Well, OK. I have several "but" remarks. 1) the time period in question has experienced a vast decline in human-on-human violence. Check out Steven Pinker's bo

Well, OK. I have several "but" remarks. 1) the time period in question has experienced a vast decline in human-on-human violence. Check out Steven Pinker's book http://www.worldcat.org/title/better-angels-of-our-nature-why-violence-has-declined/oclc/707969125 http://www.worldcat.org/title/better-angels-of-our-nature-wh... 2) the emerging field of behavioral economics has given some nuance to the idea that human life is nothing but meat chasing paper. For example, see http://www.worldcat.org/title/misbehaving-the-making-of-behavioral-economics/oclc/912044926 http://www.worldcat.org/title/misbehaving-the-making-of-beha... 3) the author's ideas about how religion has affected the western "meat chasing paper" weltanschauung are, well, weak. Max Weber's work on this still towers over the usual "hierarchy sucks" argument. Hierarchy does suck. But it doesn't affect our behavior in the ways we think it does. http://www.worldcat.org/title/the-protestant-ethic-and-the-spirit-of-capitalism/oclc/959733751 http://www.worldcat.org/title/the-protestant-ethic-and-the-s...