All Things in Moderation

Apropos of the previous post on torture, I might briefly point you at this piece on Marketplace, featuring the Freakonomics guys, Steven Dubner and Steven Levitt. He briefly discusses the drop in violent crime over the past 20 years, but also touches on (too briefly for me) what a peaceful utopia we live in now–and have lived in throughout the 20th century–compared to most of the rest of human history.

http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/10/04/the-decline-and-fall-of-violence/

Or just go straight to the Podcast by clicking here.

I loved the anecdote from Pepys’ diary, where Pepys observes a general being drawn and quartered before going out to a pub and having some oysters.

Don’t miss the Q&A with Steven Pinker, author of the book The Better Angels of our Nature, which inspired this particular piece.

Briefly, the reason crime is down in the past 20 years: more people in prison, the decline of crack cocaine, and the legalization of abortion. Discuss.

Also, pertaining to our discussion the other day about the limits of common sense, they touch on the fact that crime has fallen in concert with a rise and poverty and our bad economy and that, in fact, that’s almost always what happens.

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