Better Angels
Jul. 31st, 2012 01:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetI'm reading Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature, about the progress of world peace to our now remarkably peaceful times. Not that there's not still room for improvement, obviously, but he makes a strong case that in comparison to any earlier time, we live astonishingly peaceful lives. He writes not to engender complacency, but to give heart to those who yearn and strive for peace: It's working! Let's keep going!
There are flaws in the work and it's not always the most lively read, but he does a good job of livening things up. I'm 18% of the way through and there are already many passages I want to remember. I mean to go back and pick some of the earlier ones, but here's the one I'm enjoying at the moment, referring to the change among the attitudes of European leaders beginning around 1700:
As Mueller notes, "No longer was it possible simply and honestly to proclaim like Julius Caesar, 'I came, I saw, I conquered.' Gradually this was changed to 'I came, I saw, he attacked me while I was just standing there looking, I won.' This might be seen as progress.
There are flaws in the work and it's not always the most lively read, but he does a good job of livening things up. I'm 18% of the way through and there are already many passages I want to remember. I mean to go back and pick some of the earlier ones, but here's the one I'm enjoying at the moment, referring to the change among the attitudes of European leaders beginning around 1700:
As Mueller notes, "No longer was it possible simply and honestly to proclaim like Julius Caesar, 'I came, I saw, I conquered.' Gradually this was changed to 'I came, I saw, he attacked me while I was just standing there looking, I won.' This might be seen as progress.
