Traditionally, prior to the 20th century the world was relatively violent in various practices, activities, and beliefs pertaining to how people lived back then. However, where it was once a lack of understanding or discipline in how we should behave, act, or resolve conflicts, moving into the modern day the act of cruelty against humanity and evil displayed by individuals are not done due to a lack of understanding, but more so done with knowing or having a negligence to what we are doing, which make the issue concerning. In Steven Pinker’s TED talk, he argues that today we live in a better world and we are much more peaceful to which he is partially correct in stating, however, an argument can be made that the ways in how during the 20th …show more content…
Unlike Hitler, who openly murdered the Jews, Stalin’s involvement in the murder of millions are the results of political decisions, terror, and oppression. Stalin’s notions of “collectivizing” Russia would “destroy” the “autonomy” Russia’s peasant had established since the Russian revolution (Keefe, pg.1). A push to make Russia industrialized and the decisions that were made by Stalin would have devastating effects on the people of Russia. The main reason why Russian leaders had serious incentives to make their economy stronger was to rival Western economies, but unlike the West, Russia had forced its citizens to do what their told to make this a reality (Keefe, pg.1). At the time Stalin was in office he had proposed two five-year plans to transition Russia into a modern industrial economy, however, it came the expense of brutal oppression, forced labor, and millions of deaths to all which initially were spread through propaganda messages that incited national pride among many and was in a sense “successful” in achieving “increased production” but would come at the cost of devastating the Russian peoples’ living conditions (Keefe, pg.1). The process of collectivization from the 1927 to the 1930s and beyond lead to “cataclysmic “famines in Russia, killing anywhere from “five to six million” or more people per famine (Keefe, p.2). The Russian peasant class were severely oppressed as their rights, property, and work were taken away from them through fear and intimidation. In general, as with Zedong’s political decisions, Stalin’s decisions to make Russia an industrialized economy neglected certain aspects of the economy, which caused a shortage of food supplies that lead to famines. Notably, the government's reaction to the famines in Russia had been nothing as Stalin did not seek to aid those in need of