Everything you know is wrong

Not very long ago I was listening to a speech by Steven Pinker on "Everything you know is wrong". Pinker is a prominent Canadian-American science writer and an experimental psychologist.

In the 20th century we witnessed the atrocities of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Rwanada and other genocides, and the start of 21st century has not been sweet either. We have already witnessed the horrors of Darfur and Iraq. These conflicts and terrors make us believe that we have moved away from the state of harmony, in which our natives lived.

In fact our ancestors were far more violent than we are and that violence is on decline for long long time, and today probably we are living in the most peaceful time in our species existence. The above statement may sound absurd. But the statistics and the logic put forward by Pinker reveals the truth picture.

A surprising statistic reveals that if the tribal conflicts had continued in the 20th century, there would have been 2 billions deaths compared to 100 million American and European deaths in the world war.

If we look into the ancient civilizations, the one mentioned in the bible, we find that the people were slaughtered for petty crimes. And now, if the law gives capital punishment to some genuine murderer, human right activists will blow our heads off with slogans and rallies.

Reasons sited by Pinker are quite logical.
a) Pinker sites some points from Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan that if the authority for illegitimate use of violence was vested on a single democratic agency then such a state can reduce the temptation of attack because any kind of aggression would be punished. In the present era we have such agencies.
b) In the ancient and early modern era life was considered cheap because of the level of sufferings and early deaths. So one had little compunction in taking one's life. As economic and technological advancements had made life pleasant and longer, people have started putting higher value on life in general.
c) Pinker further sites the concept of "Non zero sum game" provided by the journalist Robert Wright. Wright points out that under certain circumstances cooperation and non violence can benefit both the parties. He further points out that technological advancements have lead to global interactions and increase in international business. So one would benefit more from one being alive than dead. From one of the many reasons, I don't want to bomb the japanese is that they built my laptop.

There are many other reasons that justify the above argument. But I feel there is still lot of violence in the world and it would be best for mankind to live in peace and harmony.

Sign

ps: courtesy www.ted.com