John Gray on Stephen Pinker's book. His bleak views inform my own. I heard Gray on the radio a while ago and was surprised and pleased that he seemed such a good humoured fellow, which I really hadn't expected after reading his book, 'Straw Dogs'.
Instead of becoming ever stronger and more widely spread, civilisation remains inherently fragile and regularly succumbs to barbarism. This view, which was taken for granted until sometime in the mid-18th century, is so threatening to modern hopes that it is now practically incomprehensible.
I wouldn't like to pit myself against either Pinker or Gray, but I'm sure the both of them understand a lot more about peace than the still uneducated charlatan Rawat.
