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This point of an increasingly peaceful world has come up repeatedly over the years, but I think there is an inherent problem in the way it is viewed. The rise o

by hentrep 12y ago

This point of an increasingly peaceful world has come up repeatedly over the years, but I think there is an inherent problem in the way it is viewed. The rise of the internet and social media has facilitated glimpses into the terrible acts which humans are capable of perpetrating against one another. That combined with a biased media who thrives on shock and outrage, it's no wonder we find this data difficult to digest. Most of the modern world influenced by this biased media reside in very sterile, largely safe environments. In effect, we've become ultra-sensitized to gore and violence, and as a result our impression and response to any sort of mayhem is skewed accordingly.

StefanKarpinski 12y ago
Perhaps this combination is positive. Horrible things have always happened. While they are happening less today, we have much greater visibility of the horrors that do happen. And they still horrify us – as they should. This gives us motivation to strive harder to eliminate them altogether. The jarring thing about looking at those charts is the labels on the y axis – murder, war, genocide, rape, child abuse. It's certainly good that they are trending down, but how much genocide is ok? How much rape is acceptable? Perhaps our natural fixation with the dark side of life is a good thing. True, there is much cause for optimism, but should we really be complacent when these numbers aren't zero?
deleted 12y ago
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bane 12y ago
I think it's interesting in how people are readjusting their views to stop thinking of violence and misery as "normal". This makes cases where it happens more notable. You'll notice in countries with extraordinarily low crime rates (South Korea, Japan, etc.) that the locals don't perceive their relative safety and point to various happenings in the news as evidence. Yet while I'm here in America, supposedly surrounded by gun violence, mass murders and other crazy nonsense. I feel no issues at all with walking by myself to the local store at night. I've even seen opinions here on HN by non-Americans who talk in frightened tones about the violence levels in the U.S., but may come from countries that we Americans are educated to perceive as scary places.

by hentrep 12y ago

StefanKarpinski 12y ago

Perhaps this combination is positive. Horrible things have always happened. While they are happening less today, we have much greater visibility of the horrors that do happen. And they still horrify us – as they should. This gives us motivation to strive harder to eliminate them altogether. The jarring thing about looking at those charts is the labels on the y axis – murder, war, genocide, rape, child abuse. It's certainly good that they are trending down, but how much genocide is ok? How much rape is acceptable? Perhaps our natural fixation with the dark side of life is a good thing. True, there is much cause for optimism, but should we really be complacent when these numbers aren't zero?

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

bane 12y ago

I think it's interesting in how people are readjusting their views to stop thinking of violence and misery as "normal". This makes cases where it happens more notable. You'll notice in countries with extraordinarily low crime rates (South Korea, Japan, etc.) that the locals don't perceive their relative safety and point to various happenings in the news as evidence. Yet while I'm here in America, supposedly surrounded by gun violence, mass murders and other crazy nonsense. I feel no issues at all with walking by myself to the local store at night. I've even seen opinions here on HN by non-Americans who talk in frightened tones about the violence levels in the U.S., but may come from countries that we Americans are educated to perceive as scary places.