The ceaseless ugliness of the news notwithstanding, the Great Pacification continues.  Check out Wikipedia’s latest map of Ongoing Military Conflicts, circa October 2012.

war.jpg

The minor wars are usually dwarfed by private crime.  Even most of the major wars would have seemed minor thirty years ago.  Out of the “major” wars, only the Syrian Civil War and the Mexican Drug War exceeded 10,000 fatalities for the year.  Throughout the rest of the world, government has virtually abandoned its historic pastime of organized murder. 

If you don’t feel grateful, you should.  Yes, things could get worse.  At some point, they almost certainly will for a spell.  But the utopian dream of peace on earth now looks amazingly realistic.  Who knows?  We might abolish war before we get driverless cars!