Economics and similar, for the sleep-deprived

A subtle change has been made to the comments links, so they no longer pop up. Does this in any way help with the problem about comments not appearing on permalinked posts, readers?

Update: seemingly not

Update: Oh yeah!


Tuesday, October 18, 2011

 
Violence: The Great Moderation, with all that implies

I too haven't and (barring major advances in gerontology) won't read Stephen Pinker's book on violence. In general, I am allergic to Pinker's tone (I suspect that many of the people who, according to him, are always mocking him for not knowing about Milton, are actually just asking him to stop acting such a twat), and you can usually find the same views that he expresses written up much less annoyingly elsewhere.

In the case of the violence book, however, and rather hilariously, if I am correct in understanding that his main thesis is that modern societies have developed more effective methods of social control over the years, and that these advances in social conditioning have reduced the incidence of physical violence, then I know where the less-irritating writeup is - it's in "Discipline and Punish", by Michel Foucault. This is actually quite a common trait in New Rationalist writing, by the way - a lot of the time, while they will take pot shots and swipes at their ideological enemies, the real vitriol is reserved for their competitors (after all, enemies can make up, but competitors can't). Sigmund Freud said right back in the nineteenth century that a lot of human behaviour is caused by basic animal drives that have their root in Darwinian evolution, but my god if you read Dawkins or Dennett, you'll be aware that Freud is considered a bounder these days by people who believe the same thing.[1]

We are of course much less violent now, we have robotic drones to murder people from the sky rather than fighting them ... which raises another question in my mind. It's true, as I have written here before, that in many ways it was a fantastic achievement that the West managed to defeat Soviet communism without firing a shot [2], and that actually in many ways a lot of the credit for that deserves to go to those nemeses of mankind, economists.

But hell - although it is true that strategic deterrence worked, the way in which it worked was to spend forty years with both sides literally threatening something close to the complete destruction of life on earth! Which if it had happened, would have been considered by the survivors as a pretty violent thing to do.

Fair enough, as I say, strategic deterrence worked. But, sample size of one here? It might not have worked. It certainly did involve taking a risk of something very bad happening. And I think what we've all learned from the last five years is that when you take a risk that something bad might happen, there is a risk that something very bad actually will happen. I think I will, rather gratuitously, give Pinker a small dose of his own medicine, by suggesting that it is fairly obvious that a risk of a very horrible amount of violence, is clearly equivalent to a proportionately smaller amount of violence, and that it is disgusting, shameful, comical, etc etc etc, that someone who looks down his nose at you for not having heard of Maynard Smith apparently hasn't bothered to look up the relevant chapter of Schelling.

[1] It is true that Freud took this basic insight and went with it to a lot of rather ridiculous places and some fairly disgusting sexual politics, but evolutionary psychology is not exactly in the best position to comment.

[2] By which I mean "without having another massive war in Europe"; the objection about secondary theatres and Third World conflicts was well made (although not necessarily totally agreed with by me) last time round.
6 comments this item posted by the management 10/18/2011 05:05:00 AM


This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?




Links:

Bitch : Lab
Aaronovitch Watch
Balkanalysis
Perfect.co.uk
Maxspeak
Brad Delong
The Robert Vienneau blog

Political and philosophical heroes

Subcomandante Marcos
Will Rogers
Boris Vian
The English Svejk

RSS Feed:
This seems to matter to a lot of people

If you liked this "Daniel Davies" website, you might be interested in

"Danux", the web developer
The martial artist (and fan of extremely annoying Flash intros) from Blackburn
The Welsh political journalist
A Scouse computer programmer who collects Soviet cameras
"Danimal", the heavy metal drummer
Canada's finest recorder of radio jingles
More of the same, at the Guardian
A tailor's in Lampeter where Jimmy Carter once bought a hat
An advertising man who has written a novel about dogging (I think we sometimes get each other's email)
An award-winning facilities manager in Dubai
The son of the guitarist from the Kinks Update: he is apparently "balls-out motherfucking shit-dicked exxxstatic" to be included on a Kerrang magazine giveaway CD of Iron Maiden covers, which is nice.
"Fritz Gretel" from the Ramones film "Rock 'n' Roll High School"
The former presenter of the leading politics talk radio show on the Isle of Man, now a business change manager in the Manx government secretary's office
An aquarium curator in Sussex who keeps on scoring home runs like this (this is the first stable link I've found, but he is constantly kicking ass in acquarial terms)

If you didn't like this "Daniel Davies" website, then don't give up on the Daniel Davies industry completely!

An American "Christian Political Analyst" who has the same name as me
A student at Patrick Henry College
these two might be the same guy ...
"Scatter", the deceased Liberian gangster
A naked man stuck in a chimney in Wigan
A thug in Barrow



This blog has been going downhill since ...

August 2002
September 2002
October 2002
November 2002
December 2002
January 2003
February 2003
March 2003
April 2003
May 2003
June 2003
July 2003
August 2003
September 2003
November 2003
December 2003
March 2004
April 2004
May 2004
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
January 2006
February 2006
March 2006
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
July 2006
August 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
December 2009
January 2010
February 2010
March 2010
April 2010
May 2010
June 2010
July 2010
August 2010
September 2010
October 2010
November 2010
December 2010
January 2011
February 2011
March 2011
April 2011
May 2011
June 2011
July 2011
August 2011
September 2011
October 2011
November 2011
December 2011
January 2012
February 2012
March 2012
April 2012
May 2012
June 2012
July 2012
August 2012
September 2012
October 2012
December 2012
February 2013
April 2013
June 2013
July 2013
August 2013
March 2014
April 2014
August 2014
October 2015
March 2023