Steven Pinker on Violence

11 thoughts on “Steven Pinker on Violence”

1. Check out "Reality Denial" by Edward S Herman and David Peterson for "a critique of Steven Pinker's apologetics for Western Imperial violence."

2. great extract.

3. What planet is this guy Pinker from? He's talking absolute bollocks! There are many forms of violence, Socioeconomic being one that’s used across the world at this very moment. Then there’s chemtrails, GMO, vaccines, fluoride in water, mercury fillings, Liverpool pathway. As for slavery it’s still here although in the form of taxation. He’s nothing but an apologist for the Violent Privileged Class. Pompous Twat!

4. Overall violence is at an all-time low. Most past instances of violence are mostly attributable to behaviorial violence. On the contrary structural violence is increasing.

5. There are communities in the West today that are probably the safest environments in human history so far. However, mass atrocities became much more frequent starting in the 20th century, and there are a laundry list of examples.

6. 6:58 "there'll still be bar rooms brawls". I wonder if the eventual removal or replacement of alcohol as the most popular legal drug would cut that symptom out. 

   After all, pot sedates and psychedelics expand the mind, just to name a couple. Alcohol simply removes inhibition, which can be a fatal thing when it releases the violent ones from their cages. I personally remember being shocked when going to a nightclub for the first time and encountering such high levels of reflexive aggression, and thinking to myself, "Ok the social rules are drastically different here. The daytime safety nets have been removed."

7. 8:50 "The problem is how do you get the other guy to agree not commit violence at the same time as you do? If you're a unilateral pacifist, and if you beat your swords into ploughshares, but the other guy keeps his as swords, you could be in big trouble. The question is how do you get everyone to beat their swords into ploughshares at the same time? It's not so easy."

   I wonder, if the ancient greek culture was a catalyst for civilisation, namely western philosophy & democracy, I wonder if there's a catalyst waiting to happen that cracks this question of a cultural 'lowering of one's weapon', by solving many problems at once. One that dramatically lowers violence instead of or primarily before the incremental group effort approach suggested by Steven. Again, I wonder about psychedelics, because if you're high on something that doesn't bring about psychosis, it's difficult to be violent at the same time.

8. "There will still be terrorism. All it takes is half a dozen unemployed men, sitting around at a pub to form the "Popular Front of the Liberation for Whatever"."

   Hes so funny.

9. why do people hate on this man the way they do? liberals think their seats are taken?

10. Human nature has not really changed (although it is debatable whether or to what degree it exists, is there merely behavior) but social conditioning has. Also, taken too far, is the reduction of violence necessarily a good thing? Makes it easy to run a tyranny if you have a population of castrated males unable or unwilling to rise against.

11. In the middle ages everyone was treated as chattel of their lord, so there was huge amounts of lying going on. Nothing has changed in that regard. How we have regressed is women didn't get away with murder in the middle ages as everyone was chattel. As society 'advanced' women became seen as more and more like emotional beings, not in control of their emotions the criminal 'justice' system turned a blind eye as did society. There are just as many murderers now as back in the middle ages, with a huge under reporting of female murderers especially where it concerns old people and children. You might not like what I have got to say, but those are the facts.

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