Steven Pinker, the Harvard University scholar and author of the 2011 book “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined,” says societies are becoming more “enmeshed” and seeking “a higher good,” resulting in less violence.
Two things. One, the disappearance of the Soviet Union is a big part of the decline in violence the last quarter century (quoting Strategypage here):
This is all a post-Cold War trend that has been going on since the 1990s. Let us hope it continues.
Most current wars are basically uprisings against police states or feudal societies which are seen as out-of-step with the modern world. Many are led by radicals preaching failed dogmas (Islamic conservatism, Maoism and other forms of radical socialism) that still resonate among people who don't know about the dismal track records of these creeds. Iran has replaced some of the lost Soviet terrorist support effort. That keeps Hezbollah, Hamas, and a few smaller groups going, and that's it. Terrorists in general miss the Soviets, who really knew how to treat bad boys right. [emphasis added]
Second, the violence that is raging out there is in areas of vital interest to America:
[The] overall decline in wars and deaths has taken place in areas where we don't have vital interests. Yet as we pivoted away from the Middle East to focus on Asia, and as we thought Europe was safe, Asia remains under threat by a rising China while the Middle East burst into flames again and Europe has again become a point of conflict as Russia attempts to reverse the territorial losses of our victory in the Cold War.
Face it, this is another example of the KISS principle. If the Soviet Union was still a going concern, we wouldn't be talking about a safer world.
And when a comedian (WARNING: Image of grotesque red-hued skull--plus a severed head, of course) and those on a mission from God both think that holding up a severed bloody head is pretty cool, I don't want to hear a Goddamn word about "enmeshed" societies seeking a higher good.
UPDATE: More from the Soviet archives:
Other revelations from the Moscow archives revealed that the Soviets had already created schemes that were indeed stranger than fiction. These included a plan to move saboteurs from Nicaragua across the Mexican border and into the U.S. disguised as illegal aliens. Radar stations, pipelines and power towers were all targeted in great detail as were port facilities in places like New York City. Other archive documents, available to researchers for a few years in the early 1990s (when a fistful of hundred dollar bills could work wonders) delivered all manner of disturbing and now well documented proofs. The Rosenbergs were indeed Russian spies, Alger Hiss was mixed up in Russian espionage efforts and the American Communist Party was in the pay of the Soviet Union and served as a tool for espionage, subversion and propaganda. Many left wing writers and politicians were either on the Soviet payroll, or eager to assist Soviet espionage activities.
Read it all. The death of the Soviet Union was a tremendous victory for the West. Have no doubt.
And yes, Russia was behind the Korean War--not China, which bled for Russia.
And in related news, the Chinese military isn't as good as it looks. Let's hope our military is.
Elsewhere I've read that if Korea had worked out the Russians could have tried that with divided Germany.
