Wasn’t trying to win. I made some points, did some research and you didn’t respond. Just asking.
I don’t do those things. I’m not bothering with you other than to keep repeating myself. I don’t do that.
that doesn’t say all you think it does.
And that avoids the unspoken salient points.
Since I did start this post, and I was asked why I liked it, I suppose I should give a thorough answer to that. I had some time while cleaning the garage to make some notes. Short answer; it’s interdisciplinary and it looks at the human factors. It connects who we are with the data on what we’ve done, and gives some tips on how to move forward, things individuals can do and what we can encourage our leaders to do.
It is an intersection of Psychology (human nature) and History.
Pinker begins by suggesting you don’t read the news or listen to the conventional history narrative, if you want the story on humanity, because those are misleading. He does an aside on the availability heuristic- the easier to remember, the more likely we’ll use that as something to fear. i.e. pollution kills more than plane crashes, but people tend to think about the plane crashes more. News doesn’t cover “stuff that doesn’t happen”. Instead, we should use probability to determine the likelihood of things like war.
He compares violence starting in 1200 to the present. Including, the reduction in capital punishment, slavery, and other points in the humanitarian revolution. And, something called the The Long Peace, which I think is poorly named. He does not mention pollution as a killer anymore in the talk, which is unfortunate.
At 25 minutes, he asks why these statistics show the trend they do.
It’s not evolution because the changes are too recent, and we are still violent as babies, punching, kicking, and biting are normal.
27 Our brain systems contain systems for violence and for violence inhibition. This is a critical point. It explains why war and slavery still exist in a world where those things are now technically illegal.
30 Neuroscience of violence. I won’t try to regurgitate this section, but it is up to date information on what we know about how our minds function.
33/34 Revenge – That brain of our, with its conflicting ideas on violence, comes up with things like it’s immoral to not respond to a problem.
37 Future utopia justifies current violence “can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs” comes from communist advocacy for violene. (I didn’t know that. I think I’ll stop saying it). Pinker makes the excellent point that human lives are not “eggs”.
43 back to history
The expanding circle (Darwin)
48 The perfect passivist problem – If we consider ourselves enlightened, we can decide that we should never use violence, but that leaves us vulnerable to people who don’t see it that way.
The 4 forces that reduce violence in society, mentioned earlier, help us be as peaceful as we can, in a world where those imperfect human brains are operating.
54 – No global development is truly global. But major trends are real.
58 Revolutions lead to genocide and oppression, even America. So overthrowing the current government in some rapid manner has problems of its own.
There’s a mention of studies on the decline in racism. I can’t remember exactly how that fits in to the whole.
1:05 Interesting comment on how cross disciplinary activity is not welcomed in academia.