Re: How do you calm down the hot-heads?

From: Damien Broderick (damienb@unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Thu Sep 11 2003 - 21:08:54 MDT

  • Next message: Robert J. Bradbury: "Re: cancer rates (was: e: How do you calm down the hot-heads?)"

    At 05:35 PM 9/11/03 -0700, Robbie wrote [lots of plausible stuff, but]:

    >Plenty of genocides year
    >after year, century after century demonstrate that STATES - not
    >religions, not hordes, not cave-people, etc. - are the truly dangerous
    >elements in human lives.

    Nah. Pinker and other sources indicate that the risk of being murdered in
    pre-state cultures is *outrageously* high. An American male has 1 chance in
    200 of being murdered (this clearly elides location and sub-culture, but
    still). Check out the graph in Pinker's THE BLANK SLATE, chapter 3: the
    Jivaro, 60% chance, the Huli a mere 20%.

    Granted, those cultures didn't support the capacity to exterminate
    *billions* in a spasm war. Luckily.

    Damien Broderick

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