If you want to determine whether the violence level has been increasing or decreasing, one good measure is to compare religious persecutions of the past, with political persecutions of the twentieth century. There is no comparison. Political persecutions were enormously bloodier, and the political persecutors were generally admired in their time, whereas their religious equivalents were condemned in their time.
Someone who executed two hundred religious heretics does deserve the title Bloody Mary.
You say she only got the title for being a Catholic. Well then, who is is the protestant King or Queen of England who better deserves the title?
You say the Spanish inquisition was demonized merely because it was Catholic. Well then, what protestant inquisition executed a dozen or so heretics a year for a few centuries?
The fact is that Bloody Mary and the Spanish Inquisition were pretty much as bad as it got, and that is why they have the bad name that they do have. But modern leftists who only murder a few thousand or so get sainted, because the usual thing a few hundred thousand.
If you want to determine whether the violence level has been increasing or decreasing, one good measure is to compare religious persecutions of the past, with political persecutions of the twentieth century.
Hmm… It’d be an interesting project to calculate P(Violence) (the likelihood a person will have significant violence inflicted on them) for various time periods, and also the equivalent P(Violence|Activity) for various activities (religious disagreement, disagreement with your nation’s war, proclaiming the ruler of your nation to be a nincompoop, etc).
You say she only got the title for being a Catholic.
Not quite, I said she got it for persecuting the Protestants while the Protestants ended up winning. If she had been a Catholic but not persecuted them, she’d not have gotten the title, same way she wouldn’t have gotten it if she had slaughtered them wholesale and they ended up losing.
Evidence for the above claim: That the slaughter of St.Bartholemew’s day didn’t bestow a similar title to Charles of France—the Catholics in France defeated the Protestants afterall. So no “bloody” title for Charles of France.
Well then, who is is the protestant King or Queen of England who better deserves the title?
Charles I of England conducted war against his own nation—he was so bad a king that he got himself beheaded. But he’s now a saint of the Anglican church.
You say the Spanish inquisition was demonized merely because it was Catholic
I didn’t say that either.
Political persecutions were enormously bloodier, and the political persecutors were generally admired in their time, whereas their religious equivalents were condemned in their time.
The destruction of the Cathars had Arnaud Amalric brag to the Pope “Today your Holiness, twenty thousand heretics were put to the sword, regardless of rank, age, or sex.”.
Where was the condemnation for that? The monk got made archbishop.
P(Violence) is a lot easier to calculate than P(Violence|Activity) for various activities. It also gets into definitional issues (is being born to a certain racial group an activity?).
But P(Violence) has definitely gone down. That’s a major part of Pinker’s point and is pretty uncontroversial. However, there have been specific spikes. For example, the introduction of efficient fire arms and longbows made casualty rates go up during the Hundred Years War. Similarly, right before World War I, there were about 1.8 billion people worldwide. About 17 million people died in the war so that’s about 1% of the world’s population. In contrast, the population around 1800 was around 1 billion. But in the various Napoleonic wars around 4 million people died. So if one compares specific wars one does get some jumps.
If however one looks at the overall number of violent deaths even from just 1700 to 2000 one sees a general decline. The last sixty years have been especially peaceful by this metric, but that’s partially just due to the population boom.
If one wants a real contrast, note that of early homo sapiens skeletons, about 5-10% show signs of violent death.(I’ve seen this statement before but don’t unfortunately have a source on hand for it.) That’s almost full order of magnitude more than the general violent death rate at the worst times in modern history.
Well then, who is is the protestant King or Queen of England who better deserves the title?
Charles I of England conducted war against his own nation—he was so bad a king that he got himself beheaded. But he’s now a saint of the Anglican church.
Charles I was, like Louis, and Tsar Nicolas, a good King. Reform is dangerous, not repression. Tsar Nicholas suffered revolution and execution because under him the state swerved left, and Charles I suffered revolution and execution because under him the state swerved Whig. Charles I’s position was libertarian: That a good King is a King whose subject’s lives and property are their own.
The destruction of the Cathars had Arnaud Amalric brag to the Pope “Today your Holiness, twenty thousand heretics were put to the sword, regardless of rank, age, or sex.”.
It is probably not true that he reported that to the Pope. It is true that he wiped out a town of thousands of people, possibly twenty thousand people. It is probably true that he said of the people in the town “kill them all, God will know his own”, or words to that effect if not those exact words.
This however, occurred in a holy war, against armed resisting people, not a peacetime persecution, therefore needs to be compared with modern political civil wars and revolutions, not modern political repressions. Similarly for the Saint. Bartholomew’s Day massacre.
For religious repressions, the best you have got is the Spanish Inquisition and Bloody Mary, which is by modern standards, nothing. When a modern leftist regime kills on that scale, you think them liberal democrats.
Let us compare repression of heretics under Queen Elizabeth, with repression of conservatives today: Every play by Shakespeare expressed a worldview that was Roman Catholic, pagan, or atheist/materialist. No Hollywood movies express a worldview that is politically incorrect
Charles I was, like Louis, and Tsar Nicolas, a good King
Ah, Tsar Nicolas, the guy who involved his country in the nonsensical World War I, and thus caused 3.3 millions of his people to die needless deaths. The seeming pattern I observe is that you like certain rulers just because you happen to hate the people that deposed them.
Charles I’s position was libertarian:
“To raise revenue without reconvening Parliament, Charles first resurrected an all-but-forgotten law called the Distraint of Knighthood, promulgated in 1279, which required anyone who earned £40 or more each year to present himself at the King’s coronation to join the royal army as a knight. Later, Charles reintroduced obsolete feudal taxes such as purveyance, wardship, and forest laws”
I don’t think that’s the libertarian position. Excessive taxation seems to be one of the chief complaints against him.
When a modern leftist regime kills on that scale, you think them liberal democrats.
Modern “leftist” regimes that I consider liberal democratic ones have abolished the death penalty, and they don’t kill, period—my examples of liberal democracies would be countries like Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Netherlands; not Cuba or Venezuela.
Let us compare repression of heretics under Queen Elizabeth, with repression of conservatives today:
First of all, your selectively chosen comparisons become tiresome.
Second, you’d have to identify what you mean by “conservatives”. Does Bush Jr count as a conservative? If yes, then conservatives nowadays can become Presidents of America, and Catholics back then couldn’t become prime ministers.
Every play by Shakespeare expressed a worldview that was Roman Catholic, pagan, or atheist/materialist. No Hollywood movies express a worldview that is politically incorrect
Do you mean things like “Aaron is an atheist, and he’s the most evil person that ever walked on earth” (Titus Andronicus), or “Joan of Arc is a catholic, and she’s an evil witch justly executed” (Henry VI, Part 1)
Shakespeare was notoriously politically restricted in what he could display. My favourite example is Macbeth where he had to portray Macbeth as a cowardly murderer, and the previous king as a good one, just because the current lineage of kings was believed to descend from the slain king. That’s extreme historical revisionism: In actual reality Macbeth had led an open revolt against king Duncan—Duncan died in battle. Macbeth was considered a good and generous king—“Marianus Scotus tells how the king made a pilgrimage to Rome in 1050, where, Marianus says, he gave money to the poor as if it were seed.”
“Unlike later writers, no near contemporary source remarks on Macbeth as a tyrant. The Duan Albanach, which survives in a form dating to the reign of Malcolm III, calls him “Mac Bethad the renowned”. The Prophecy of Berchán, a verse history which purports to be a prophecy, describes him as “the generous king of Fortriu”″
But according to Shakespeare, Macbeth must be a villainous murderous tyrant, and Jeanne D’arc must be a witch. Because that’s what the political reality of his time demanded.
Say what you will about Hollywood, but they’ve not portrayed Gandhi as a bloodthirsty serial killer yet, nor have they portrayed Stalin or Che Guevara as heroes either. Shakespeare did do the equivalent thereof.
I’d be careful with this line of reasoning—complaining about lack of political correctness could be a matter of attempting to push “political correctness” further or signaling continued relevance.
People have different standards for offense—sam0345 may be upset that there aren’t more conservative worldviews in Hollywood while leftists may be upset that there aren’t more progressive worldviews in Hollywood. To the Left there are lots of movies that express worldviews that are politically incorrect to them. To sam0345 maybe all the movies in Hollywood are too politically correct. What fact is actually under debate here?
If you want to determine whether the violence level has been increasing or decreasing, one good measure is to compare religious persecutions of the past, with political persecutions of the twentieth century. There is no comparison. Political persecutions were enormously bloodier, and the political persecutors were generally admired in their time, whereas their religious equivalents were condemned in their time.
Someone who executed two hundred religious heretics does deserve the title Bloody Mary.
You say she only got the title for being a Catholic. Well then, who is is the protestant King or Queen of England who better deserves the title?
You say the Spanish inquisition was demonized merely because it was Catholic. Well then, what protestant inquisition executed a dozen or so heretics a year for a few centuries?
The fact is that Bloody Mary and the Spanish Inquisition were pretty much as bad as it got, and that is why they have the bad name that they do have. But modern leftists who only murder a few thousand or so get sainted, because the usual thing a few hundred thousand.
Hmm… It’d be an interesting project to calculate P(Violence) (the likelihood a person will have significant violence inflicted on them) for various time periods, and also the equivalent P(Violence|Activity) for various activities (religious disagreement, disagreement with your nation’s war, proclaiming the ruler of your nation to be a nincompoop, etc).
Not quite, I said she got it for persecuting the Protestants while the Protestants ended up winning. If she had been a Catholic but not persecuted them, she’d not have gotten the title, same way she wouldn’t have gotten it if she had slaughtered them wholesale and they ended up losing.
Evidence for the above claim: That the slaughter of St.Bartholemew’s day didn’t bestow a similar title to Charles of France—the Catholics in France defeated the Protestants afterall. So no “bloody” title for Charles of France.
Charles I of England conducted war against his own nation—he was so bad a king that he got himself beheaded. But he’s now a saint of the Anglican church.
I didn’t say that either.
The destruction of the Cathars had Arnaud Amalric brag to the Pope “Today your Holiness, twenty thousand heretics were put to the sword, regardless of rank, age, or sex.”.
Where was the condemnation for that? The monk got made archbishop.
P(Violence) is a lot easier to calculate than P(Violence|Activity) for various activities. It also gets into definitional issues (is being born to a certain racial group an activity?).
But P(Violence) has definitely gone down. That’s a major part of Pinker’s point and is pretty uncontroversial. However, there have been specific spikes. For example, the introduction of efficient fire arms and longbows made casualty rates go up during the Hundred Years War. Similarly, right before World War I, there were about 1.8 billion people worldwide. About 17 million people died in the war so that’s about 1% of the world’s population. In contrast, the population around 1800 was around 1 billion. But in the various Napoleonic wars around 4 million people died. So if one compares specific wars one does get some jumps.
If however one looks at the overall number of violent deaths even from just 1700 to 2000 one sees a general decline. The last sixty years have been especially peaceful by this metric, but that’s partially just due to the population boom.
If one wants a real contrast, note that of early homo sapiens skeletons, about 5-10% show signs of violent death.(I’ve seen this statement before but don’t unfortunately have a source on hand for it.) That’s almost full order of magnitude more than the general violent death rate at the worst times in modern history.
Charles I was, like Louis, and Tsar Nicolas, a good King. Reform is dangerous, not repression. Tsar Nicholas suffered revolution and execution because under him the state swerved left, and Charles I suffered revolution and execution because under him the state swerved Whig. Charles I’s position was libertarian: That a good King is a King whose subject’s lives and property are their own.
It is probably not true that he reported that to the Pope. It is true that he wiped out a town of thousands of people, possibly twenty thousand people. It is probably true that he said of the people in the town “kill them all, God will know his own”, or words to that effect if not those exact words.
This however, occurred in a holy war, against armed resisting people, not a peacetime persecution, therefore needs to be compared with modern political civil wars and revolutions, not modern political repressions. Similarly for the Saint. Bartholomew’s Day massacre.
For religious repressions, the best you have got is the Spanish Inquisition and Bloody Mary, which is by modern standards, nothing. When a modern leftist regime kills on that scale, you think them liberal democrats.
Let us compare repression of heretics under Queen Elizabeth, with repression of conservatives today: Every play by Shakespeare expressed a worldview that was Roman Catholic, pagan, or atheist/materialist. No Hollywood movies express a worldview that is politically incorrect
Ah, Tsar Nicolas, the guy who involved his country in the nonsensical World War I, and thus caused 3.3 millions of his people to die needless deaths. The seeming pattern I observe is that you like certain rulers just because you happen to hate the people that deposed them.
“To raise revenue without reconvening Parliament, Charles first resurrected an all-but-forgotten law called the Distraint of Knighthood, promulgated in 1279, which required anyone who earned £40 or more each year to present himself at the King’s coronation to join the royal army as a knight. Later, Charles reintroduced obsolete feudal taxes such as purveyance, wardship, and forest laws”
I don’t think that’s the libertarian position. Excessive taxation seems to be one of the chief complaints against him.
Modern “leftist” regimes that I consider liberal democratic ones have abolished the death penalty, and they don’t kill, period—my examples of liberal democracies would be countries like Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Netherlands; not Cuba or Venezuela.
First of all, your selectively chosen comparisons become tiresome.
Second, you’d have to identify what you mean by “conservatives”. Does Bush Jr count as a conservative? If yes, then conservatives nowadays can become Presidents of America, and Catholics back then couldn’t become prime ministers.
Do you mean things like “Aaron is an atheist, and he’s the most evil person that ever walked on earth” (Titus Andronicus), or “Joan of Arc is a catholic, and she’s an evil witch justly executed” (Henry VI, Part 1)
Shakespeare was notoriously politically restricted in what he could display. My favourite example is Macbeth where he had to portray Macbeth as a cowardly murderer, and the previous king as a good one, just because the current lineage of kings was believed to descend from the slain king. That’s extreme historical revisionism: In actual reality Macbeth had led an open revolt against king Duncan—Duncan died in battle. Macbeth was considered a good and generous king—“Marianus Scotus tells how the king made a pilgrimage to Rome in 1050, where, Marianus says, he gave money to the poor as if it were seed.”
“Unlike later writers, no near contemporary source remarks on Macbeth as a tyrant. The Duan Albanach, which survives in a form dating to the reign of Malcolm III, calls him “Mac Bethad the renowned”. The Prophecy of Berchán, a verse history which purports to be a prophecy, describes him as “the generous king of Fortriu”″
But according to Shakespeare, Macbeth must be a villainous murderous tyrant, and Jeanne D’arc must be a witch. Because that’s what the political reality of his time demanded.
Say what you will about Hollywood, but they’ve not portrayed Gandhi as a bloodthirsty serial killer yet, nor have they portrayed Stalin or Che Guevara as heroes either. Shakespeare did do the equivalent thereof.
I haven’t seen it, but judging from the trailer and Wikipedia entry, The Motorcycle Diaries portrays Guevara positively.
It isn’t a Hollywood movie (the production companies are British and Argentine), but it was distributed by a division of Universal Studios.
It’s about Guevara as a young man, before he became a revolutionary.
That’s a pretty bold claim.
Especially since the political correctness people routinely complain about Hollywood movies.
I’d be careful with this line of reasoning—complaining about lack of political correctness could be a matter of attempting to push “political correctness” further or signaling continued relevance.
People have different standards for offense—sam0345 may be upset that there aren’t more conservative worldviews in Hollywood while leftists may be upset that there aren’t more progressive worldviews in Hollywood. To the Left there are lots of movies that express worldviews that are politically incorrect to them. To sam0345 maybe all the movies in Hollywood are too politically correct. What fact is actually under debate here?