Violence is on decline
Posted on: 29 Nov 2011
Wars, terrorist attacks, violent crimes…the list goes on and on -everyday the mass media pour on us news items of violence of all sorts from across the globe. This is in addition to the violence the entertainment industry gives us in abundance. Doesn't it all prove that we are living in an era of violence? But the truth is far from it. 'Believe it or not … today we may be living in the most peaceable era in our species' existence,' says Harvard psychology professor and author Steven Pinker.
In the research for his latest book, 'The Better Angels of Our Nature,' Professor Pinker found that 'every category of violence — from deaths in war to the spanking of children to the number of motion pictures in which animals were harmed — had declined.' That, he said, 'makes the present less sinister, the past less innocent.' To read about his observations in Harvard Gazette click here
