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Has humanity become more prone to war over time?
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this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2024
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i did not read it but, for people out of the loop, here is what i found about it :
spoiler
by Llama 3 - - a.i. :"The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined" is a fascinating book written by Steven Pinker, a Canadian cognitive psychologist and popular author.
Published in 2011, the book presents a comprehensive and data-driven argument that violence has declined significantly over the course of human history. Pinker contends that, despite the impression given by the media, the world is actually becoming a more peaceful and less violent place.
The book explores various forms of violence, including war, homicide, genocide, torture, and cruelty, and examines the historical trends and underlying factors that have contributed to their decline. Pinker argues that this decline is largely due to the rise of reason, science, and humanism, as well as the development of stronger and more effective governments, international organizations, and global norms.
Throughout the book, Pinker draws on a wide range of disciplines, including psychology, history, sociology, and economics, to make his case. He also challenges common myths and misconceptions about the nature of humanity and the causes of violence.
"The Better Angels of Our Nature" has received widespread critical acclaim and has been praised for its meticulous research, engaging writing style, and thought-provoking ideas. If you're interested in understanding the complexities of human nature and the trajectory of human history, this book is definitely worth checking out!
Ok you probably won't hear this from an AI bot trained to repeat the ideology of the ruling class that this book tries to justify (and for which it gets praised in mainstream media, which I imagine make up most the training data).
But in reality lots of professional historians have argued this is a very bad book from a historical/scientific perspective. The research is not actually best described as "meticulous".
And from a moral perspective, pinker does not see deaths from engineered starvation/malnutrition and displacement (for a more modern equivalent see also the so called "deaths of despair") as "violent" because they don't fall into the war/criminality criteria he sets for himself.
For a compilation of critiques from historans see for example the book "the darker angels of our nature" (link to a review) https://www.counterfire.org/article/the-darker-angels-of-our-nature-refuting-the-pinker-theory-of-history-and-violence-book-review/