Author: Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker is on a mission to convince the world that we are living in a much less violent world than what our ancestors inhabited centuries ago. For shock value he describes in gory detail the many barbaric acts of violence that permeated society in the middle ages. The vivid descriptions convinced me that Mr. Pinker would be great to strike a conversation at a party. In just the first 25 pages you get a full chronicle of the multitude of ways in which Christian saints were tortured and killed and how the word “bikini” got into the English dictionary.
Assuming you have a strong stomach and get past the first few pages, you will find wonderful quotes like the one from Roman historian Tacitus: "Formerly we suffered from crimes; now we suffer from laws.” that epitomize the brutal rule of law and punishment that medieval Roman’s meted out to their citizen. Mr. Pinker subscribes to the theory that in ancient times, it was common for complex societies to be ruled by leaders who were all powerful and got their way regardless of the impact on others. While the connection is clearly evident with the early Babylonians, Israelites, Romans, Khmers, Incas, etc. I am not convinced of the cause and effect. It could very well be that power corrupts the individual. Maybe once a human becomes very powerful, he/she becomes predisposed to violence against people who don't tow the line. In the modern world there are few places where the head of the country has unquestionable decision rights on all his/her people. Without that kind of power, we are bound to see a reduction in violence from the top. Of course, this does not have a bearing on other forms of violence and so I am not a firm believer that this trend of reducing violence will continue too far into our future.
This quote attributed to James Q. Wilson, “Social Scientists should never try to predict the future, they have enough trouble predicting the past”, is fair warning for Mr. Pinker!
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