Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels of Our Nature"

[Metacrock]

Slight correction, they were Scots-Irish herders.

However, yes. The idea of rule of law wasn't as heavily developed as it was in the North. He quotes one guy as basically saying "America reached democracy too soon." The English institutions were not quite as heavily emphasized there. What didn't help was the fact that one aspect of the American Revolution was about the right to bear arms, particularly against an abusive government (not that the British were particularly abusive at the time......to white males). You could say that English culture on rule of law didn't quite settle in fast enough. The revolution probably helped to solidify that emphasis on self-sufficiency in security.

But yes, that is why vigilantism has a higher tendency to be tolerated (again crime rate is going down overall, but it is still there).

This came from Steven Pinker.

I lkie that he includes nu8rture in with his nature. A lot of reductionists act like it's all genes.