"The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined" by Steven Pinker
Jeff Glor talks to Steven Pinker about, "The Better Angels of our Nature," a book that shows, if you think the world is violent today, it's nothing compared to what it used to be like.
Jeff Glor: What inspired you to write the book?
Steven Pinker: I believe there is such a thing as human nature--that the mind is not a blank slate, and that we don't get all our emotions and drives from culture, parents, and socialization. But the very idea of human nature raises a fear in many people: if we're "killer apes" with "genes for aggression" and a "violent brain," would that mean that we are doomed to perpetual war and mayhem, and shouldn't even bother trying to make the world a better place? But I knew that this fear made no sense for two reasons. One is that human nature is a complex system with many parts: some of them lead us to commit violence; others--what Lincoln called "The better angels of our nature"--inhibit us from violence. Whether violence actually breaks out depends on which features of human nature are triggered by the environment.
Also, I knew that violence in fact has gone down over the course of history--the death rates in war and homicide today are a fraction of what they were in previous decades and centuries. But I know that many people find this hard to believe--they read the news and see bombings and shootings and war, and think we're living in violent times.
I wrote the book, then, to persuade people of two things: that violence has, contrary to appearances, come down, and that this can be explained by the struggle among our inner demons and our better angels.
JG: What surprised you the most during the writing process?
SP: Two things. One was how brutal our ancestors were. The Old Testament is filled with genocides commanded by God; the lives of the saints are filled with scenes of gory torture; the medieval knights were bloodthirsty warlords; and until recently people brought the whole family out to see heretics burned, broken on the wheel, or disemboweled.
The other surprise was how many kinds of violence have decreased in frequency. I wasn't surprised that we no longer keep slaves or disembowel heretics--I already knew that. But I never expected to learn that homicide in the US, war in Africa, rape, spousal abuse, child abuse, spanking, hate crimes--you name it--have all been in decline since records were first kept.
JG: What would you be doing if you weren't a writer?
SP: Unfortunately, I'm already doing it--in my day job as a professor; I teach classes in psychology, and conduct research on language and the human mind.
JG: What else are you reading right now?
SP: John Mueller's "Terror, Security, and Money"--an expose of all the money and lives we waste combating an exaggerated terrorist threat. Joshua Goldstein's Winning the War on War: believe it or not, war is in decline all over the world. Matthew White's "Great Big Book of Horrible Things"--he calls himself an "atrocitologist," someone who tries to estimate how many people were killed in wars and genocides.
JG: What's next for you?
SP: A style manual for the 21st century: how cognitive science and modern linguistics can help us write clearer and more graceful prose.
For more on "The Better Angels of Our Nature," visit the Penguin Press website.
