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I'm saying that it's not laws that are making the majority of citizens behave correctly, and the law enforcement mitigates the effect of those who don't.

• neolefty 12y ago
  I just had a radical thought (it seems radical to me anyway) -- many of the people I meet not only don't chafe at the laws, they even see them as limiting morality. They wish they enforced a better society. These people aren't activists for the most part -- they don't agitate for change -- but they would support it if it came along. For example, they would support laws and initiatives that increase spending on education, spread wealth more fairly, allow freer mixing among countries, put stricter limits on violence & environmental degradation. These are all things that would carry us further down the path that Pinker has observed that we are already following. However, it's not all that radical in light of the thesis of "Better Angels" -- it must be part of what is propelling the human race in that direction. Do we have an instinct to want things to be better or something? It creates social pressure for society to improve.