Angels and Anarchists: A Conflict Scholar’s Response to Steven Pinker’s New Book By Christian Davenport In his popular new book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined Steven Pinker claims that violence has decreased over time—and that the reason for it is that humans have become more civilized. The main story is ambitious as much as it is happy. According to Pinker (and this is a gross-bloglike simplification), we kill less now because we have done away with such things. After looking at political violence data for about 20 years and witnessing Darfur, the DRC, and Rwanda over the last few decades, I have my doubts. First, there are immense gaps in the data Pinker uses to support his main argument. Second, Pinker overlooks various dimensions of violence, such as frequency, scope, type, degree/magnitude, targets, etc. This brings us to my third point: why does violence decrease? Like Pinker, I suppose I do believe that evolution plays a role, but not in the way Pinker suggests. Got time for one of the most pressing questions in human history?
Delusions of peace Steven Pinker argues that we are becoming less violent. Nonsense, says John Gray Storming of the Bastille by Francois Leonard. Many of the French revolutionaries favoured violence as an “engine of social transformation” “Today we take it for granted that war happens in smaller, poorer and more backward countries,” Steven Pinker writes in his new book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: the Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes . A sceptical reader might wonder whether the outbreak of peace in developed countries and endemic conflict in less fortunate lands might not be somehow connected. In much the same way that rich societies exported their pollution to developing countries, the societies of the highly-developed world exported their conflicts. Yet these are highly disparate thinkers, and it is far from clear that any coherent philosophy could have “coalesced” from their often incompatible ideas. There is a deeper difficulty. No doubt we have become less violent in some ways.
Quantum Stealth; The Invisible Military Becomes A Reality Quantum Stealth; The Invisible Military Becomes A Reality By Guy Cramer, President/CEO of Hyperstealth Biotechnology Corp. (October 19, 2012, Vancouver, B.C.) Hyperstealth is a successful Canadian camouflage design company with over two million military issued uniforms and over 3000 vehicles and fighter jets using their patterns around the world. Quantum Stealth is a material that renders the target completely invisible by bending light waves around the target. Two separate command groups within the U.S. For reasons of security, I can’t discuss details about how it accomplishes the bending of light but I can explain how it might be used. Scenario 1: A pilot ejects over open terrain in enemy territory, his parachute that deploys is made of the Quantum Stealth material to hide his fall. Scenario 3: The next generation of combat aircraft is undergoing trials, in the past these secret aircraft had to be moved into hangers whenever a spy satellite passed overhead.
Where Are The Media's Iraq War Boosters 10 Years Later? | Research On the tenth anniversary of the American-led invasion of Iraq, Media Matters looks back at the work of some of the media's most prominent pro-war voices. Instead of facing consequences for backing the invasion based on information that turned out to be false and criticizing war opponents, many of these media figures continue to hold positions of influence and continue to provide foreign policy reporting and commentary. Fred Barnes Richard Cohen Thomas Friedman Paul Gigot / Wall Street Journal Editorial Page Sean Hannity Stephen Hayes Fred Hiatt / Washington Post Editorial Page Bill Keller Charles Krauthammer Bill Kristol Judith Miller Joe Scarborough Fred Barnes Position At The Time Of Iraq Invasion : Executive editor and co-founder of The Weekly Standard and Fox News contributor. Barnes: Iraq Has WMD And A Delivery Vehicle "Called Al Qaeda." Barnes: "[W]inning The War In Iraq" Is "Going To Be Easy." Barnes: Military Will Find WMD. Where Is Barnes Now? Richard Cohen Where Is Cohen Now? Sean Hannity
26 September 2002 New York Times Advertisement Here is an HTML version of an advertisement from the op-ed page of the New York Times of 26 September 2002, signed by 33 scholars of international relations. As scholars of international security affairs, we recognize that war is sometimes necessary to ensure our national security or other vital interests. We also recognize that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and that Iraq has defied a number of U.N. resolutions. Saddam Hussein is a murderous despot, but no one has provided credible evidence that Iraq is cooperating with al Qaeda.Even if Saddam Hussein acquired nuclear weapons, he could not use them without suffering massive U.S. or Israeli retaliation.The first Bush administration did not try to conquer Iraq in 1991 because it understood that doing so could spread instability in the Middle East, threatening U.S. interests. Robert J. Brandeis University Richard K. Columbia University Dale C. University of Virginia Michael C. University of Kentucky Sumit Ganguly University of Texas Charles L.
The End of World Violence? - Print View Psychologist Steven Pinker talks about his provocative new book that argues the decline of violence with Sam Harris. They talk about who was the bloodiest dictator—and what we should still fear. Steven Pinker is a professor of psychology at Harvard University, the author of several magnificent books about the human mind, and one of the most influential scientists on earth. He is also my friend, an occasional mentor, and an adviser to my nonprofit foundation. Steve’s new book is The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. I suspect that when most people hear the thesis of your book—that human violence has steadily declined—they are skeptical: wasn’t the 20th century the most violent in history? Probably not. The burning of heretics, gruesome executions, blood sports, slavery, debtors’ prisons, foot-binding, eunuchism, and wars between developed states won’t make a comeback any time soon. Second, Nazism and Fascism were not atheistic in the first place. It depends. Thank You!
Attack of the Drones - People & Power The US government’s growing reliance on aerial drones to pursue its war on al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Yemen, Afghanistan and elsewhere is proving controversial – as evidenced by the international reaction to recent drone missile attacks along the border with Pakistan. But Barack Obama’s administration is undeterred, favouring the technology more and more because it reduces the need for American troops in those countries and the risk of politically unpalatable casualties. “He probably thinks this is already a controversial war,” says Christ Klep, an international relations analysts at the University of Utrecht. “I’d better not endanger my pilots and my special forces, so what else do I have? Nevertheless, Ko Colijn, a security expert at the prestigious Clingendael Institute, says that the technology is here to stay. “In a way the Americans reached a turning point in 2009, 2010. However the Americans are not the only ones using drones.
America's False History Allows the Powerful to Commit Crimes Without Consequence Journalist Robert Parry working at his desk. (Photo: Consortiumnews.com)Seasoned journalist Robert Parry offers a thoroughly researched account of how the Republican Party and neocons have conspired to creative a false narrative about America's political and constitutional history. In particular, Parry tenaciously documents the accusations that he has pursued for years: that the Nixon campaign undermined peace talks that likely would have ended the Vietnam War in 1968 or 1969 in order to win the presidency; and that the Reagan campaign conspired with the revolutionary Iranian government to ensure that the US embassy hostages were not released before the 1980 election in order to seal Jimmy Carter's defeat. Furthermore, Parry ties together calamitous US foreign policy decisions with the "stolen narrative" that has suppressed the true account of how the neocons and right wing rose to power in the US. Robert Parry: The current conventional wisdom about George H.W.