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Finally: in the last years, I have started to read quite a few non fiction books which have in their way influenced me as much as my beloved fictional heroes or universes. I wonder where this new quest has come from, maybe intellectual thirst, now, that the boys are almost grown up and that my every day life and my brain are freed from the constant pressure of time which is often the case in education. Or, the desire to understand the world, rather than to live it, not only to feel but to be able to argue my views of the world and to back them up with more than my own moral compass.
However, one fo the books read in that quest has deeply impacted me in the last months. I have read it in German, but the original is in English. The author is a sociologist, Steven Punker and the title in English: The Better Angels of Our Nature
In his long book, Pinker exposes in the first chapter his fundamental idea: in modern societies, unlike what we often think, violence has decreased in the last centuries in a steady, but not continuous rhythm. He analyses several parameters for that, digging deep into statistics and historical facts. The murder rate has gone down, almost continually since it can be followed or concluded, and all in all the decline is a factor of more than 30 in comparison to the Middle Ages or other pre-enlightment societies. Interstate wars have become rare since WWII and democracies do not go to war against each other at all. The rights which we accord to people in general have increased in general and to marginal groups in particular. All in all, the world toady is a safer place to live in most parts of the world than it has ever been.
Pinker explains this evolution through several parameters, one being the concept that Kant had of a peaceful society and the characters it must fulfil, like democracy, fair trade, renouncing on national pride and even creation of an international government, which Kant judged a condition for perpetual peace. In general, the replacement of a culture of pride by a culture of dignity contributes to the decrease of violence.
Another parameter is in the economy; if you have trade or exchange with a partner you do not wish to see him dead… But one of the decisive parameters lies in fiction: by reading, you can acquire experiences without actually having to go through them and this encourages one of what he calls “better angels”: empathy.
After a theoretical, philosophical and historical analysis of the decrease of violence, Pinker tries to understand what are the psychological mechanism which encourage or marginalize violence.
This book has been an eye-opener for me: first, I always rather have an optimistic view of the world we live in and am quite opposed to nostalgia of the past. In this book, I found the statistic and theoretic points which confirm my view of the world and an intellectual voice against the current cultural pessimism which helped me to feel more “at home” in this world and to better understand what I had always thought. Moreover, this is a thorough analysis which goes far beyond easy arguments like medical progress which makes life better today. The explanations which he gives about Kant, a philosopher whom I admire, but find hard to read directly, helped me to grasp the idea and implication of perpetual peace as conceived centuries ago. And the analysis of Norbert Elias and his ideas of the process of civilisation confirm and enlargen those ideas.
A wonderful book for me. It make me take notes during reading again, like back when I was a student and I am sure it won’t be the last one.
It took me three months to be entirely through, too.
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"nolite te bastardes carborundorum".
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