War is, unfortunately, a natural phenomenon in the human species. In fact, we only know two animal species that make war: Man and Chimpanzee!
What is, fortunately, less normal is the low mortality rate of armed conflict in the digital age.
The war is currently the 40th cause of death in the world with about 180 000 deaths per year. With a population of 7.2 billion people, this is a rate of 0.0024% per year.
In the hunter-gatherer era, this rate was estimated at 0.5%, or 208 times more than today.
Among the few surviving hunter-gatherer tribes, two thirds are constantly in tribal wars and 90% of these societies are at war at least once a year. Among hunter-gatherers, about 25-30% of men could expect to die in a violent manner.
In comparison, during the Second World War, which was the greatest conflict of all time, the mortality rate was about 0.4% per year. It is estimated that about 60 million people lost their lives during the six years of the conflict.
In 2018, with a mortality rate of 0.5% per year, it was about 37.5 million people who died each year in armed conflicts, more than the population of Canada (36.7 million in 2017).
Decidedly, we have at least 208 times more good reasons to live in the digital age.
Sources:
- The Economist, Dec 19th 2007
- Https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/12-581-x/2018000/pop-fra.htm
- Https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortalit%C3%A9_dans_le_monde
- Https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pertes_humaines_pendant_la_Seconde_Guerre_mondiale