It may surprise you that we most probably live in the most peaceful time in human history.
One of the things Im looking forward to about having more down time in Australia is watching some interesting video on the internet. A little while ago I booked marked (using delicious) a site called TED which gathers numerous fascinating 20 min talks by the “world’s greatest thinkers and doers”.
I also like reading The Edge when I have the time and it was via the recent online issue that I was pointed at this great talk from Steven Pinker.
In his entertaining video, Pinker offers a wealth of stats and analysis demonstrating that in the modern age – even taking into the account the horrors of the world wars, and more recently, Rawanda and Iraq – that we live in a time of unprecedented peace.
If Pinker is to be believed – and the figures do seem to speak for themselves – we are vastly less likely to be killed at the hands of another human than ever before, and this is no blip, but a step on a fairly consistent path of peaceful progress from the days of hunter gatherers.
The global village brings horrific violence that does occur daily on the planet into each of our minds, but its good to be reminded that the vast majority of the unprecendentally large population of the earth lives in peace. Lets keep up the good work.
Rich
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