>> while deranged world leaders measure each other's manhood by "mine's bigger than yours
> Not much has changed in 70 years.
Well, that's not entirely true... At least, with regards to nuclear arsenals and weaponry, the last few decades have been marked by a substantial reduction by the original nuclear powers.
(Granted, there has also been some uptake, most notably India and Pakistan.)
One of my profs in Uni said that it was difficult to find more than a few years in recorded history without active war.
I would argue there has fundamentally been change post WWII, and that is (1) the MAD doctrine--which limits active war--as well as (2) the push towards borderless states / globalization--i.e. even though Sweden is defined as sovereign, the institutions of the world dictate that if it doesn't do what the US says--whether that be torturing suspects at the US's demands[1] or taking down websites--they don't have much of a choice.
During WWII the drive for technology was extreme because of the threat of being conquered. And throughout all of human history our ancestors lived with this threat. We don't really have this threat anymore.
There is a Keynes quote, where he put it, "it is better for man to toil over their bank accounts than each other." Our wars are kind of laughably phony, and the real battle is over numbers in bank accounts--which seems to be the only reason we go to war now anyways (for all parties involved).
We do have a new kind of religion we are all following in a way in the sense that money and dieties are only endowed with whatever faith or meaning we give them. And in makes sense to do it because they've set it up so the rewards and punishments are as such.
So in a way I think this can be seen as the world'd largest and most successful social engineering project in history. I think it is a fundamental change in the nature of our masters.
I'd say something has changed since we're currently experiencing one of the most prolonged periods of peace in the last 2000 years (Europe) [1] and generally the world over [2]. This could be because the "price" of conflict has gone up, but still, it is something to think about.
Except for that bit where we had a major war in former Yugoslavia.
The EU is the one thing that stands between more war in Europe and where we are today. Quite a few forces are acting to split it up. Let's hope it is robust enough to withstand those attacks.
This hasn't been much more peaceful than the century following the Napoleonic Wars, which makes a lot of the political grandstanding going on terrifying.
That does not change the fact that life for the average human today is, on the whole, more peaceful than at any point in recorded history. It is all too easy to lose track of this when you hear about all the horrific happening around the world every day
It's more than just for the average westerner, but also for the average human, isn't it?
According to this, the absolute number of war-related deaths around the world has been decreasing for decades now. This is especially amazing since we've been experiencing a massive population increase since WW1.
That's a fascinating chart. Yes, it shows that war deaths have been decreasing for decades, but it contradicts that great-grandparent's claim that "life for the average human today is more peaceful than at any point in recorded history". Looking at the red line, it seems that there have been many peaks and valleys in the last 600 years. We're in a local valley (more peaceful period) right now, but it doesn't suggest a long-term trend to me.
In terms of elemental psychology, probably not. But the weapons have changed, and moving from conventional to nuclear weapons is a sort of phase shift.
Not much has changed in 70 years.