“On this shrunken globe, men can no longer live as strangers.”

—Adlai Stevenson, 20th Century American lawyer, politician, & diplomat

Image from PBS.org

The Violence Paradox is one of the recent PBS episodes on the Emmy-award winning series, Nova. Although the title doesn’t indicate light TV viewing, I felt compelled to allocate two hours to consider its message.

Over the past few years, I’ve seen far too many examples of violence on local and national media outlets. The phrase If it Bleeds, it Leads, is more true than ever, given the hyper-competitive efforts to get and hold our attention.

Surprisingly, I learned in watching the Nova episode that in many ways our world is far safer and less violent than at any time in human history. This is based on actual data and not simply our perception of danger around every corner.

EXERCISE:

Invest some time to evaluate The Violence Paradox for yourself, and see the methods that are being employed to reduce our “stranger danger” perspective of our shrinking world.

What personal efforts can and will you take to bring greater peace to your personal and professional communities?