Friday, November 16, 2007
Steven Pinker on violence
Steven Pinker lecture on violence
Some time ago Steven Pinker had his lecture on violence in the internet as video. He showed that when violence is measured by number of death, number of wars and these is put in relation to historical development, then, we have less violation today, spite wars being waged at present time.
I do not want to analyze if Steven Pinker was or was not correct. I am just completely satisfied that somebody sees what I believe to see as well. The change in violence through humanization, or socialization of humans can really be easily seen. I have already written a small article on this topic using the development, or change in violence that has been used in dealing with different opinions.
Typically two knights would star a God judgment, a fight where only one remained alive. Some centuries later not knights and swords were used but cords. At these times it started to happen that not only the death was the decisive factor that showed who won, but it usually was enough that one of the rivals was hurt in such a way that everybody could see him bleeding.
Even a bit later instead of cords pistols were used. At this time it was also getting more common that rivals were satisfied either when the other one was injured or even that he was afraid, and they sometimes deliberately shot aside, their purpose was not to kill.
Today when we have disputes in developed societies we usually do not kill, though it still sometimes happens, but we have “word fight”. The problem is how can be recognized who won, when there is no blood seen. The answer is easy: the one wins who says the last word. The logic of this fight rule is that the other person is not smart enough to give any answer. When this was recognized as a rule, many persons have developed sayings that do not say anything to the problem but make it difficult for the other rival in word-fight to give answers. These “last words” or “last sentences” are very often absolutely stupid, there is no logic except the logic of the rule of the last word in a human word fight.
Typically, males do complain about women having always the last word, one such funny thought goes like this: In any dispute between a male and a female the female has always the last word. If a male says something afterwards it is to be considered as the beginning of the next dispute.
Some time ago Steven Pinker had his lecture on violence in the internet as video. He showed that when violence is measured by number of death, number of wars and these is put in relation to historical development, then, we have less violation today, spite wars being waged at present time.
I do not want to analyze if Steven Pinker was or was not correct. I am just completely satisfied that somebody sees what I believe to see as well. The change in violence through humanization, or socialization of humans can really be easily seen. I have already written a small article on this topic using the development, or change in violence that has been used in dealing with different opinions.
Typically two knights would star a God judgment, a fight where only one remained alive. Some centuries later not knights and swords were used but cords. At these times it started to happen that not only the death was the decisive factor that showed who won, but it usually was enough that one of the rivals was hurt in such a way that everybody could see him bleeding.
Even a bit later instead of cords pistols were used. At this time it was also getting more common that rivals were satisfied either when the other one was injured or even that he was afraid, and they sometimes deliberately shot aside, their purpose was not to kill.
Today when we have disputes in developed societies we usually do not kill, though it still sometimes happens, but we have “word fight”. The problem is how can be recognized who won, when there is no blood seen. The answer is easy: the one wins who says the last word. The logic of this fight rule is that the other person is not smart enough to give any answer. When this was recognized as a rule, many persons have developed sayings that do not say anything to the problem but make it difficult for the other rival in word-fight to give answers. These “last words” or “last sentences” are very often absolutely stupid, there is no logic except the logic of the rule of the last word in a human word fight.
Typically, males do complain about women having always the last word, one such funny thought goes like this: In any dispute between a male and a female the female has always the last word. If a male says something afterwards it is to be considered as the beginning of the next dispute.
# posted by Dalibor @ 8:08 AM 
