Steven Pinker: The Decline of Violence

Posted on January 18, 2012 by weblogbahamas

Rick Lowe

Dr. Pinker always provides great food for thought.

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7 Responses to Steven Pinker: The Decline of Violence

  1. Tradewinds's avatar Tradewinds says:
    January 19, 2012 at 12:59 pm

    Yes, and the Moon is made of green cheese too.. Apparently this learned fellow has never lived in Nassau or in the Middle East, Africa or Southeast Asia.. Even in Cambridge Massachusetts where he lives and teaches, violent crimes have increased over the past four decades.. When I lived in his fair city I had two locks on my doors just as I do now here in Nassau.. This may be food for thought Rick but for me it is just plain old green cheese..

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  2. Dennis's avatar Dennis says:
    January 20, 2012 at 4:21 am

    What an idiot ! Where do you find these fools ?And he is a professor ? My goodness, no wonder the children are thinking the way they do when they get out of school !I wonder if he has locks on his doors.He must be living in a different world than me.I don’t think you can go anywhere in the world today & not find violent crime on the rise.

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  3. Rick Lowe's avatar Rick Lowe says:
    January 20, 2012 at 6:38 am

    Gents,
    He is discussing trends around the world over a long period of time. Not violence in The Bahamas.

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  4. Tradewinds's avatar Tradewinds says:
    January 20, 2012 at 6:36 pm

    Statistics can show anything you want by adjusting the analytical time frame.. Our professor friend knows very well that the further you go back in time, statistics estimates are at best drawn from speculations.. I cited areas of the world where statistics hardly existed sixty-five years ago namely Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.. Greater Latin America also should have been included.. In each of these geographical areas crime rates have been on the increase for many years.. Take a close look at the Philippines and you will find a close correlation between a rapidly growing population rate and violent crime.. Same is true for Mexico, Jamaica and most of the nations of Africa and the Middle East..
    Say what you will the real issue here is the accuracy of national statistics which the World Bank once described as useless at best.. Academic research based on such data is perhaps as you say “food for thought” but the historical data it is based on, it may be just supposition and conjecture..

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  5. Dennis's avatar Dennis says:
    January 23, 2012 at 4:35 am

    He must be going back to the days of the Vikings !

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  6. Tradewinds's avatar Tradewinds says:
    January 23, 2012 at 11:52 am

    Dennis the good professor, like many of his academic associates in environmental studies, more than likely uses statistical series and correlations that justified their underlying hypothesis.. This is nothing more than subjective thinking where selected data is used in an attempt to prove a preconceived position with little thought being given to being objective..
    As I tried to point out before, statistics can be made to show any conclusion you want by adjusting the duration historical time frames.. We do this here in the Bahamas with student test scores in an attempt to show that such test scores are gradually improving.. I think the public knows better when we take a consistent and objective perspective of what is really happening in our educational system.. The same maybe true with the professor’s hypothesis..

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  7. Dennis's avatar Dennis says:
    January 24, 2012 at 5:17 am

    You are right on the money Tradewinds.These bleeding heart liberals will do or say anything to try & justify their idiotic way of thinking, yet the things that are right in front of them they ignore.To me, its like they are on some form of medication & in a trance.

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