If you spent ten minutes scrolling through X or watching a cable news broadcast this morning, you probably think the world is ending. It feels like we’re drowning in chaos. You see a headline about a shooting, a clip of a riot, or a terrifying update on a distant war, and your brain naturally screams that we are living in the most violent era in human history.
But you’re wrong.
Actually, you’re more than wrong—you’re likely living through the most peaceful era our species has ever seen. I know, it sounds like gaslighting. It feels counterintuitive when every tragedy is captured in 4K and beamed directly to your pocket. But the data doesn't care about our feelings or our social media feeds. When we look at the long arc of history, the better angels of our nature: why violence has declined becomes one of the most significant, yet least understood, stories of the modern age.
We aren't just talking about a lucky streak of peace. We’re talking about a massive, measurable shift in how humans treat one another.
The Reality of the "Great Decline"
The concept of a "long peace" isn't just wishful thinking. Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker basically broke the internet (or at least the academic world) when he published The Better Angels of Our Nature back in 2011. His argument was simple: if you look at the percentages, you were way more likely to die at the end of a spear or a neighbor's axe a few centuries ago than you are to die in a war today.
Think about the Middle Ages. Or even the 17th century.
Back then, life was cheap. In many tribal societies, about 15% of people died at the hands of another person. Today? Even including the horrors of the 20th century’s world wars and modern conflicts, that number has plummeted to a tiny fraction of a percent. We’ve moved from a world where "might makes right" was the literal law of the land to a world where, mostly, we use words, laws, and trade to settle scores.
Why We Think Everything is Getting Worse
Our brains are essentially outdated hardware. We have "Stone Age" brains trying to process "Space Age" information. Evolution wired us with something called an availability heuristic. Basically, if we can easily remember an example of something, we assume it's common.
Because a 24-hour news cycle feeds us a constant stream of "breaking" tragedies, our brains conclude that the world is a literal war zone. We don't see headlines that say "3,000 Planes Landed Safely Today" or "Brussels Remained at Peace for the 80th Consecutive Year." Peace is boring. Peace isn't "content."
Violence, however, is a magnet for attention. This creates a massive gap between our perception of reality and the actual statistics of human mortality. We feel more at risk because we are more informed about the risks that do exist.
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The Five Inner Demons vs. The Six Trends
Pinker argues that human nature hasn't fundamentally changed. We still have the same "inner demons"—predatory aggression, dominance, revenge, sadism, and ideology. What has changed is our environment. We’ve built "fences" that keep those demons in check while empowering the "better angels" like empathy, self-control, and reason.
The Rise of the State
The biggest factor? The "Leviathan." When you have a central government with a monopoly on the legitimate use of force, you don't have to kill your neighbor for stealing your cow. You call the police. You go to court. This transition from "private justice" to "public justice" is probably the single most important development in the history of human safety.
It sounds boring, but the existence of a functioning legal system is a literal lifesaver. When the state works, people stop killing each other over perceived slights.
Gentle Commerce
There’s an old saying: "If goods don't cross borders, soldiers will." It’s kinda true. In the past, if you wanted what your neighbor had, you invaded and took it. Now? It’s cheaper and safer to just buy it. Global trade has made other people more valuable alive than dead. If you’re a business owner in New York, you don't want a war in China—that’s where your components come from.
Interdependence acts as a massive stabilizer. We’ve basically gamified survival through capitalism, and while that has its own set of problems, it’s significantly less bloody than the alternative.
The Expanding Circle of Empathy
This is where things get a bit more philosophical. Over the centuries, the group of people we actually care about has grown.
Once upon a time, your "moral circle" probably only included your immediate family or tribe. Anyone outside that circle was "other." They were sub-human. You could kill them, enslave them, or torture them without a second thought.
But then something happened. Literacy rates exploded.
When people started reading novels and history, they started seeing the world through other people’s eyes. You can't easily demonize a group of people once you’ve spent 300 pages living inside their protagonist's head. We began to extend rights to people who didn't look like us, talk like us, or believe the same things. First, it was other men of the same race. Then other races. Then women. Then children. Now, we’re even debating the moral status of animals and AI.
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The "better angels of our nature: why violence has declined" isn't just about better police—it's about a fundamental shift in how we value human life.
The Feminist Revolution
We rarely talk about this in the context of global peace, but the empowerment of women is a massive factor. Statistically, men are the primary perpetrators of violence. Cultures that are more "macho" or patriarchal tend to be more violent.
As women have gained more political and social power, societies have become more risk-averse. Mothers, generally speaking, are less likely to vote for a war that will send their children to die. This "feminization" of society has smoothed out some of the jagged edges of male-driven aggression. It's not a coincidence that the most peaceful countries on Earth also tend to have the highest levels of gender equality.
Is This Progress Permanent?
Honestly, no. Progress isn't a straight line. It's more like a jagged mountain range that trends upward over time.
We’ve seen horrific regressions. The Syrian Civil War, the invasion of Ukraine, the resurgence of authoritarianism—these are real, painful reminders that we can always slip back. The "Better Angels" theory doesn't claim that violence is extinct. It claims it’s in a state of long-term decline.
Critics of this idea, like Nassim Taleb, argue that we’re just in a "lull" and that a massive, civilization-ending conflict is still statistically possible. And he’s right. A single nuclear exchange could wipe out all the progress we’ve made in the last 500 years. We are safer, but we are also more capable of total destruction than ever before.
The Role of Reason
The "Enlightenment" gets a lot of flak these days, but it gave us the tools to solve problems with logic instead of superstition. We started seeing violence as a problem to be solved rather than a divine necessity or a heroic glory.
When we treat violence as a public health issue—like a disease that can be tracked, contained, and treated—we get better results. Look at the decline in domestic violence or the disappearance of formal duels. These didn't just stop because people "got nice." They stopped because we collectively realized they were stupid, inefficient, and immoral.
What This Means for You Right Now
It’s easy to feel helpless. But understanding the better angels of our nature: why violence has declined gives us a roadmap for the future. We know what works.
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- Democracy works. Democratic nations almost never fight each other.
- Education works. It expands the circle of empathy and teaches critical thinking.
- Trade works. It makes cooperation more profitable than conflict.
- The rule of law works. It provides a predictable way to settle disputes.
If we want to keep the trend moving in the right direction, we have to protect these institutions. They are fragile. They require constant maintenance. Peace isn't the "natural" state of humanity—it’s an achievement.
Moving Forward: Actionable Insights for a Less Violent World
It’s one thing to read about historical trends; it’s another to live in a way that supports them. If you want to lean into your better angels, start with these shifts in perspective:
1. Curate your information diet. Understand that news outlets have a financial incentive to make you afraid. Seek out data-driven sources like Our World in Data to balance out the sensationalism of your social media feed. Context is the enemy of panic.
2. Support global institutions. Whether it's the UN, international trade agreements, or human rights watchdogs, these organizations are the scaffolding of the "Long Peace." They aren't perfect, but they are the only thing standing between us and a return to "private justice."
3. Practice intellectual empathy. Make a conscious effort to read and listen to perspectives from outside your "tribe." The more you understand the internal logic of people you disagree with, the harder it becomes to view them as an enemy that needs to be "defeated."
4. Focus on local stability. Peace starts at the community level. Support local programs that treat violence as a public health crisis (like "Cure Violence" initiatives). When people have economic opportunities and social support, the "inner demons" of predatory aggression find less fertile ground.
The world isn't perfect. Not even close. But if you could choose any time in human history to be born, and you didn't know your race, gender, or wealth beforehand, you would choose right now. Every single time. We have a long way to go, but the trajectory is clear. Our better angels are winning—we just have to keep giving them a reason to stay.
Next Steps for Deeper Understanding:
- Audit your news sources. Identify which platforms trigger "outrage" and replace them with one long-form, data-heavy source per week.
- Read the source material. Dig into The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker or The Expansion of Prophetic Consciousness by Robert Wright for a deeper look at the evolution of empathy.
- Engage in "Gentle Commerce." Support businesses and initiatives that foster cross-border cooperation and economic interdependence.
The decline of violence is a choice we make every day through the systems we build and the way we treat our neighbors. Keep building.