group.