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Author Topic:   Man, a Genetic/Environmental Accident
baloneydetector#zero
Inactive Member


Message 1 of 3 (365155)
11-21-2006 1:19 PM


Man is no further advanced today towards achieving his concept of humanity than he was at the dawn of written history or even as he was at the dawn of man himself. If you don’t believe me, look around, look in your daily newspapers, look at our history for the last hundred years. What do you see:
Now compare what you see to the events recorded in ancient history, in your Bible, in the events deciphered from archeological findings.
Now, can you say that man’s inhumanity to man today is less evident than it was in the past?
No you can’t. Why?
Why, after all our technical advances, can’t we see what’s so damn plain? Oh, we’re well aware of the problems we have today. We have bushels of statistics on crime ranging from petty theft to murder, on mental aberrations ranging from the mildly eccentric to the raving lunatic, etc, etc, . Not so well recorded are the group crimes committed against a people by their loving political and religious leaders (for their own good-of course).
Comparison with the past always suffers because we assume that they (poor people) were less intelligent, less educated, less everything.
So, what do we do today to solve our sociological problems?
Why, we enact new laws, we strengthen law enforcement, and we impose new penalties, confident that these will do the trick.
How naive can we be? If we had paid any attention to our histories, we would realize that these new remedies are as old as written history. If we were not blinded by our own genius, it would be apparent by now that these remedies, both civil and religious, have never worked in the past, do not work now, and will not work in the future.
Why don’t these new-old remedies work? The answer to this question is really simple in the light of today’s psychological and sociological understanding. The answer is that the normal behavior that we are treating with our remedies is a symptom, not a cause. Our remedies are therefor as effective as closing the barn door after the horse got away.
In the past, treating the symptoms was the only way to go since it was the only thing to see.... Today, the psychological, sociological and genetic sciences have identified the cause, and we can no longer logically use that old excuse. But, we still are, and will keep using that old excuse until enough “in power” people get the word.
The cause of our behavior, good or bad, has been traced to a combination of accidents; the genetic accident of our conception, and the environmental accident of our upbringing. The interaction of these two causes and their related effect on behavior can never be analyzed separately. It would be like trying to separate a sculptor’s basic stone from the product, the work of art. In this analogy, the basic stone represents the genetic accident while the environmental accident must be represented by each and every stroke of the sculptor’s chisel.
Now, I’ve been know to do a little fooling around with conception, and I’ve even been taken seriously a few times. But, I wouldn’t touch genetics with a ten-foot pole. I’m perfectly happy to leave that to God and Mother Nature. Of course, there are a few idiots who think they can do better, but, luckily very few of these get into positions of power like Hitler.
No, man is not ready to take the accident out of genetics. No man, or group of men, however benevolent, however intelligent, however anything should have that kind of power over the final destiny of man.
Apparently, the genetic accident is not the cause to which we should direct our attention and remedies.
The only cause remaining is the environmental accident of our bringing up.
You might not agree with the term accident. You might say that educators, civil and religious leaders, and parents try to plan each stroke of the chisel. You might say that, and you be right that they do try. But, try isn’t good enough.
The chisel strokes start in the cradle. How many parents have anything but the foggiest notion about how a child should be brought up? How much of a parent’s education has been directed towards this ultra-important role? None, absolutely none. Conscientious parents seek authorities on the subject and never wonder why they have to. The average parent assumes that since they were not taught how to, it isn’t important how you do it. The careless parent doesn’t give a damn how it gets done as long as they don’t have to be involved.
We now have a firm basis for our environmental accident.
Next come the careless chisel strokes of friends and relatives which compound the accident.
Then comes an education that completely disregards the two most important factors of social life-How to get along happily with the other guy and how to bring up kids.
Now, if you’ve followed the chisel strokes from the cradle to now, I dare you to visualize the end result, our masterpiece, MAN.
If you think that’s bad, consider that each chisel stroke was made without the least consideration as to the characteristic of the basic stone (our genetic accident), sucha a hardness, granular sizes and variations, brittleness, direction of grain if any, etc.
The end result is anything but human. It’s what we see when we look into a mirror-a quivering mass of fears, frustrations, envy, greed, and hate to name but a few.
This is our inheritance, and, I’m sorry to say, our children’s. But, it needn’t be our last will and testament to future generations.
Our parents are no more responsible for what we are than they are for the shape of a blade of grass or for the size of the Atlantic ocean. They not only didn’t know, they couldn’t know, and therefore cannot be blamed.
Our children don’t know, but they sense it. They sense that something is wrong and try to rebel against it or try to escape it.
I think that you and I can safely say that we now know and understand the problem. But, knowing the accidental nature of our environment and it’s possible impact on man’s development does not solve our problem. But, it does permit us to redirect our remedies. Just a little bit of preventative medicine could go a long way towards curing our symptoms.
How can we proceed to take the accident out of the environment to pust man towards his destiny-humanity?
I don’t know the answer, but, I do know that we must start soon before it’s too late. Maybe, through this thread and your help, the answer could originate here an now.
Why not? Think about it, and while your thinking, dream about the result, the complete human being-a man who: does not hate because he has always been loved by all, does not know greed because he has always been shared with by all, does not fear because he has always know gentleness from all.
Think about it-----your neighbor.

baloneydetector#zero

Replies to this message:
 Message 2 by AdminNWR, posted 11-21-2006 2:29 PM baloneydetector#zero has replied

AdminNWR
Inactive Member


Message 2 of 3 (365171)
11-21-2006 2:29 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by baloneydetector#zero
11-21-2006 1:19 PM


Too long, too preachy
This is a discussion board, not a oratorium.
You have mounted the platform, pulled out your megaphone, and you are telling your neighbors what you want them to hear. However, the neighbors might prefer silence, so maybe they will call the town authorities to report you for disturbing the peace.
Instead, why not try inviting your neighbors into your back yard where they can sit around for conversation and coffee.
See if you can shorten your OP, and present it as a discussion topic instead of a sermon. For that, you will need to have some clearly expressed ideas to discuss, and your OP should hint at the position you will attempt to defend on these ideas.


This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by baloneydetector#zero, posted 11-21-2006 1:19 PM baloneydetector#zero has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 3 by baloneydetector#zero, posted 11-21-2006 2:46 PM AdminNWR has seen this message but not replied

baloneydetector#zero
Inactive Member


Message 3 of 3 (365175)
11-21-2006 2:46 PM
Reply to: Message 2 by AdminNWR
11-21-2006 2:29 PM


Re: Too long, too preachy
Sorry about that. I can't make a sandwich with only two pieces of bread. I could, but, noone would like the taste. Please disregard input attempt.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 2 by AdminNWR, posted 11-21-2006 2:29 PM AdminNWR has seen this message but not replied

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