However, it is not medical or technical advances that allow us to live in a better world. The grandparents of many europeans of my age died young because of violence. In the 30s and 40s the chances of being killed, shot or bombed were significantly much higher than today. And the same can be said about previous times, whether wartime or peacetime, life ended in violent death far more often than today.
Based on all the conflicts that to which we are overexposed by the media, one could conclude that the world is getting worse. But an objective analysis reveals that violence has been declining throughout the history of mankind. This is Steven Pinker’s conclusions in his latest book "The Better Angels of Our Nature". And the good news is that this conclusion is not derived from the speculations of his political thought, but the rigorous scientific study of a huge amount of data.
Pinker finds a downward trend in all indicators of violence he studies, from the percentage of prehistoric human remains with signs of violence to murder rates in contemporary societies. His findings burst Rousseau’s "noble savage" theory that has ruled political correctness during the twentieth century. The hunter-gatherer societies do not live in a Garden of Eden, but are brutalized by violent death rates higher than those of World War II.
The amount of data presented by Pinker in the more than 1,000 pages of his book is overwhelming, he provides rigorous and comprehensive analysis, and arrives to a compelling conclusion: We live in the safest time and place in history, Western Europe at the turn of the 21st century. If we feel that the world is becoming more violent, it is because we are more sensitized to violence.
As expected, this politically incorrect conclusion has raised hackles. I found many criticisms of Pinker's work, although no one convincing. All arguments against it exude a whiff of political bias, lack historical objectivity or focus on irrelevant details. In any case, they fail to challenge the data that support the 6 phases of human history in which Pinker identifies measurable reductions in violence.
And these data desperately require a theory that explains them. So Pinker proceeds to analyze human nature and identifies nine psychological systems: Five of them leading to violence (which he metaphorically calls Inner Demons) and 4 leading to peace (the Better Angels that give the book its title). The Inner Demons of predation, dominance, revenge, sadism and ideology have been being progressively replaced by the Better Angels of empathy, self-control, morality and reason.
In the theoretical framework proposed by Pinker, different historical forces have been modulating human nature and creating a virtuous circle of peace: The triumph of the state over anarchy, of commerce over predation, of society feminization over male violence, of cosmopolitanism over xenophobia and of abstract and critical thinking over superstition.
It is impossible to summarize in a post the wealth of arguments in this extensive work that invite to reflect on the many achievements of our society, from same-sex marriage to the end of ETA terrorism. Next October 18th its Spanish translation will be published under the title "Los ángeles que llevamos dentro" In the current times of economic crisis, this book is a good chance to stop and think about the reasons we have to be deeply optimistic.
There is no warranty that this pacification trend is irreversible. Congratulating us because we live in a better world does not mean resting on complacency. Recognizing the achievements of our civilization and studying them with science is the best way of entrenching them and continue progressing. For the sake of the peace we have achieved in our civilization, we can not afford taking a step back. Activism, the articulation of civil society and political debate remain critical. We will probably never eradicate violence completely, but if we can reduce it to marginal levels.
