The Better Angels of Our Nature

Introduction to the Decline of Violence

The past is often remembered through a lens that softens its harsh realities, yet a close look at human history reveals a world saturated with violence that would be unrecognizable to the modern mind. Cultural memory tends to bleach away the bloody origins of our heritage, leaving us with a sanitized version of history. For example, a person wearing a cross rarely contemplates that it represents a common instrument of ancient torture. While contemporary headlines about war and terrorism make it feel as though we live in uniquely dangerous times, a tour of our ancestors' lives provides a necessary sanity check. From prehistoric remains to the entertainment of the twentieth century, the evidence suggests that brutality was once a fundamental and celebrated part of daily existence.

Evidence of this pervasive violence is etched into the very bones of our ancestors. When the five-thousand-year-old body of Ötzi the Iceman was discovered in the Alps, initial theories of an accidental death were debunked by forensic evidence showing he had been murdered, with the blood of four different individuals found on his gear. Similarly, Kennewick Man, who lived over nine millennia ago, carried a stone projectile in his pelvis from a prior attack. Bog bodies across Europe frequently show signs of ritualized overkill, where victims were strangled, bludgeoned, and stabbed simultaneously. These remains suggest that in the distant past, the chance of meeting a violent end was remarkably high.

This culture of violence is vividly documented in the foundational texts of Western civilization. The Iliad and the Odyssey depict a world of total war where the goal was often the complete annihilation of a people, down to the infants. In these epics, women were treated as legitimate spoils of war, and celebrated heroes engaged in massacres and rapes that would be classified as war crimes today. The Hebrew Bible is similarly saturated with violence, chronicling a world where genocide is frequently ordered and where the homicide rate is astronomically higher than in any modern nation. While modern scholars view many of these accounts as fictitious, their inclusion in the text reveals that ancient civilizations saw such savagery as acceptable and often divinely mandated.

The Roman Empire further institutionalized cruelty as public spectacle, entertaining audiences with thousands of people torn apart by animals or forced to massacre one another. The preeminent Roman punishment of crucifixion was an orgy of sadism designed to maximize agony over several days. As Europe moved into the medieval and early modern periods, violence remained a constant companion. The knights of Arthurian legend were essentially warlords whose stories are filled with split skulls, severed limbs, and frequent rapes. This brutality extended to the arts and children's entertainment, with original fairy tales filled with cannibalism and mutilation, and popular puppet shows featuring protagonists who casually murdered their families.

A significant shift began to occur as societal sensibilities evolved and the legitimacy of violence was questioned. For centuries, gentlemen felt compelled to risk their lives in duels over minor insults to their reputation, but this institution eventually collapsed because it became an object of ridicule. Martial culture, once flaunted in every public square, has been replaced by memorials that emphasize mourning rather than glory. Sensibilities have shifted so dramatically that behaviors once considered normal, such as a teacher using corporal punishment, are now viewed as abhorrent. We no longer live in a world where torture is a public holiday, marking a significant victory for human security and setting the stage for a broader decline in violence.