by peacefulpete 6 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
On another thread MsJones posted a link to a video lecture dealing with the Lucifer effect which I enjoyed but then found the a Steven Pinker lecture dealing with the myth of increasing violence and had to share it. Reaserch reveals a sharp decline in violence over the millenia, centuries and decades. He postulates why and why we commonly perceive the opposite. Facinating and not too long.
http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence.html
We are far more in tune with violence NOW in the information age than we were even 20 years ago.
We get reports and news from all over the world.
But when was the last time we had to deal with a band of marauding rapists and killers comimg over the hillside?
Violence has become more mainstream and news tends to be more sensationalist so it is easy to believe there is more violence.
That said, there are some places in the world that are "knee deep" in violence, just as there are some places that are NOT.
Just as it has always been.
Steven Pinker did a TED talk on this. It's long but good and basically, we are living in less violent times:
Did anyone check out the link? It is worth the 20 minutes. and Heaven, that was the link.
Actually violence has gone down dramatically since the 1980's. Even with the current recession, crime continues to go down.
When was the last time you went to a public hanging?
or saw someone burned at the stake for talking to God?
or went to the public games to see men fight to the death with swords
or watched a public execution of criminals using lions and tigers to kill them?
It's something to think about.
