False premise; this is the opposite of what we see. https://www.amazon.com/Better-Angels-Our-Nature-Violence/dp/...
You can only make people stop fighting by (a) killing them; or (b) convincing them that fighting you is a mistake. There are no other ways.
[0]http://www.amazon.com/Better-Angels-Our-Nature-Violence/dp/0...
[1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/149151...
[2 http://www.amazon.com/Tragedy-Great-Power-Politics-Updated/d...
That depends on what you mean. It is certainly true that our natural state is not to be psychopaths, indiscriminately killing everything in sight. But the evidence (and the theoretical foundations) indicate that a certain amount of violence is an inherent part of our basic nature, and so achieving peace requires work.
I do want to emphasize, though, that it can certainly be done. The internet, airplanes, McDonalds -- none of these are part of our basic nature either, and yet we've managed to achieve them. Peace is not out of reach, and indeed, the historical trend is towards an ever more peaceful world [1].
--- [1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/149151...
http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/149151...
Recommended read by Gates and Zuckerberg.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/149151...
In The Better Angels of Our Nature [1] Steven Pinker describes the process by which, in the past, humanity has expanded its "circle of empathy". Children, animals and countless other voiceless minorities have gained rights through this process.
One specific process he identified for expanding our collective circles of empathy is the expansion of literacy. "Reading is a technology for perspective-taking. When someone else's thoughts are in your head, you are observing the world from that person's vantage point" [2].
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Better-Angels-Our-Nature-Violence/dp/0...
[2] http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/01/extract-better-...
http://www.amazon.com/Better-Angels-Our-Nature-Violence-eboo...
Or to save the cost and hassle of getting his book, watch Pinker talking about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5X2-i_poNU&feature=youtu.be...
[1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/149151...
Violence for example is one, and Steven Pinker makes a great argument for it in this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/014312...
Its hard to see these patterns if you just rely on news/anecdotal evidence as your barometer for whether the world is becoming a better place, because the news reports whatever will get views, and nothing gets views like bad news.
The Hacker News community should like it as it focuses on the stats and facts rather than anecdotal stories the media slings.
The main thesis: Violence (in nearly every form) has been on a precipitous decline in the modern era. War deaths (and civilian causalities) are at all time lows and still declining.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/014312...
By virtually every metric, the world is a much safer, healthier place than it used to be: http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/014312... .
Free trade would also be an economic boon to Europe and the U.S. A study by the Bertelsmann Foundation together with the Munich-based Center for Economic Studies found that "if the United States and the European Union are able to come together on a far-reaching free trade agreement, Germany would be one of the greatest beneficiaries. Fully 181,000 new jobs could be expected and per-capita income would spike by 4.68 percent." GDP/capita could rise "by 13.4 percent in the US and by 9.7 percent in the UK. More than a million new jobs would result in America. That number would be 400,000 in Britain." [3]
The benefits of free trade are one of the points economists have found consensus on.
[1] http://www.yale.edu/leitner/resources/docs/HORJune09.pdf "Trade Does Promote Peace: New Simultaneous Estimates of the Reciprocal Effects of Trade and Conflict" (Hegre, O'Neal, & Russett, 2009)
[2] http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/014312... The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker
[3] http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/study-on-trans-...
http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/014312...
http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/014312...
Steven Pinker: The surprising decline in violence
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1455883115
Filmed Mar 2007 • Posted Sep 2007 • TED2007
http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violen...
to which the counter=argument is somthing like this:
The biggest problem with [Pinker], though, is [his] overreliance on history, which, like the light on a caboose, shows us only where we are not going. We live in a time when all the rules are being rewritten blindingly fast—when, for example, an increasingly smaller number of people can do increasingly greater damage. (Scientific American)[1]
I don't fully dis-agree with this latter qualication. If you go back and read my initial comments, you will see this.
[1] from: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bookreview-...; See also: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-decline...
Maybe he should read Steven Pinker's new book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Nature-ebook/dp/B005...
Here's a discussion of the main point of that book:
http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/qa-with-steven-pinker/
Any amount of violence of one human being against another is deplorable, but the most recent century of human history is characterized by how remarkably little violence it has had compared to any previous human century since hunter-gatherer bands turned into tribes and then nation-states.
I'll just speak for myself in answering your question. Other people who self-identify as rationalists may have other reasons. I self-identify as a rationalist because, after a lifetime of being curious and wanting to know what is true, I have found rationalism a powerful instrumental means of discovering truth. I have found from observation of my own life that knowledge of truth is itself an instrumental means for pursuing other useful goals (for example, making a living for my family) but anyway I think truth-seeking is part of human nature at its best and something fun and worthy for its own sake.
most bad things are propagated by extremely rational actors out of greed and self-interest
I might disagree with you about there being very many "extremely rational actors" in the world,
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/stanovich1/Engli...
but I agree with you that many bad acts are prompted by greed and self interest. One of the greatest achievements of rational thought has been a deeper understanding of how human moral sentiments
http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Moral-Sentiments-Great-Philosop...
can be motivated by the actions of human beings pursuing their self-interest.
http://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Nations-Bantam-Classics/dp/0553...
This discovery has resulted in considerable reduction of violence and other bad things over time,
http://www.amazon.com/Better-Angels-Our-Nature-Violence/dp/0...
and promises to provide continued blessings of more peace, prosperity, and freedom as it becomes more widely known to humankind. So I pursue rationalism as a positive good for my family and for my society, after having had a childhood upbringing with more nonrational dogmas than I know adhere to.
The historical trend has been the other way around: as societies have become more free in general, they have also become safer in general. I would much rather live in the liberty of the United States, where I enjoy a crime-free neighborhood, than in the one-party dictatorship of China in the 1980s, where I saw more fights among strangers in public in three weeks in three different cities than I have seen in an entire lifetime traveling all over the United States.
See Steven Pinker's new book
http://www.amazon.com/Better-Angels-Our-Nature-Violence/dp/0...
for more about increasing safety of human societies over time (when the long-term trend has also plainly been in the direction of greater individual liberty for all aspects of human behavior).
And yes, really.