IS THE SKY FALLING?

When I hear and read so much about how times are bad and the world is facing economic crises, a famous fable comes to mind. Remember the story of Chicken Little and The Sky is Falling? This tale dates back as far as 1916 and there are several accounts of it all of which relate to a chicken who believes the world is coming to an end.

The best known version concerns a chick that believes the sky is falling when an acorn falls on its head. The chick decides to tell the King and on its journey other animals (mostly other fowl) join in its quest. From here on, there are many endings. In the most familiar, a fox invites them to its lair and eats them all. In one story, the chick is warned and escapes and in others all the animals are rescued and finally get to speak to the King. The moral to be drawn depends upon the ending. If it is happy, it means not to be chicken and have courage. If the birds are eaten by the fox, the message might be not to believe everything you are told. The important point to be made is that we do not need to accept there is a bad sign indicating a hysterical belief that disaster is imminent.

It is true that the world has experienced devastating wars and shocking crimes to humanity. Yet, I have heard it said that life was much less complicated years ago. Milk was delivered to your house. We listened to the radio and were not couch potatoes drugged by TV. We left our front doors and automobiles unlocked. We enjoyed going for walks without carrying mace to protect us from molesters. In essence, life was much simpler and peaceful years ago.

Just by chance, I came across a very interesting psychologist, Dr. Steven Pinker, a professor at Harvard University. He is a prolific writer who has authored eight books as well as published for the New York Times, Time Magazine and the New Republic. His academic work and research has been devoted to cognition and the mind. However, in more recent years his interests have expanded to the cultural aspects of the human condition. In his latest book, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, published by Viking Press, 2011 he makes the claim that the 21^st century of terrorism in the Middle East, genocide in Darfur, civil war in Somalia represent the least violent era in human history. In this startling book with the help of more than a hundred maps and graphs, he presents some astonishing numbers. Tribal warfare was nine times as deadly as war and genocide in the 20^th century. The murder rate of Medieval Europe was more than thirty times what it is today.

What has happened to bring down substantially the degree of such violence? How could this have happened if human nature has not changed? Pinker asserts that we need to understand the inner demons that pull on us. Humans are challenged to let the better angels steer us to reason. It is our increasing control of impulses and the ability to empathize that reduce the tendency toward violence. The sky is really not falling!