The eCrozier

In his new book: The Better Angels of Our Nature: the Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes, Harvard professor Steven Pinker contends that violence has steadily declined in the world since the end of the Cold War. He makes this claim based on lots of data and his belief that we as a species are growing up, morally speaking. I found his argument interesting, but impossible to accept, even with all his supporting data. If I had the time, I am sure I could find just as much data to make the opposite point. It all depends on how one defines violence. He is right if one means world wars, but not so much if one means violence in general. Even then, the violence of war did not end with the Cold War. It continued in the first Gulf war, the Balkan wars, Rwanda, Chechnya, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Added all up, they are significant. Pinker barely refers to them. He focuses on the developed world and its sustained peace.

But even in the developed world, we aren’t all that developed, when it comes to being violence-free. As Rod Serling would say in an episode of The Twilight Zone, “submitted for your consideration:” Last week, at 10:10 p.m. on Thanksgiving night (or Black Friday Eve, as it will soon be known) twenty shoppers at a Walmart in the San Fernando Valley had to be treated for injuries after a woman fired pepper spray at them. Los Angeles Fire Captain James Carson said the woman was “competitive shopping” and was apparently attempting to “gain preferred access” to some sale-priced electronics. Dr. Pinker, I rest my case.

Dr. Pinker, I believe, suffers from what economist Daniel Klein calls “myside bias,” which is the tendency to judge ideas or information according to how conveniently they conform to a person’s already settled view of the world. Dr. Pinker set out to find a decline in world violence and he did. He even found evidence to support it. But he had to ignore a lot of other evidence to get there.

I suffer from “myside bias” and so do you. We all do (except Georgia Bulldog fans who are completely free from it). Pure objectivity is thus a myth. We all bring to every idea or piece of information a subjective interpretation of that idea or information based on how we have come to see and comprehend the world. So, anybody who insists to you that they are unencumbered by this, I strongly suggest that you be wary of them. These are dangerous people (or maybe I’m just exhibiting “myside bias” against Cable News?).

Our common admission and confession of “myside bias” has the benefit of helping us become humble before the Truth of God in Jesus Christ, while at the same time, compelling us to acknowledge that we are finite, limited creatures who get things wrong, often frequently. It can also aid us in our empathy toward other equally finite and limited creatures; the ones the Bible calls our “neighbors” (as in, “love your neighbor as yourself”). Such humility and empathy will help us develop and maintain generous hearts and open minds as we seek to follow Jesus in a world full of people like us. We will learn to judge less and love more. It will aid us in the ongoing work and practice of the forgiveness of one another. Put simply, it will help us be better disciples of Jesus.

+Scott