In 800 meticulously argued and documented pages, Pinker shows that, over the course of history, there has been a dramatic decline in violence, both domestically and internationally – and that this downward trend is continuing through the post-Cold War years. But the response of many reviewers to Pinker’s work has been incomprehension, denial, or a tenacious focus on individual horror stories, as though they somehow change the larger picture.
在800页精心的举证和记录中，平克告诉人们在历史的长河中，国内和国际暴力活动均呈现大幅下降之势——这样的下降之势在冷战后仍然得以延续。但很多评论家既不理解、也不承认平克的著作，或者固执地将关注的重点放在个人的恐怖故事，就好像这些恐怖故事能以某种方式改变大局。