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Eds Jonathan S Olshaker, M Christine Jackson, William S Smock
Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, £75, pp 320
ISBN 0 7817 3144 5
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Evolution is a wonderful thing, but even Darwin would be disappointed by the characteristics shown by the current market leaders. Almost uniquely in nature, we exhibit the ability to inflict severe and damaging physical and sexual violence on each other, for reasons not involving our own survival or territorial dominance. Something has gone badly wrong.
A recent BMJ editorial suggested banning the use of the word "accident" on the grounds that injury results from events that are predictable and preventable, rather than by chance (BMJ 2001;322:1320-1321). There is certainly nothing unexpected about the scale of interpersonal violence, endemic worldwide, with universally recognisable...