Kuresu writes:
Oh geez, how many wars is the US responsible for in the past century? How many wars have we actually fought in the past century? It doesn't really matter if we haven't had any wars within our own borders, because that does no measure non-aggression. It simply means no one is really capable of attacking us on our own land.
In reference to the US, not since WW2. May have something to do with nuclear deterrence.
Are you familiar with the wars Britain has fought in? Has actually had to fight within her own borders?
The UK sure had plenty of wars within such borders prior to Culloden. There are plenty of instances where thousands of troops fought each other over who should be the CEO of Britain.
Sweden's an anomaly, but they got awful close in WWII, and they were basically Hitler's dog in terms of troop transit and war goods until he was losing the war. Had they put up firmer resistance, Sweden would not have stood.
A perceptive and historically backed observation.
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So let me repeat: we are not any less aggressive than we were even a century ago, never mind 6000 years ago. If anything, we are more aggressive.
That depends entirely by who is meant by 'we.' Are China and India included in this 'we?'
Here is a decent approximation of actual casualties due to war, political and ethnic violence, genocide, famine, and the direct demands of human sacrifice among some religions. Unfortunately, it does not cover most deep past examples of anything other than war casualties due to lack of data.
Perhaps a deeper examination of the data may lead to a different conclusion, particularly when viewed in terms of percentage of population, rather than raw numbers.
To me the data indicates most all humans at any time in history are capable of both massive violence and cruelty, regardless of geography. I see no modern trend toward Europeans being more 'evil' or indeed as a percentage of the population, more 'cruel' than anyone else on this planet.
I vote for modern democracies within the last 100 years being less likely to start wars or engage in genocide, perhaps you would like to argue otherwise in the appropriate thread.
{ABE} (to all, not Kuresu) Or more to the point of the thread, how did Darwin cause the An Shi Rebellion, the Mongol Empire, the Taiping Rebellion, Timur, Napoleon, The Thirty Year's War, or the Yellow Turban Rebellion, just to start? I'm all ears (eyes).
Edited by anglagard, : Attempt to be on topic
Read not to contradict and confute, not to believe and take for granted, not to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider - Francis Bacon
The more we understand particular things, the more we understand God - Spinoza