professor pinker just before the break we were talking about this link or rather conscience between democracy and violence and i would like to proceed a bit further you make a point in your book that the worst outbreaks of violence are often much motivated by idealistic moralistic belief system something that you call utopian ideologies and we can definitely see some elements of that in what is happening in the middle east much of the violence there or at least some of the violence there is fueled by militant islam but some of the western governments in the beginning of that struggle supported those forces because probably they believed that was the better or the best way of reading that region from dictatorships and bringing about democracy and i wonder if we can add democracy at least they expand chinese democracy of the kind of styles by george w. bush to that at least a few topi an ideology is on par with communism on par with nazism on par with militant religion's you know the ideologies that can ultimately lead to an increase in violence. i don't think so because i think the t

american states case could marry they say you're crazy that's utopian that's a dream but professor pinker you just mentioned this reversal of attitudes in the united states and i think it's true that it happened extremely quickly i mean if we compare that to some of the other contentious social issues like women's rights or . let's say universal suffrage. the change of heart on the issue of homosexuality and even same sex marriage was surprisingly quick it took less than a decade but in many other countries european countries we see a backlash against that in terms of people trying to productive additional family values well that was true of the united states until very very recently in fact united states is really not in the lead when it comes to gay rights or most progressive social issues it's the countries of western and northern europe that are in the lead in the united states is actually a little bit behind but what happens is the debate that you just mentioned has taken place in the united states and if people are free to hash out their disagreements to have the debate i think it t

and here this is exactly what one of the world's leading intellectuals believes professor steven pinker laid out his argument in his two thousand and eleven book the better angles of our nature and he joins me now on the walls apart professor pinker thank you very much for being on the show it's a great honor for me so thanks for having me now we're recording this program on a monday just a few hours after the news broke about four harvard buildings being evacuated to due to a possible bomb threat and so far no explosives have been found but i wonder if you could update us on what is happening on campus. no much as far as i can tell. most of the activity is from journalists there's a news helicopter flying overhead there are television trucks everywhere i see reporters on several corners but nothing has actually happened in any harvard building according to the latest report that i got on my e-mail and i also know that some of the final exams have been scheduled for today i wonder if i don't know some student who may be falling behind on his studies do you think however students are cap

the facilities student exams had been underway at that university at the time a professor steven pinker who heads the psychology department at harvard says threats of violence against education institutions often come from former students . it may be that so many people especially young people have actually attended an educational institution that if they have some kind of grievance or if there are people who have insulted them that's where they will find them and most violence is committed by young people and young people are fresh out of school. indeed as you can see they can watch that full interview worlds apart exam the boy current. plenty of psychological perspective there on some key global issues. funny for this half hour in italy riot police clashed with students who were angry at spending cuts in education offices charge the protesters to try and break them up activists then threw red dye into the public fountain in regional government offices to symbolize public schools being bled of their funding the head of the libertarian think tank based in milan alberta maine gandhi says

to evacuate the facilities student examinations been underway at the university professor steven pinker here's the psychology department harvard says threats of violence against education educational institutions often come from former students. it may be that so many people especially young people have actually attended an educational institute so that if they have some kind of grievance or if there are people who have insulted them that's where they will find them a most violence is committed by young people and young people are fresh out of school. and just like you know you can watch the full interview with xander boyd had plenty of insight there on the root causes of violence and social unrest. now sort of mentally riot police clashed with students who were angry at spending cuts on education officers charged the protesters to try and break them up earlier activists then threw red dye into a public fountain of regional government offices to symbolize public schools being bled of their funding the head of a libertarian think tank based in milan alberta been gardy says the students o

community or native american community, that persons hard earned wealth would go to an asian known to pinker or chinese owned bank. that bank invests in the chinese businesses in that community. when he gets his money and comes home he goes to the grocery store and that chinese owned grocery store invests in chinese business people that put their products on the shelf. everyone in that store is chinese and there are people from the outside community, too. so the money that they make is contributing to the local tax base, keeping the properties up and keeping the community programs in the schools funded. we don't have the benefit of all of those basic things in the black community. the other piece the numbers don't represent is that that chinese kid gets to go to that chinese curse of a store and see that chinese owner and think i can be a business person. black kids can go their whole life and never see a business owner that looks like them. they go into the store and all the customers are black but when they go to apply for a job or they just look at the owner they will see someone who does