Today we take it for granted that war happens in smaller, poorer and more backward countries.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the common perception that wars occur predominantly in less developed nations.
Steven Pinker highlights a critical observation about modern perceptions of warfare, suggesting that many people believe conflicts are confined to smaller, economically struggling nations. This mindset may overlook the complexities of global dynamics and the historical factors that contribute to war, as well as the responsibility of more developed nations in these conflicts.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about international relations to highlight misconceptions about global conflicts.
The foundation of individual rights is the assumption that people have wants and needs and are authorities on what those wants and needs are. If people's stated desires were just some kind of erasable inscription or reprogrammable brainwashing, any atrocity could be justified.
The linguistic clumsiness of tourists and students might be the price we pay for the linguistic genius we displayed as babies, just as the decrepitude of age in the price we pay for the vigor of youth.
If we are not to abandon values such as peace and equality, or our commitments to science and truth, then we must pry these values away from claims about our psychological makeup that are vulnerable to being proven false.
We adults protect ourselves with laws, police, workplace regulations and social norms and there is no conceivable reason why children should be left more vulnerable, other that laziness or callousness in considering what life is like from their point of view.
The idea that children are passive repositories to be shaped by their parents has been massively overstated. A child's peer group is a far greater determinant of its development and achievements than parental aspiration.
Reason is non-negotiable. Try to argue against it, or to exclude it from some realm of knowledge, and you've already lost the argument, because you're using reason to make your case. ... We don't "believe" in reason.
She tried to pray, but she had only ever prayed at night, and it seemed to her that the moons made poor protectors when angels chose to hunt by day.
The end of a melody is not its goal; but nonetheless, if the melody had not reached its end it would not have reached its goal either. A parable.
People hear 'Africa' and they think about charitable commercials, or safari tours and animals. It's our responsibility to help change that perspective.
When there is in nature no fixed condition, how much less must there be in the life of a people, beings endowed with mobility and movement!
There is in stillness oft a magic power To calm the breast when struggling passions lower, Touched by its influence, in the soul arise Diviner feelings, kindred with the skies.
Scrape the surface of language, and you will behold interstellar space and the skin that encloses it.
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