This week, I had lunch with a longstanding friend and we found ourselves debating whether we were living in the worst of times (impending collapse of capitalism) or the best of times (record levels of longevity).<\/p>\n
I mentioned the new work by Steven Pinker called “The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence in\u00a0History and its Causes”<\/em> (Allen Lane). The\u00a0writer himself has summarised the book as follows:<\/p>\n “Believe it or not, violence has been in decline for long stretches of time, and we may be living in the most peaceful era in our species’ existence. The decline has not been steady; it has not brought violence down to zero; and it is not guaranteed to continue. But it is a persistent historical development, visible on scales from millennia to years, from world wars and genocides to the spanking of children and the treatment of animals.<\/p>\n The fact that violence is so pervasive in history, but nonetheless can be brought down, tells us that human nature includes both inclinations toward violence and inclinations toward peace \u2013 what Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature” \u2013 and that historical changes have increasingly favoured our better angels. These changes include the development of government, commerce, literacy, and the mixing of ideas and peoples, all of which encourage people to inhibit their impulses, expand their empathy, extricate themselves from their parochial vantage points, and treat violence as a problem to be solved rather than as a contest to be won.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n