[Narz]

Just thought this would make an interesting discussion topic.

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/pink...r07_index.html

I originally planned to post snippets of the article but the server wasn't letting me so just click the link.

Basically it states that the world is less violent and cruel than at any time before us in history.

My theory is that it's because life is so easy and cushy for modern 1st worlders, IMO.

It's easy to not be violent when life is so easy. One only needs to look at studies like the Stanford Prison experiment or the real life situation in Abu Girab to see what happens to good wholesome, civilized modern man when put under even minor duress.

Also, we have alot of other channels for our violent tendencies that don't involve actually inflicting pain on others (arguing on the Internet is a fine example).

That said, as much as some folks here bemoan the evils of modern civilization, capitalism, PCness, etc. it is pretty incredible how the majority of people these days tend to get along and the growing distaste for torture, racism, genocide, etc. Not to say there's not a ton of hypocracy (the way people will be horrified if a dog is brutually tortured and slain and yet eat meat raised in ways at least as cruel) and heads in the sand but I do hope that as the growth economy goes into decline people can not delve into barbarism but see their humanitarism not fade but mature. People can come together or split further apart in times of crisis. Inevitably, in a large enough scenerio both will happen but I do hope our future world doesn't decline into the terrible brutality that many imagine it will.

[threadbear]

The masses are quite thoroughly oppressed. This kind of global crackdown on dissent isn't something to be desired, necessarily. Peace, for the few, by the few, has been achieved at the point of a gun. And so it goes.

[mmasters]

The calm before the storm...

[Plantagenet]

People are just as violent and cruel as they have ever been....look at Darfur and Somalia and Iraq and the Lebanon-Hizbullah-Israel war just in the last couple of years.

However, the governments of major countries have been more restrained (so far) about starting world wars because of nukes. For instance, Russia and the US never directly fought each other during the "cold war", Pakistan is less likely to go to war with India, etc. etc. because of the fear of mutually assured destruction.

[Grifter]

Well I never lived at any other time but.

I see violent people, walking around like regular people.

Every now and then it explodes.

[auscanman]

There might not be as many wars as in the past, but we're still as violent as always. It just manifests itself in different ways today... spousal and sexual abuse, bullying, the growth of ultimate fighting to name but a few examples. We still retain this and all the other instincts our cave dwelling ancestors had. The results when mixed with a world awash with oil aren't pleasant, as recent history has shown.

[Newsseeker]

I know the murder rate for English farmers during the Middle Ages was very high. Maybe things have improved.

[Zardoz]

I saw two young guys ineffectively trying to punch each other out on a sidewalk about fifteen years ago. That's the extent of the violence I've seen. I've never heard gunfire.

My wife yells at me occasionally, though. I think she'd like to hurt me sometimes. She can get pretty pissed off. Does that count?

[NEOPO]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', 'I') saw two young guys ineffectively trying to punch each other out on a sidewalk about fifteen years ago. That's the extent of the violence I've seen. I've never heard gunfire.

My wife yells at me occasionally, though. I think she'd like to hurt me sometimes. She can get pretty pissed off. Does that count?

[I_Like_Plants]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'T')he masses are quite thoroughly oppressed. This kind of global crackdown on dissent isn't something to be desired, necessarily. Peace, for the few, by the few, has been achieved at the point of a gun. And so it goes.

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Raphael', 'E')vidently the best crime fighter is lower testosterone levels.

[The_Toecutter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') once heard testosterone described as having two primary drives, summed up as "f*ck it or kill it"...

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The_Toecutter', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') once heard testosterone described as having two primary drives, summed up as "f*ck it or kill it"...

[The_Toecutter]

It's an excellent book to read while tripping on LSD, btw. Those Madhyamika dudes are crazy mutherfuckers! Mad props to that dude.

[TWilliam]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The_Toecutter', 'I')t's an excellent book to read while tripping on LSD, btw.

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Raphael', '.')..I had a gun pulled on me in a mall was as a teenager at 14...3 days later I heard he had shot someone in the leg.

...I was pistol whipped and robbed by 'bikers'.

...walking back to our hotel one of the girls was shot and paralyzed in an attempted robbery...