Me, Too, Ed. I'm curious to see how it compares with Jeremy Rifkin's
/Empathic Civilization/, which I really enjoyed.
N.K.
On 16/09/2013 6:01 AM, Ed Weick wrote:
Thank you for all of this, Natalia. I may try to get the book. I've
read Pinker's "The Blank Slate" in which he argues that we are
programmed at birth to learn language and all kinds of things that
comprise socio-cultural behavior. I may try to get "The Better Angels...".
Ed
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* D & N <darna...@shaw.ca>
*To:* "RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION"
<futurework@lists.uwaterloo.ca>
*Sent:* Saturday, September 14, 2013 9:54:08 PM
*Subject:* [Futurework] was: OMG OMG...is now "peaceful" times we live in
The discussion between Ray and Steve, with Ray briefly mentioning that
war may include peace, but does not include the essential peace
process, reminded me of a CBC radio one talk show today on human
nature, with one author speaking of us as naturally warring, and the
other insisting that warring people are culturally influenced.
Couldn't get either party's name because I was in and out of the car
as the show went on.
Tried to search it on CBC website, but found this guy's book instead.
He may have been the one I found rather interesting. Both positive and
negative reviews included at the end.
Perhaps some of you have already read it?
*Natalia*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Better_Angels_of_Our_Nature
(The book title refers to some quote by Lincoln.)
/*The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined*/ is a
2011 book by Steven Pinker
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Pinker> arguing that violence in
the world has declined both in the long run and in the short, and
suggests explanations why this has happened.^[1]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Better_Angels_of_Our_Nature#cite_note-1>
The phrase "the better angels of our nature" stems from the last words
of Lincoln's first inaugural address
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%27s_first_inaugural_address>.
Pinker uses the phrase as a metaphor for four human motivations that,
he writes, can "orient us way from violence and towards cooperation
and altruism,"^[2]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Better_Angels_of_Our_Nature#cite_note-Steven_Pinker_2011-2>
namely: empathy, self-control, the "moral sense," and reason.
Thesis
Pinker presents a large amount of data (and statistical analysis
thereof) that, he argues, demonstrate that violence has been in
decline over millennia and that the present is probably the most
peaceful time in the history of the human species. The decline in
violence, he argues, is enormous in magnitude, visible on both long
and short time scales, and found in many domains, including military
conflict, homicide, genocide, torture, criminal justice, and the
treatment of children, animals, racial and ethnic minorities, and gay
people. He stresses that "The decline, to be sure, has not been
smooth; it has not brought violence down to zero; and it is not
guaranteed to continue".^[3]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Better_Angels_of_Our_Nature#cite_note-3>
Pinker argues that the radical declines in violent behavior that he
documents do not result from major changes in human biology or
cognition. He specifically rejects the view that humans are
necessarily violent, and thus have to undergo radical change in order
to become more peaceable. However, Pinker also rejects what he regards
as the simplistic nature versus nurture
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_versus_nurture> argument, which
would imply that the radical change must therefore have come purely
from external ("nurture") sources. Instead, he argues: "The way to
explain the decline of violence is to identify the changes in our
cultural and material milieu that have given our peaceable motives the
upper hand".^[4]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Better_Angels_of_Our_Nature#cite_note-4>
Pinker identifies five "historical forces" that have favored "our
peaceable motives" and "have driven the multiple declines in
violence."^[2]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Better_Angels_of_Our_Nature#cite_note-Steven_Pinker_2011-2>
They are:
* The Leviathan - The rise of the modern nation-state and judiciary
"with a monopoly on the legitimate use of force," which "can
defuse the [individual] temptation of exploitative attack, inhibit
the impulse for revenge, and circumvent...self-serving biases."
* Commerce - The rise of "technological progress [allowing] the
exchange of goods and services over longer distances and larger
groups of trading partners," so that "other people become more
valuable alive than dead" and "are less likely to become targets
of demonization and dehumanization";
* Feminization - Increasing respect for "the interests and values of
women."
* Cosmopolitanism - the rise of forces such as literacy, mobility,
and mass media, which"can prompt people to take the perspectives
of people unlike themselves and to expand their circle of sympathy
to embrace them";
* The Escalator of Reason - an "intensifying application of
knowledge and rationality to human affairs," which "can force
people to recognize the futility of cycles of violence, to ramp
down the privileging of their own interests over others's, and to
reframe violence as a problem to be solved rather than a contest
to be won."^[5]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Better_Angels_of_Our_Nature#cite_note-ReferenceA-5>
Etc.
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