The world is getting less dangerous
If you watch the news you might be forgiven for thinking that the world has become more dangerous lately. It certainly seems like it — domestic violence, terrorism, and war are in the news daily. But the news always focuses on such things. If you look at the numbers, violence of all kinds has been going down — and has been for decades. It’s important to understand this aspect of our world. Here’s an article by Steven Pinker and Andrew Mack, from Slate:
The World Is Not Falling Apart
For even more information, Pinker has written a book on the subject — The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.