human violence at an all-time low. (generations, death, crime, election)

[wutitiz]

Is The World A Less Violent Place? : NPR

I always remember the account of Jared Diamond in "Guns, Germs & Steel" of tribal folk in New Guinea. If they happened to meet each other in the wilds, they would have to rattle off relatives and connections. If they could not find commonality a fight to the death would ensue.

A couple hundred years ago, dueling was the norm. Andrew Jackson, whose pic is on that $20 you just spent, was in numerous duels. Go back several centuries and you find people getting rich by making towers of human skulls:
//www.city-data.com/forum/polit...tamerlane.html

How do you explain this evolution?

[The Dark Enlightenment]

Some fascinating stuff in that presentation by Pinker, thanks for posting it.

[TriMT7]

I believe this is true.

Same thing with crime in general in the US, for example.


But now we have the 24/ news cycle, blogs, etc.... we are EXPOSED to more crime and stories of violence, even though on balance there's less of it.

[Shankapotomus]

Originally Posted by wutitiz

Is The World A Less Violent Place? : NPR

I always remember the account of Jared Diamond in "Guns, Germs & Steel" of tribal folk in New Guinea. If they happened to meet each other in the wilds, they would have to rattle off relatives and connections. If they could not find commonality a fight to the death would ensue.

A couple hundred years ago, dueling was the norm. Andrew Jackson, whose pic is on that $20 you just spent, was in numerous duels. Go back several centuries and you find people getting rich by making towers of human skulls:
//www.city-data.com/forum/polit...tamerlane.html

How do you explain this evolution?

It's already been explained in numerous science books detailing the evolution of egalitarianism, cooperation and between group selection.

[The Dark Enlightenment]

It'a amazing to think that the murder rate in the average European town 500 years ago was 10-20 times what it is in the US today.

Originally Posted by TriMT7

I believe this is true.

Same thing with crime in general in the US, for example.


But now we have the 24/ news cycle, blogs, etc.... we are EXPOSED to more crime and stories of violence, even though on balance there's less of it.

Yeah, that's probably the biggest reason why people falsely believe there is more violence. I also like the idea Pinker brought up about standards and expectations changing even faster than the real situation. People today expect society to be violence-free and become appalled at things people of past generations would hardly have given a second thought.

Another big thing we get wrong is the level of pollution. America, and most other rich nations, are much, much cleaner than before. Yet most people think it's all been downhill environmentally.