The decline of violence?

posted on September 21st, 2007, 1:27 pm

We often think we live in very violent times, and we can often report on a local experience that seems to "confirm" this viewpoint (interestingly some fundamentalist churches depend on this view, otherwise armageddon becomes unnecessary). However I found this presentation by a well respected linguist who tries to alter this view, and it's quite remarkable. This is not to downplay the utterly tragic events that sometimes affect people around the world, but it always helps to step back and get a little perspective. Here is the link:

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/163

TED is very good for stuff like this and has talks from many different speakers, on a range of subjects. Many discuss how technology is irrevocably changing society if you are interested.

posted on September 24th, 2007, 5:42 pm

Education = Peace

posted on September 24th, 2007, 7:38 pm

I'll second that.

Sometimes correlation isn't causation. But sometimes it is.

posted on September 24th, 2007, 8:59 pm

I have to agree very strongly with the above statements... however, it is unusual that when one seeks knowledge (excuse the approaching cliche/bad analogy) it is liking cutting down a tree in an unbelievably large forest: you just discover that much more how little you know, as you can now see the trees surrounding you.

[Dr. Lazarus]

posted on September 24th, 2007, 10:07 pm

Last edited by Dr. Lazarus on September 24th, 2007, 10:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Quite true. Which also means that the opportunity to educate ourselves just increases with time, so the future could be very positive if humanity gets it together.

I'm actually also hoping that globalisation does the job. Whatever peoples' issues with the globalisation of politics and economics, it does make war less likely. For example, China would never really dump the US dollar (as it has threatened too recently) since although this would maim the US economy, it would also sink its own economy. China needs the US consumer. So it's all rhetoric. Same with Russia. It may excite Russia to fly 'Bears' down the Norwegian coast to meet British fighter jets, but if Russia started a war with the US and UK it would lose untold billions of investment, and even more billions of gas revenues from other Western European countries, who would no doubt also honour their transatlantic alliance when push came to shove.

In the new, fast changing global economy, there's a very strong correlation between freedom (to buy capital/shares, educate oneself, choose career etc) and prosperity. Any country that chooses to rule by military dictatorship or opressive regime gets left behind in the rat race. On a macro scale, that's a form of justice. On a micro scale, some peoples are already campaigning for change (e.g. Burma). Call me an optimist, but I'm actually a cautious optimist. With a little perseverance, the world just may edge towards that Starfleet utopia that us nerds have wished for all along.