Is it possible wars are on the way out?
According to Steve Pinker, a Harvard psychologist, a remarkable long term downward trend in violence is continuing.
Wars are far less common and deadly than in the recent past, terrorism is rare, and the European refugee crisis is nothing new, according to Pinker, a bestselling science author.
I have always believed the news distorts our perceptions, and Pinker agrees.
In the past five years alone, conflicts have ended in Chad, Peru, Iran, India, Sri Lanka, India, and Angola, and if peace talks currently underway in Colombia are a success, war will have vanished from the Western hemisphere, says Pinker.
Its the most significant and least appreciated development in the history of our species.
AN END TO WAR?
The Uppsala Conflict Data Program in Sweden and the Peace Research Institute Oslo in Norway both count wartime deaths.
The long term trend in wartime deaths is down.
“Just as cannibalism and chattel slavery are mostly extinct in the modern world, it is possible that other forms of violence currently in decline, such as capital punishment and wars between states, could one day disappear,” he said, though some, like John Gray disagree.
“For 500 years, Western European countries started two new wars a year; since World War Two the number has been zero,” he said – in recent years, most battle deaths were in civil wars.
Huffington Post has a great commentary here – citing no less than three new books.
I believe something big is happening in the collective consciousness.
Many many people transcending could be doing it.
All over the world there is an upsurge in interest in TM
Some are not so optimistic – but of course it depends where you put your attention.
Intellectuals warn that state collapse and global warming, separately or interacting, could end this exceptional period of peace.
But Maharishi has long predicted the return on a golden age.
I know who I choose to believe.
What about you?