Description:
Drawing on the knowledge accumulated in social and political psychology, this book scrutinizes the rise in destructive conflicts in recent years and the use of violence as a means to power. The book also addresses the imperfections of liberal institutions, which can exacerbate these divides, providing crucial context for understanding contemporary political tensions and their effects on the world's democracies.
"For a very long period of human history, direct physical violence used to be one of the main means of obtaining power, wealth, and prestige, as well as social control, socialization of children and regulation of social relations. Human societies were also developing various ways of controlling and curtailing direct violence, primarily the in-group one. Major changes in the social functions of violence were associated with the development of liberal thought and liberal institutions - the free market and the democratic political system. Liberal culture and liberal mentality have delegitimized all kinds of physical violence, except as defence of human rights and freedoms"--