As science stands today, the genes are only the
hardware that cannot function without the software;
and the software depends on the social/cultural/
emotional environment. If M.Thatcher, Hitler etc.'d
had a decent, warm, secure upbringing - then there
would have been somebody else to fill their place;
there would have been still wars and attrocities
committed in the name of "race" and "country"
but in actuality in the name of capitalist competition for
markets - in this old century of ours.
Eva
Jay Hanson wrote:
Tor Førde:
But about 10.000 years ago a catastrophe happened: agriculture was
developed. And from then on began humans to suffer from malnutrition,
starvation and suppression.
Diamond says that there once was a garden of Eden, but he does not say
that we are born sinners in any way, unlike what Jay Hanson says.
Are you saying that people were "good" until attacked and corrupted
by "agriculture"? GBut "agriculture" didn't invade Earth from outer
space, we invented it -- it's in our genes.
Jay www.dieoff.com
Maybe we can all agree: *Everything* that any living
being ("lebendiges Gewesen"(sp?)) has ever been or done
is in our genes.
That would include Hitler, Stalin, the Talibans(sp?)
in Afghanistan, all the noble savages (and the less noble ones...).
Husserl, Darwin, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Oprah,
Linda Tripp, Dolly [Sheep] --
and my own maternal grandfather who looked and acted (and
thought? --yes, he did have at least rudimentary
language) like a Neanderthal (stereotype, not science!).
When I think about him, I am reminded that the retreat of the
glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age was not (and
"the ascent of man" is not...) uniform As I grow
older I am painfully reminded that no person can rise
above their "background" -- for though I read Husserl,
converse with "you folks", create art, etc.,
my flesh grows barnacles (dermatological excrescences).
Therefore I mean it "personally" when I quote Abel
Gance ("The only thing that somewhat relieves the
degradations of aging is to create.") and Husserl (to the
effect that the life of the mind depends on securing
peaceful everyday life, "The spirit alone lives, all
else dies", etc.) and others.
It's *all* (and innumerable other possible lives, better
and worse, which I have not in fact lived...)
"in my genes"
\brad mccormick
--
Mankind is not the master of all the stuff that exists, but
Everyman (woman, child) is a judge of the world.
Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua, NY 10514-3403 USA
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