The Myth of Violence
It’s not a secret that I absolutely love Ted talks. There are so many wonderful bits of educational goodness at that site. Any time when I am feeling pessimistic about the world, I head on over to Ted and find a reason to feel optimistic. Take Steven Pinker’s talk about “The Myth of Violence”.
This doesn’t really make sense, does it? We live in a terribly violent world with ongoing wars, commercialism, global warming, stupid government, and patriarchy. But there are reasons for optimism.
While we are still a violent society, we are much less violent than we used to be. Just take a gander through the pages of the Bible. Imagine living in a time period when the death penalty for such crimes as talking back to your parents, adultery and theft were socially accepted. It is really hard for me to wrap my brain around that. I am so used to going through my day and knowing that the worst punishment I face for any crime is imprisonment in jail or perhaps a pesky fine. I will probably never lose a family member due to warfare or violence or capital punishment.
We can always do better as a society and there are still more things wrong than right. But it’s good to remember that things have gotten better.
May 28th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Thanks for another cool Ted talk. I liked the power-generating kits, too.
Have you seen the one about the disappearance of the third world? See http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html
May 30th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
That Ted talk was pretty interesting. It is also counter-intuitive to think that the third word is disappearing.