Publish at August 19 2020 Updated September 06 2023
Violence is defined as the abuse of physical or psychological power to get what you want. It takes the form of coercion, injury or even death. It reflects a desire to dominate without sharing. According to some American military analysts, the world has become VUCA: volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous and therefore conducive to the expression of violence.
Yet Steven Pinker's "The Angel Within" shows that human beings are less violent today than in the first half of the 20th century, or even in previous centuries. To do this, he gathers statistics on a variety of indicators, such as wars, homicides, wife-beating, suicides, slavery, genocide and the death penalty. He found that, contrary to popular belief, violence tended to decrease, particularly after the Second World War!
This result seems counter-intuitive, given the impression of being overwhelmed by news stories. This is no doubt due to the fact that the mass media feeds the story over and over again, obsessing over trains that arrive late rather than on time.
The fascination of spectators for the unprecedented, the spectacular of violence would encourage newspapers, radios and televisions. This is not to deny the sum of persistent, all too real disasters and misfortunes, but if we take the clues one by one, Pinker's intuition may well be right. Looking at the statistics, it's possible to note improvements over the long term, perhaps not so optimistic, but encouraging nonetheless.
Warisprobably the most massive source of systematic violence. Since the inter-state wars of the first half of the 20th century, the number of conflicts between states has declined. Cold wars, then civil wars, took over, but the damage, however considerable, was not as great as the appalling slaughter (19 million dead in WW1 and 60 million in WW2). Agreements between states and the example of European pacification set for the world show that reconciliation is possible. Economies and material interests are so intertwined that the economic cost of a conflict is multiplied. Killing your supplier or customer is simply bad for business.
If, at state level, equilibrium has been established to some extent, at the level of individualhomicide, here again and despite spectacular mass killings, homicide has decreased. Even in a country like the USA, where carrying a gun is commonplace, homicidal deaths (around 13,000 a year) fall short of the violent conquest of the Wild West. Terrible acts of terrorism and political assassination do occur, but dying from a car accident, cancer or starvation is far more likely on this planet.
Violence against women and children is under increasing scrutiny. Many countries have banned corporal punishment not only in schools, but also in the home. Education is gradually transforming its practices, incorporating a gentler approach. Non-violent communication and mindfulness meditation are penetrating many curricula. In some countries where honor killings or rape still occur without recourse, awareness is being raised under the aegis of feminist movements that are deconstructing ritual and traditional arguments.
Pinker's statistics on suicidealso show a decrease in self-harm. However, the WHO's epidemiological statistics show more mixed results. Statistical series have been compiled since the 1950s, with some gaps between continents. The number of suicides during the 2008 financial crisis is said to be on a par with that of 1929.
Slaveryis widely opposed, and emancipation movements have been particularly active throughout the world. Slavery has wreaked havoc since antiquity, with the gladiators of the Roman arena and the Arab slave trade of the Sudanese coming to mind. The "black slave trade", which involved an estimated 42 million people (11 million of whom were traded by European merchants), is currently the subject of a remembrance campaign, with statues bearing the brunt.
Some practices still exist, notably in Africa, India, China and Pakistan. Some 40 million human beings are said to be in slavery or forced labor. While corporal coercion has diminished, social and racial discrimination persist. Contemporary forms of domestic service, forced labor and economic slavery are still at work, with some employers confiscating the passports of migrant workers in order to better control them.
Genocidesaim to eradicate a race or ethnic group, and in this madness any means are permitted. With 6 million dead, the Shoah is the most striking, systematic and emblematic example. The Indian genocide (estimated 14 million dead) or the genocide of aborigines in Australia depopulated entire continents, the Armenian genocide (1.2 million dead), the genocide between Tutsis and Hutus (over 800,000 dead), or more recently those of the Yazidi minority (perhaps 100,000 dead) or the Rohingya (100,000 dead, 1 million displaced) are appalling. They are accompanied by the eradication of traditional beliefs, cultures and languages, and the forced sterilization of women.
The death penalty has also been combated. It has almost been eradicated in Europe (except in Belarus), and has declined sharply in Central Asia, with many countries resorting to it only in exceptional cases. 104 countries have abolished it, and only 25 applied it in 2016. Procedures are sometimes lengthy. Putting criminals to death is becoming the exception rather than the rule.The figures are uneven from one geographical area to another, and the data are sometimes incomplete or erroneous. The list of accelerations and regressions also remains to be verified, and it is difficult to say with any certainty whether the trends observed are irreversible and homogeneous. Yet the image of the uncertain and violent world portrayed to us by the military is presented without nuance, while many indicators point to improvements.
The most reasonable hypothesis to explain the drop in violence could be correlated to an increase in education and shared knowledge, to a large number of non-state organizations keeping watch, and perhaps even to the international resonance of the media.
Despite the considerable efforts of totalitarian states, the Internet has not been completely censored. This effort probably contributes to stability and greater economic prosperity, reducing the need to dominate as there is more to share. The link between education, democracy and prosperity remains as strong as ever. But heightened vigilance is still required in the face of migratory or climatic crises and their refugee camps, which bring new batches of violence.
Sources
War - https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_guerres_contemporaines
Fallen - The proportions of war and peace in the world masterfully illustrated
https://cursus.edu/14749/fallen-lart-de-linfographie-interactive
1945 -1998 - Isao Hashimoto - https://www.ctbto.org/specials/1945-1998-by-isao-hashimoto/
Homicide - Mucchielli, L. (2008). L'évolution des homicides depuis les années 1970: analyse statistique et tendance générale.
https://www.slate.fr/story/96245/monde-chaos-paix?amp
https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_pays_par_taux_d%27homicide_volontaire
Battered women and children
https://information.tv5monde.com/video/feminicides-combien-de-femmes-tuees-dans-le-monde
https://www.onufemmes.fr/nos-actualites/2019/11/25/feminicides-etat-des-lieux-de-la-situation-dans-le-monde
Suicides
https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2014/09/08/ou-se-suicide-t-on-le-plus-dans-le-monde_4482878_4355770.html
https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89pid%C3%A9miologie_du_suicide
Slavery
https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esclavage_au_XXe_si%C3%A8cle
Le Monde - 40,000,000 slaves worldwide https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2019/09/23/40-millions-d-esclaves-dans-le-monde_6012692_3210.html
https://www.herodote.net/L_esclavage_en_Afrique-synthese-13.php
Genocide
https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/mav/76/
https://www.cnews.fr/monde/2019-04-07/y-t-il-encore-des-genocides-aujourdhui-dans-le-monde-828077
Death penalty
https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_de_la_peine_de_mort_dans_le_monde
Pinker, S. (2017). The angel part in us - A history of violence and its decline.
https://www.decitre.fr/livres/la-part-d-ange-en-nous-9782352046776.html
The organization and its environment: The problem with the acronym 'VUCA'
https://philippesilberzahn.com/2017/05/29/organisation-et-son-environnement-probleme-avec-acronyme-vuca/
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