Growing identity

In a video cast on TED, Steven Pinker argues that we humans have never lived in such peaceful times, i.e. that violence and aggression has been decreasing for many hundreds of years. Living in Europe, there are still many traces of the many wars between different "tribes" and this made me remember a conversation I had last weekend with a person that grew up imediatly after the world war. He was saying that their highest goal was to have a roof on top and something to eat. Now, our generation must be living in great times, he was arguing. I answered that nowadays the challenge is the quest for identity, as we can easily get lost in the sea of information, certainly in a global world where borders are vanishing. The hierarchy of roles is lowered, and who you want to be, what you want to do, what stories you are going to tell, maybe is equally challenging as finding a place to cover for the rainy days.