"

If you look in general at people who live in anarchy, they have quite high rates of death from either homicide or warfare or both. Anarchy is one of t...more

"

Part of the bargain of being alive is that one takes a chance at dying a premature or painful death, be it from violence, accident, or disease.

"

Human nature is complex. Even if we do have inclinations toward violence, we also have inclination to empathy, to cooperation, to self-control.

"

Technology, ideology, and social and cultural changes periodically throw out new forms of violence for humanity to contend with.

"

We really are creatures of a violent world, biologically speaking - watching violence and learning about it is one of our cognitive drives.

"

The decline of violence isn't a steady inclined plane from an original state of maximal and universal bloodshed. Technology, ideology, and social and ...more

"

The unstated premise that nature is nice lies behind many of the objections to the Darwinian theory of human sexuality. Carefree sex is natural and go...more

"

Many people think that the theory of the selfish gene says that “animals try to spread their genes.” That misstates the facts and it misstates the the...more

"

Perhaps we should rejoice that people’s emotions aren’t designed for the good of the group. Often the best way to benefit one’s group is to displace, ...more

"

No society can be simultaneously fair, free, and equal. If it is fair, people who work harder can accumulate more. If it is free, people will give the...more

"

The main reason that violence correlates with low socioeconomic status today is that the elites and the middle class pursue justice with the legal sys...more

"

So holding many factors constant, we find that living in a civilization reduces one’s chances of being a victim of violence fivefold.

"

One of the tragic ironies of the second half of the 20th century is that when colonies in the developing world freed themselves from European rule, th...more

"

The scriptures present a God who delights in genocide, rape, slavery, and the execution of nonconformists, and for millennia those writings were used ...more

"

The collapse of communism and a recognition of its economic and humanitarian catastrophes took the romance out of revolutionary violence and cast doub...more