#21 ·
bluemason3 said:It’s not a stretch to say that WW2 was essentially an anomaly. When you look at the entire timeline of human history—from our earliest beginnings through the long stretches of peace followed by various smaller conflicts—those two wars stand out as massive outliers. If you follow your own logic and look at the bigger picture over much longer periods, they’re just statistical deviations.
Even if we brought them into the equation, I’m not sure it would change much. For instance, during WW2, only about 3% of the population was lost. Compare that to the Stone Age—some archaeological findings suggest violent deaths consistently hit double digits, sometimes even topping 50%.
While modern technology certainly serves to obstruct or discourage individual acts of violence, it simultaneously provides the tools necessary for mass slaughter. If one chooses to practice selective blindness regarding the nature of these consequences, one inevitably arrives at flawed conclusions.
bluemason3 said:It’s not a stretch to say that WW2 was essentially an anomaly. When you look at the entire timeline of human history—from our earliest beginnings through the long stretches of peace followed by various smaller conflicts—those two wars stand out as massive outliers. If you follow your own logic and look at the bigger picture over much longer periods, they’re just statistical deviations.
Even if we brought them into the equation, I’m not sure it would change much. For instance, during WW2, only about 3% of the population was lost. Compare that to the Stone Age—some archaeological findings suggest violent deaths consistently hit double digits, sometimes even topping 50%.
Vague references to 'some archaeological data' are, frankly, remarkably imprecise... and I would venture to say that your sudden reach for Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons feels like a rather desperate attempt to salvage your standing in this debate.
One should really compare the frequency of violent deaths in the 20th century to those of the 19th, 18th, or 17th centuries.
And besides, we have barely scratched the surface of the 21st century, yet a certain Nobel Peace Prize winner has already managed to ignite several conflicts... so I truly struggle to identify the source of your manufactured optimism.
Ultimately, if humanity ends up technologically enslaved like drones within the Borg system—which is precisely where current control mechanisms seem to be heading—those individual murders might indeed vanish, but looking at the broader picture, that is hardly something we should celebrate as "progress."