Reference no: EM133642716

Assignment:

It is a cliche to refer to the extraordinary programs of violence engineered by Hitler and Stalin as somehow inconsistent with human nature. Yet, so many world histories are records of battles and savagery on both sides that Walter Benjamin hardly seems to exaggerate when he says: ""There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism." Stephen Pinker's recent book The Better Angels of Our Nature makes the argument that violence is in a long historical decline, although his evidence of premodern violence is depressing enough to mute the optimism of his conclusion. The early chapters are sobering reading. It seems that people who live in peaceful times and places tend to forget how bad things can get when people are either ambitious or frightened. This fall's October massacre in the Middle East is an unhappy reminder.

On the other hand, violence has always been popular in entertainment and still is. The problem is not just that people fall into war by accident (with the possible exception of World War I). There is much evidence to suggest that there is such a thing as a taste for it, which is probably part of human nature's readiness for predation. Graphic violence in today's video games would have shocked parents 50 years ago, but not so much today.

In your opinion, does our somewhat sanitized view of normal life mislead us with regard to human nature? Does the modern belief in progress throw a comforting veil over our sordid history so that we are shocked anew when violence breaks out?