Hi John

Re: "nasty things have been going on for a long, long time."

I couldn't agree more. But those who want to believe that the world has got less nasty seem to me to be living in an alternate universe. Think of the huge and unprecedented numbers of civilians killed and maimed in the 2nd World War, and the unspeakable evil of the extermination camps. And while, as you say, science has brought many benefits it has also made it possible to kill and maim more people much more quickly, and even to annihilate the human race.

And in the Middle East, of course, we are now even revisiting some earlier forms of barbarism like beheadings and sexual slavery.

So any talk of "cultural evolution" strikes me as hot air, pure and simple. The world according to Pollyanna.