> I think our recent history with Trump, and the increasing friction with China suggest that perhaps the celebration of Pinker's ideas was a bit premature. As T

> I think our recent history with Trump, and the increasing friction with China suggest that perhaps the celebration of Pinker's ideas was a bit premature. As Taleb has shown us, a long period of peace doesn't mean that violence is declining or that we can presume that it will never reoccur with the magnitude and intensity we saw during earlier periods. I highly doubt the increasing friction between the USA and China (and the rest of the world to be honest) is leading to any sort of third world war so I'm confident that a tendency to violence does in fact decrease in certain societies.