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Quotation of the Day…

… is from page 132 of the 1978 7th edition of Carlo Cipolla’s 1962 book, The Economic History of World Population:

The selective process that favoured the success and the multiplication of the aggressive type [of human being] was certainly not interrupted by the Neolithic Revolution. It continued to operate well into ‘civilized’ times and to a large extent still operates today, when man can command immensely powerful forces, and his efficiency – for good or for evil – has increased in spectacular fashion. A single man or a small group of individuals – as recent history has dramatically demonstrated – can today bring about unspeakable catastrophes that affect not this or that group, this or that region, but the entire world and the entire human species….

It is disturbing to see that still today, even in the most advanced countries, in large sections of human society, aggressiveness is praised as a virtue – or at least as a valuable asset – and it is constantly advertised in the motion pictures and on television. We need a crusade against violence and aggressiveness. We need – more than anything else – to educate people to tolerance and gentility.

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