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www.groovekorea.com / January 2014 4 GivinG thanks for a peaceful new ye ar Rejoice. The world is more peaceful than ever before. Violence — the black specter that has stalked our species since its inception — is frail. We walk forward into a new year of peace, of informa- tion-sharing, of cross-cultural understanding. Of course, you wouldn’t know it from watching the news. War and murder are there on the front pages, on the cable news net- works, as always. But their reports are the cries of a scaremon- ger. Canadian scientist Steven Pinker shares the real picture. In 2012, Pinker published his masterpiece, “The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined.” Pinker realized that, contrary to popular belief, the world was in the midst of a decline in violence. He detailed that decline and the reasons for it in his 832-page tome. The gist of Pinker’s book is that for the last several hundred years, rates of all kinds of violence have been slowly declining. The decline became more rapid in the second half of the 20th century. Maybe the most shocking comparisons in the book are between rates of past and current war-related deaths. Between 15 and 30 percent of humans in prehistoric societies could expect to die in war; the modern American has around a .0004 percent chance, and the modern Korean an even lower chance. Murder rates have plummeted across the world. For example, about 100 people out of 100,000 were murdered in Italy in the 1400s. It dropped to 10 per 100,000 in the 1800s. It is now .9 per 100,000. Other kinds of viole nce — child abuse, spousal abuse, racial violence, rape and animal cruelty — have also seen dramatic drops in most parts of the world. Pinker goes into great detail in his effort to explain why violence has declined. He writes that it’s a combination of factors: the development of strong state governments, economic coopera- tion between states, democratization in government, education, and collective changes in attitude toward violence, among others. The causes are varied, but the result is clear: Humans have been working toward a less violent world for hundreds of years, and are currently at the crest of a wave of nonviolence — a wave that may never break. There are outliers, of course, places that are still violent in com- parison with most of the world (Colombia, for instance, has a mur- der rate about 15 times greater than Korea’s. But even Colombia has seen its murder rate halve in the last 10 years). We happen to live in a country that is a peace leader. Korea’s homicide rate is about half that of the United States, and by historical standards, exceptionally low. We are free to walk our cities without suspicion, to exchange ideas and goods with people from other cultures, to speak our minds without fear of violent reprisal. So again, I say, rejoice. Acknowledge that we are living in a world that is far less violent than the world our ancestors lived in. Be uplifted. As we step into 2014, give thanks that our world and our species — at least in that way — is better. Music & Arts Seoul Shindig: The most eccentric party in town On certain nights at a little club in Hongdae, you’ll hear and see some- thing different from the norm. Hidden among the rows of loud restau- rants and clubs pumping out sugary sweet K-pop and throbbing dance hits is a little building with a different kind of soundtrack. Inside it’s a little dark, a little dusty and features a soundtrack that most clubs would never dream of playing. At Club Myoung Wol Gwan, the songs of yesterday make the soundtrack to fuel the party. A little bit of Motown and a little bit of British rock: If it’s from decades ago and fun to dance to, it’ll most likely be played here. This isn’t a normal club and this isn’t a normal party. This is Seoul Shindig, where music and nostalgia keep the party going long into the night. Story by Kyle James Hovanec Read it online in January or in print in February Destinations By way of Uzbekistan “Silk Road” is a misnomer, as there were actually many routes and detours linking China to the Mediterranean. The original import-export superhighway, the Silk Road took traders through Mongolia, Uzbeki- stan, Afghanistan and Persia on the way to the West. Silk was a major trading good, along with spices, artifacts and technologies. The most famous trader was Marco Polo. Samarkand was the largest market on the old Silk Road, and was pilfered by Alexander the Great and Genghis Kahn. Marco Polo de - scribed it as a large and splendid city, my reason to go there. After visiting the large and splendid city, the idea was to cross the Kyzyl Kum Desert to Bukhara, with its turquoise-domed mosques and fortress, and from there to push north toward the Kazakh border, following the Amu Darya River to the Aral Sea before it dried out. Story by Jean Poulot Read it online in January or in print in February Hot on: www.groovekoreA.com By Josh Foreman, food and destinations editor Editorial To comment, email editor@groovekorea.com EDITORIAL Despite what the news says, violence is DeclininG
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