Fight Club #27: Better Angels

Pinker wrote one of my favorite books we have ever read at Fight Club.  It was massively researched and clearly written.  There are three stances on human progress that I can think of:

1. Stasis: there is nothing new under the sun, the human condition remains constant generation after generation.  Any artifacts that are new (such as technology or culture) are really just ephemera and don't do more than distract us from the fundamentals: you're born, you strive for resources while fortune distributes as she sees fit, you make friends/enemies/lovers/family, suffering happens, you expire.
2. Adaptation: the world changes every year due to Nature and mankind's effects, and as populations and societies grow larger and more sophisticated, the human condition adapts to the new environment every year, but there is no absolute progress in humankind over the centuries, because you can't compare the conditions across time.
3. Progress: there is real, measurable, absolute progress in the human condition.

Pinker's book gives evidence for Progress.  Human life has become less violent overall over time.