Ep. 1050 - The Closing Of The American Mind

In this book, Ben Shapiro argues that a growing number of Americans are seeking to dismantle the foundations of the United States by canceling its shared history, ideals, and culture. He identifies 'disintegrationists' as those who view American history through the lens of oppression and see its philosophy as flawed. Shapiro warns that if these foundational truths are not upheld, America's future as a cohesive nation is threatened.

In this book, Steven Pinker presents a detailed argument that violence has significantly decreased over the course of human history. He uses extensive data and statistical analysis to demonstrate this decline in various domains, including military conflict, homicide, genocide, torture, and the treatment of children, homosexuals, animals, and racial and ethnic minorities. Pinker identifies four key human motivations – empathy, self-control, the moral sense, and reason – as the 'better angels' that have oriented humans away from violence and towards cooperation and altruism. He also discusses historical forces such as the rise of the state (which he terms 'Leviathan'), the spread of commerce, the growth of feminist values, and the expansion of cosmopolitanism, which have contributed to this decline in violence.