The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined(Steven Arthur Pinker)

 1. The world is currently the safest.

People think that the current world is particularly dangerous.

Every day, the news reports that terrorism, clashes of civilizations, and weapons of mass destruction are increasing in danger.

However, we easily forget the dangers that were abundant in the news just a few decades ago.

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I think that after broadcasting some special incidents on the news, people often generalize that they think that now is the most dangerous time.

However, the crime rate in Korea is decreasing day by day, and it is rare to find a country this safe.

However, the problem is that the suicide rate in Korea is too high.

There may be many reasons, but I hope you realize how safe and economically good Korea is compared to other countries.

Of course, the crime rate is decreasing worldwide, and human life is becoming safer.

Many problems, such as the crime rate and fetal mortality rate, are all decreasing.

I hope that there is no error in generalizing by looking at only one thing.

2. Let's stay away from gambling.

The gambler's fallacy Many of the so-called big shots lose their fortunes due to the gambler's fallacy. This is the belief that if similar results come out in a game of probability (such as red numbers coming out in a row on a roulette wheel or 7s coming out in a dice game) in a row, the next time will be different.

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You may think that there are people who make a lot of money through gambling.

However, it is all luck, and people think that winning big at a casino is not because they are good at it, but just because they are lucky.

Also, because they only think about the big wins and do not see the losses, they fall even deeper into the pit of evil.

You may think that you are at an advantage at a casino, but that is a misunderstanding, and if a casino is not making a profit, why would they run it?

If a casino were to operate under unfavorable conditions, it would have already gone bankrupt.

For example, when you throw a coin, the only results are heads or tails.

However, people misunderstand that since they have continuously gotten heads, they will get tails this time.

From the perspective of a coin, it is just heads or tails, and there is no relation to the order.

That's why it can either keep coming up or keep coming down.

Gambling is not helpful to your life at all, and even if you make a lot of money, it can be poisonous to you.

3. Stay away from drugs.

People who take heroin for the first time are in a state of ecstasy, and withdrawal symptoms are minimal.

However, the more addicted you become, the weaker the pleasure becomes, and withdrawal symptoms come faster and more unpleasantly.

That's why addicts do drugs compulsively to avoid withdrawal symptoms rather than to experience ecstasy.

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I think you should never do drugs, and you shouldn't be curious about them.

As in the above text, once you experience it, you will only see yourself continuing to do it to forget the withdrawal symptoms.

4. Everyone knows how to become a gentleman. However, if you don't practice it, it's useless.

"If you know what is right and do not practice it, it is not knowledge." This is not always followed by everyone, but everyone wants to do it in their hearts.

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Some people sometimes say this.

"You have to make money illegally to become rich."

I don't think so at all.

If you make money illegally, can you be honest with your children?

If you don't have children, can you really be honest with yourself?

Is it really fun to live a life of luxury with the money you earn while having a bad influence on others?

And bad deeds are bound to catch up with you someday.

So did Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Elon Musk become rich by committing illegal acts?

For example, among the world's 7 billion people, do many people engage in illegal gambling? Or do many people buy smartphones?

I think it would be helpful for yourself to become rich by selling smartphones honestly. All of those who became rich became rich by helping others.

I think the way to become rich is to sell services, products, and knowledge that can help others.

5. Economic knowledge is absolutely necessary.

Historically, lack of economic knowledge often led to ethnic and class violence.

This is because the conclusion is that those who do not have can only improve their fate by forcibly confiscating the wealth of those who have and punishing their greed.

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If you do not have economic knowledge, you tend to like socialism and communism.

This is because you envy what the rich have, want it, and think that they should be punished.

However, the rich must have a reason for becoming rich.

They probably do not like the fact that they simply became rich without going through numerous trials and errors to become rich.

However, as I mentioned above, the rich did not become rich from the beginning, but rather made the world more convenient with their knowledge and technology.

Even if we are poor, we all have minds that are better than the existing supercomputers (simple calculations, memory cannot keep up with the machines, but cognition, conversation, society, experience, etc.) and we live in a free democracy and capitalism where anyone can become rich.

In communism and socialism, if you do not have vested interests, you can never become rich.

That is why we can gain knowledge from others and create new things, and because we are human, we can read books to grow ourselves.

If you give up, you will stay, and your efforts will be rewarded someday.

I hope that many people will study economic knowledge and realize that they can do it too.

6. Dictators, communism, and socialism eat away at human society.

In 1958, Mao Zedong received a revelation. It was a revelation that if farmers operated a smelter in their backyards and contributed to the production of steel, the national production would double in one year. Unable to withstand the threat of death if they failed to meet the quota, the farmers melted down useless lumps of metal such as pots, knives, shovels, and doorknobs.

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Mao Zedong left China far behind.

The compass, gunpowder, and paper were all developed first in China, and if they had done well, they could have dominated the world, but unfortunately, due to bad dictators, communism, and political reasons, they were unable to achieve the current hegemony.

Are there any countries run by dictators that are really doing well?

China and Russia are making some profits with modified communism, but the answer can be found by looking at North Korea, which has adopted complete communism. I don't think there is a country in human society where communism and socialism are doing well.

Most countries are gradually moving towards democracy and capitalism, and the more democratic a country becomes, the less war and famine there are.

If you look at the countries that have started wars, you can see that most of them are not complete democracies.

Of course, the book contains detailed information about this, but in the end, it is democracy and capitalism that develop and stabilize humans.

7. Physical punishment for children only has negative effects.

Experts are against corporal punishment for three reasons.

The first is that corporal punishment can have negative effects on children's later lives, causing aggression, crime, lack of empathy, and depression.... Omitted... The second reason is that corporal punishment is not particularly more effective in reducing bad behavior than explaining to the child what they did wrong and using non-violent measures such as scolding or time-out.... Omitted... The third reason is as follows: "Corporal punishment contradicts the ideal of pursuing non-violence in the family and society." 

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As I said before, I was physically punished when I was young, but I only felt rebellious and did not reflect at all.

However, I reflected on it thanks to the gentle and logical words of my friend's father.

I was also punished a lot in middle school, but honestly, I felt more rebellious than reflective.

I think that physical punishment is not helpful to children at all.

I think that making children understand logically and reflecting on themselves is proper discipline.

8. Let's forget the past and move forward.

In 1984, Japan made a statement similar to an apology for its past occupation of Korea. Emperor Hirohito, who visited Japan as the Korean president, said, "It is regrettable that there was an unfortunate period in the 20th century." However, since then, other Japanese leaders have expressed their apologies in increasingly more candid terms. mobile e-book : 1774p

Japan has already apologized several times, but for some reason, we continue to have anti-Japanese sentiments and boycott.

But isn't it time to stop now?

Then we should apologize for everything we suffered from China during the Joseon Dynasty, but China has never apologized at all.

Korea has already become a country with a higher minimum wage than Japan, and has also achieved great economic development.

I always think that the best revenge is to live better than them.

It would be much better to beat Japan by improving our technology and science so that we can win than just apologizing.

Japan has the most Nobel Prize winners in science in Asia and the fifth in the world.

Korea has not yet won a Nobel Prize in science.

I think we should be ashamed of this and work harder.

I think we should forget the past and become a more developed country.

9. Let's not envy the past. 

If an average person in the 1910s time traveled to the present, their IQ would be 70, bordering on intellectual disability.

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People think that the past was always better.

But this is a misunderstanding.

A world as good as today has never existed in the past, and about 200 years ago, diseases, famine, war, and violence were more severe.

It has not even been 20 years since the smartphones that we use conveniently all the time came out.

But is the world of the past, where pagers and telegrams were sent, really good?

Humans will become safer and more developed, and a better world will unfold.

10. Men become human only when they get married.

Married men invest in their children rather than competing with each other for sexual opportunities. Married men have lower testosterone levels and are less likely to become criminals.

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I always feel that I am the happiest after having a child, and my life has become happier. It's from a book, but it's better to live a happy life even if your testosterone is a little low.

It is said that unmarried men are more aggressive, gamble, and have a higher crime rate because they don't have a family to take responsibility for.

I hope that you have children and raise them because not only marriage but also children make you more responsible.

Of course, I think I was lucky to get married.

What I want to say to all unmarried men is that rather than becoming a herbivore man who gives up, I hope that you will reach the goal of marriage through many challenges and experiences.