Reddit reviews The Better Angels of Our Nature

The Better Angels of Our Nature makes a great case for this: there's less violence, warfare, etc. The world has never been so peaceable for humans.

I would recommend the book "The Better Angels of Our Nature: A History of Violence and Humanity", which posits that human violence has drastically declined through the ages, and uses a whole lot of properly referenced scientific data and research to support its bold claim. It also describes the reasons why this has happened.

I'm still going through it myself, as it's a big book, but I think it's worth it, and it's quite an interesting read too.

I agree that I'm not going to understand gangs because I'm not in the right age range, but no matter what newspapers tell you we are living in a safer, better London than in the past - there are spikes in some years and we should continue to put money towards stopping gang culture.

This is a great article from Steven Pinker

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/11/news-isis-syria-headlines-violence-steven-pinker

who's book the better angels of our time is a great read about how we live in an incredibly safer world - its hard work but worth it:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Better-Angels-Our-Nature-Violence/dp/0141034645/ref=la_B000AQ3GGO_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1496274248&sr=1-1

Specifically he uses the graph half way down this page to show that we do live in a safer city and country than ever before by every possible metric

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2015/sep/11/graphic-evidence-steven-pinkers-optimism-on-trial

Anyway stay safe and away from idiots!

Peace & love!

To anyone who wants to read more about this I thoroughly recommend "Better Angels of our Nature" - http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0141034645

It's a study into the reduction of violence throughout history, why it happens, why it's beneficial and comparisons with other animals societies. It's really good.

>Because i'm pretty sure the amount of civilians murdering each other is 10000% higher now than it was while WW2 was going on...

Why are you "pretty sure" of this? Do you have any evidence or is it just gut feeling based on the amount of current murder etc you're aware of reading about in the news?

You might be interested to read The Better Angels Of Our Nature - it contains data from dozens of different studies looking at all kinds of violence right from the dawn of human civilization (as far as we have evidence/data for). War deaths, homicides, genocides, rape, assault, armed robbery, domestic violence, child abuse... there's pages and pages of graphs showing how their rates have changed over the years. All of the evidence presented really does support the claim that yes, life for most humans is vastly less violent now than it was 1000, 100 or even 50 years ago.

>Ehhez képest a legfrissebb német statok szerint: "A statisztikák szerint a nem németek által elkövetett bűncselekmények száma 736 ezer, ami egy év alatt 22,8 százalékos csökkenést jelent."

Fura, mert az osszes forras, amit google-on talalsz, epp az ellenkezojerol beszel. Mint ahogy azok is, amiket feltettem.

Erdekes.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/25/migrant-crime-germany-rises-50-per-cent-new-figures-show/

>“This is not something to gloss over,” Thomas de Maiziere, the interior minister, said as he presented the figures. “Those who commit serious offences here forfeit their right to stay here.”

>Crimes by migrants had “increased disproportionately” even when the huge influx into Germany under Angela Merkel’s “open-door” refugee policy was taken into account, he said.

Ja igen. Valaki hazudik. Es az te vagy. Vagy a nemet belugyminiszter. Vajon melyik a kettotok kozul?

>Ehhez képest, ha nem vakítana el a düh és végigkattintanád az általad is linkelt ourworldindata oldalt a 7-ik oldalig, akkor te is látnád hogy amit írtál tényszerűen NEM IGAZ!

Masodik slide, share of violent deaths, Europe 1900-1960.

Ennyire vak vagy?

De ha kepes vagy olvasni, akkor van errol konyv is. Sok-sok statisztikaval. Nagyon vastag, es nincsenek benne szines kepek.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Better-Angels-Our-Nature-Violence/dp/0141034645

Logged comment posted by /u/ThisIsMyRedditLogin at 06/10/13 11:10:57:

> I wouldn't throw my ungrateful, disrespectful, misbehaving children into hell for eternity.

Logged comment posted by /u/ThisIsMyRedditLogin at 06/10/13 11:10:15:

> > It is easy to see why we humans are not deserving of salvation or Heaven.
>
> The Bible is a very misanthropic book that offers little hope to humanity as a whole. The New Testament carries the message that humanity will only get worse until Jesus comes to make all the non-believers suffer.
>
> I recently started reading The Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker. It's a very informative book that argues that humanity isn't getting worse (as the Bible would like us to believe), but better. We no longer tolerate the same degree of violence as we would have in past ages. Humans today get outraged by things that even 200 years ago would have been deemed normal.
>
> In short, I don't believe the Bible's misanthropic message of doom and gloom.
>
> > He wouldn't be affected at all if we were all damned to Hell. We certainly deserve it.
>
> No we don't. Most people alive today are pretty decent people just wanting to get on with their lives in peace.

> It is easy to see why we humans are not deserving of salvation or Heaven.

The Bible is a very misanthropic book that offers little hope to humanity as a whole. The New Testament carries the message that humanity will only get worse until Jesus comes to make all the non-believers suffer.

I recently started reading The Better Angels of our Nature by Steven Pinker. It's a very informative book that argues that humanity isn't getting worse (as the Bible would like us to believe), but better. We no longer tolerate the same degree of violence as we would have in past ages. Humans today get outraged by things that even 200 years ago would have been deemed normal.

In short, I don't believe the Bible's misanthropic message of doom and gloom.

> He wouldn't be affected at all if we were all damned to Hell. We certainly deserve it.

No we don't. Most people alive today are pretty decent people just wanting to get on with their lives in peace.

>We have mass surveillance

When physicists at CERN investigate reality, the do so using staggeringly good technology, everything from enormous particle accelerators to vast detectors to the most advanced data analysis using machine intelligence.

Having information about things makes you good at doing things. What matters is what you do. I think that could be argued for surveillance. Having complete surveillance of everything (meaning the government having surveillance on the people and the people having a completely transparent government) could be fine if what is done with that intelligence is genuinely for the benefit of civilisation.

>We have the world's biggest prisons.

Yes, and the mass incarceration (particularly of the likes of those who self-medicate using currently-illegal chemicals) shall be remembered as one of the worst breaches of human rights of our time.

>against nations that never threatened us

Why "us"? If there is genocide, intervention is mandated by the convention.

>We are by far the most prolific killers of human beings outside our own borders in the post-WW2 period.

Technology has improved and we are far more targeted in our approach to fighting. However, the world is on a clear trend towards peace: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/0141034645

Sorry but I couldn't get more than half way through that, your tone is horrible. Try reading Singer's The Expanding Circle or Pinker's Better Angels.

> Under your theory a dog could be considered more intelligent than a human if that dog could empathise more than the human.

MFW