10/1/11. James Q. Wilson reviews Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels Of Our Nature."
Have people become less violent? Evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker makes the case that humans are becoming more civilized and suppressing their most violent impulses.
James Q. Wilson:
"...Some facts are not in dispute. There has been a dramatic drop in the homicide rate from the Middle Ages to the present. We know this from detailed studies by archaeologists and by others, such as the political scientist Ted Robert Gurr. Other facts are in dispute: Was the 20th century—with two world wars, the perfection of genocide and the use of forced starvation as a way of compelling political assent—the bloodiest in history'?
You would think so. World War II took 55 million lives. In China, Mao Zedong killed 40 million of his own people. In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin murdered 20 million of his. World War I added an additional 15 million to the death lists. The total is 130 million dead bodies. But Mr. Pinker argues that this figure, as ghastly as it is, does not tell the whole story. The more important consideration, he suggests, is what fraction of the living were put to death..."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904332804576537813826824914.html?KEYWORDS=james+q+wilson
Have people become less violent? Evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker makes the case that humans are becoming more civilized and suppressing their most violent impulses.
James Q. Wilson:
"...Some facts are not in dispute. There has been a dramatic drop in the homicide rate from the Middle Ages to the present. We know this from detailed studies by archaeologists and by others, such as the political scientist Ted Robert Gurr. Other facts are in dispute: Was the 20th century—with two world wars, the perfection of genocide and the use of forced starvation as a way of compelling political assent—the bloodiest in history'?
You would think so. World War II took 55 million lives. In China, Mao Zedong killed 40 million of his own people. In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin murdered 20 million of his. World War I added an additional 15 million to the death lists. The total is 130 million dead bodies. But Mr. Pinker argues that this figure, as ghastly as it is, does not tell the whole story. The more important consideration, he suggests, is what fraction of the living were put to death..."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904332804576537813826824914.html?KEYWORDS=james+q+wilson
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