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http://www.statesma n.com/life/ content/life/ stories/other/ 03/21/21nice. html
Humans are getting nicer, magazine reports
New Republic has report on all the bad habits we've renounced.
By Peter Carlson
THE WASHINGTON POST
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Attention, fellow humans: The relaunched New Republic contains great news about our much-maligned species. Not only have we stopped burning cats as a form of humorous public entertainment (as we used to do in 16th-century France), but we're also killing, torturing and enslaving each other less often than we once did.
This jolly news comes from Steven Pinker, who is a Harvard professor and author. The title of his piece is "A History of Violence." The subtitle is "We're Getting Nicer Every Day."
"Today we are probably living in the most peaceful moment of our species' time on Earth," he writes.
Pinker provides a list of the nasty pastimes we humans don't practice as much as we used to: "Cruelty as entertainment, human sacrifice to indulge superstition, slavery as a labor-saving device, conquest as the mission statement of government, genocide as a means of acquiring real estate, torture and mutilation as routine punishment . . . rape as the spoils of war, pogroms as outlets for frustration."
And so on. We humans still do this stuff, of course, but not as often, at least not on a per capita basis. And when we do these rotten things, we now have the common decency to feel bad enough to try to cover them up.
"In many ways," Pinker writes, "we have been getting kinder and gentler."
http://www.statesma n.com/life/ content/life/ stories/other/ 03/21/21nice. html
Humans are getting nicer, magazine reports
New Republic has report on all the bad habits we've renounced.
By Peter Carlson
THE WASHINGTON POST
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Attention, fellow humans: The relaunched New Republic contains great news about our much-maligned species. Not only have we stopped burning cats as a form of humorous public entertainment (as we used to do in 16th-century France), but we're also killing, torturing and enslaving each other less often than we once did.
This jolly news comes from Steven Pinker, who is a Harvard professor and author. The title of his piece is "A History of Violence." The subtitle is "We're Getting Nicer Every Day."
"Today we are probably living in the most peaceful moment of our species' time on Earth," he writes.
Pinker provides a list of the nasty pastimes we humans don't practice as much as we used to: "Cruelty as entertainment, human sacrifice to indulge superstition, slavery as a labor-saving device, conquest as the mission statement of government, genocide as a means of acquiring real estate, torture and mutilation as routine punishment . . . rape as the spoils of war, pogroms as outlets for frustration."
And so on. We humans still do this stuff, of course, but not as often, at least not on a per capita basis. And when we do these rotten things, we now have the common decency to feel bad enough to try to cover them up.
"In many ways," Pinker writes, "we have been getting kinder and gentler."
