Quote Originally Posted by Alec Horan View Post
See Below............


Steven Pinker on the myth of violence | Video on TED.com


Fair enough Alec, I watched the video you posted. I am familiar with Pinker's work and I've read my Hobbes as well, and I can say that I do generally agree with Pinker's presentation and overall conclusion, that violence as a general aspect of human existence has been on a long and steeply decining slope since the earliest days of human history.

But I think that while this is all true and backed with good statistics, good information and sound reasoning, the analysis by Pinker is a bit too broad when it comes to addressing the original topic of this thread. It was, at the very least, implicitly understood (if not explicitly stated) that the topic of the thread and the ensuing discussion was on the increase of anti-social behaviour in the modern Irish context. An increase is violent acts in Ireland for a comparatively short time and in such a small country would hardly even come up as a 'blip' on the radar when held up to the backdrop of all of human history.

But that does not mean that there hasn't been some kind of increase in anti-social behaviour in Ireland since, shall we say, 5 years ago. And perhaps it wouldn't even necessarily be correct to say that there has been any kind of real increase in the frequency of such incidences, but perhaps the best way to describe the changes that people see is in the nature and the level of hostility being displayed within those acts has seemed to increase in recent times. I am of this opinion, as I've witnessed changes in peoples attitudes and behaviours within this time frame. Perhaps your own personal experience has been different, and fair enough if that is the case.