The latter claimed more victims, in terms of absolute numbers, than any other conflict in history. The decline of state-sponsored violence has obviously been erratic, and at times we have lurched backward, notably during World Wars I and II. I hope that Pinker’s 832-page blockbuster catalyzes a shift in the zeitgeist, because pessimism itself can thwart our efforts to create a less perilous world. But we haven’t exactly triggered a groundswell of belief that humanity is transcending its savage past. According to the 2011 Yearbook of the Stockholm Institute for Peace Research, major armed conflicts-which by definition kill at least 1,000 people a year-wrack 15 regions in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas, not even counting the recent Arab uprisings.īut “believe it or not,” the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker proclaims in his new book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, “today we may be living in the most peaceable era in our species’ existence.” Other scholars have drawn attention to this underappreciated trend, notably the political scientists John Mueller and Joshua Goldstein. Every day the media dutifully rub our faces in fresh slaughters, from suicide bombings in Afghanistan to Syria’s brutal suppression of anti-government protests. In his recent book Eaarth, the green author and activist Bill McKibben warned that unchecked global warming might trigger Malthusian battles over water and other resources. Plenty of lefties share Mansoor’s perspective.
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