Steven Pinker Quotes About Ideology

Quotes about: Ideology

• An ideology can provide a satisfying narrative that explains chaotic events and collective misfortunes in a way that flatters the virtue and competence of believers, while being vague or conspiratorial enough to withstand skeptical scrutiny.

  Steven Pinker

  Events, Narrative, Way

  "The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined". Book by Steven Pinker, www.huffingtonpost.com. 2011.

• Most wars are not fought over shortages of resources such as food and water, but rather over conquest, revenge, and ideology.

  Steven Pinker

  Revenge, War, Water

  "Steven Pinker: 'Artists used to gush about the beauty of war. The First World War put an end to that'". Interview with Clint Witchalls, www.independent.co.uk. 10 November, 2011.

• I think that communism was a major force for violence for more than 100 years, because it was built into its ideology - that progress comes through class struggle, often violent.

  Steven Pinker

  Struggle, Thinking, Years

  "The Violent Dangers of Ideology". The Economist Interview, www.economist.com. November 03, 2011.

• Climate change could produce a lot of misery and waste without necessarily leading to large-scale armed conflict, which depends more on ideology and bad governance than on resource scarcity.

  Steven Pinker

  Climate, Scarcity, Waste

  "Steven Pinker: 'Artists used to gush about the beauty of war. The First World War put an end to that'". Interview with Clint Witchalls, www.independent.co.uk. November 10, 2011.

• But the 20th century suffered "two" ideologies that led to genocides. The other one, Marxism, had no use for race, didn't believe in genes and denied that human nature was a meaningful concept. Clearly, it's not an emphasis on genes or evolution that is dangerous. It's the desire to remake humanity by coercive means (eugenics or social engineering) and the belief that humanity advances through a struggle in which superior groups (race or classes) triumph over inferior ones.

  Steven Pinker

  Meaningful, Struggle, Believe

  "Q&A: Steven Pinker of 'Blank Slate'". Interview with Steve Sailer, www.upi.com. October 30, 2002.

• As long as your ideology identifies the main source of the world's ills as a definable group, it opens the world up to genocide.

  Steven Pinker

  Long, Groups, World

• Technology, ideology, and social and cultural changes periodically throw out new forms of violence for humanity to contend with.

  Steven Pinker

  Technology, Humanity, Violence

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