[ExI] Death follows European contact (Mirco Romanato)

[William Flynn Wallace]

Just what errors are there?  Gimme page numbers and I'll write Pinker
directly.

Current wars are of course not included in the vast amount of data he
presents.

Problem:  the Pinker effect has been going on now for a few hundred years,
most of which was lead-free.  Still, 20% of the variance is no small
thing.  A Pearson r of .40 often is quite satisfactory in psychological
studies.

 I suspect that as people get safer, they commit less violence and that may
turn off some genes, which can be passed on to their offspring a la the
epigenetic effect.  Pinker mentions epigenetics but not much, and most of
what we know about it (as far as I know) has been gathered in the last few
years.  bill w




 One scathing commentator described Pinker's article -
>>
>> This optimistic theme coincides with the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
>> laureate's ongoing wars on at least four continents (Asia, Africa,
>> Europe, and South America) and the US military's spread to more than
>> eight hundred bases worldwide; the US-led NATO bloc's rapid
>> post-Soviet growth and proclamation of "out-of-area" responsibilities;
>> and the United States' declaration of a right to kill its "enemies"
>> anywhere on the planet.
>> Such a propaganda windfall for the imperial bloc could only be
>> purchased with a denial of reality. Indeed, it is in the ideological
>> and error-ridden narrative with which Pinker sustains this denial for
>> more than eight hundred pages that the book's real appeal lies.
>> ------------
>>
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