The Genetic Argument: Understanding that Social Advancement is our Collective Responsibility

American neuroscientist, Dr. Robert Sapolsky, states that there is a widespread and dangerous notion that has taken root in our dominant scientific understanding of human behavior.  The notion is we believe that human behavior is genetically determined.  This deterministic view of life suggests life is rooted in biology and genetics, that we are our genes, and that genes cannot be changed.  This notion is used to support the view that human nature is governed by an innate self-interest, a trait we developed through evolution.  This notion suggests that mental health conditions, addictions, most of our physical disease, and or violence could be explained in respect to our genetic inheritance.  This is a dangerous notion because if we suppose this to be true we do not have to worry about changing the social pre-conditions that fosters social dysfunction.

Dr. Gabor Mate, a physician and addiction specialist, states that this is the "genetic argument."  It allows us the luxury of ignoring past and present historical and social factors as they relate to our modern day social ills.  Dr. Mate, Dr. Sapolsky, and others, believe that the genetic argument is a cop out.

"Most complex conditions might have a predisposition that has a genetic component, but a predisposition is not the same as a per-determination." - Dr. Gabor Mate

Gabor Mate suggests that no condition is solely genetically determined.  He understands that there is a genetic influence, but his claim is that the environment in which we live in and take part in determines, ultimately, which genes will express themselves and which will not.  In support of this claim he highlighted a breast cancer study that found that for every 100 women with breast cancer, only 7 of these women will carry the breast cancer gene.  And out of all the women who do have the breast cancer gene, not all of them will get breast cancer.  It would seem logical then to state that the stressful and toxic environment in which we live has a greater influence over the development of breast cancer than the genetic influence itself.

Given our stressful way of life we allow our genetic predispositions for violence, apathy, and greed to explode into epidemic proportion.  I will go into the social institutional influences in a latter post, but as we start to explore this topic I suggest we start looking at the importance of childhood.  British researcher, Richard Wilkinson, states that child rearing strongly effects gene expression.  I feel that Dr. Mate and Dr. Sapolsky would agree.  It is scientific fact that within the first five years of life most of our neuronal connections undergo development [source].  Childhood is the point in the human lifespan where we are most susceptible to the ills of our society.

There is a term in neuroscience called Neural Darwinism.  The term suggests that the brain circuits that get the appropriate input from the environment will develop optimally, and if these neural circuits do not get the proper input they will not develop properly or at all.  So for example, if you put a child with perfectly good eyesight at birth in a dark room for five years this child will be blind for the remainder of his or her life.  This is because the circuits for vision require light waves for their development.  Without this light the vision circuits become weak and eventually die [source].

In a significant way our early experiences shape our adult behavior and dispositions.  Note that physical input, as well as emotional input, from the environment influences neuronal development and gene expression within children.  So therefore, if children are not raised in a way where they are safe and compassionately engaged they grow up to see the world as an insecure and untrusting place.  They become "wired" this way.

Each parental experience is the gateway into future, not only for their offspring, but for their community and beyond.  I understand we live a stressful life, but our adversity as parents is passed onto children.  Our emotional disposition, after a stressful day, gets passed onto our children.  How nurturing or how apathetic we our towards our children paints the picture of how children will develop to see, experience, and relate to the world.  Our genomes can be expressed in a multitude of ways.  Some genes become activated while others stay dormant.  Yet this process depends on how we develop within our environment after birth [as well as while we are in the womb].  That is why parenting is one of the most important social responsibilities.

We need to understand that our societies most violent criminals were victims of forms of substantial child abuse.  Violent people are not just violent because they are "wired" that way.  Society breeds violence.  Communities breed violent people.  People breed violent people.  And if we are going to progress socially we need to all become responsible for the way in which our society operates.

We need to realize that we pattern our social and political arrangements according to the dominant vision of our physical reality.  And as it stands now our dominant view of reality is that people are "the way god made them," or that "they just are the way they are," or that a person is mentally ill because their "disease" is "genetically determined."  For how long are we going to stay in denial and stay stubborn?  Isn't it time to observe and question our dominant views of reality?  If we are going to create a great society we need to.

The Buddha argued that everything depends on everything else.  The "leaf contains the sun, the sky, and the Earth." And in terms of human development and progress everything is connected.  The same goes with genetic expression.  Our genetic expression changes in tandem with the evolution of our collective social ideologies.

There is undoubtedly a genetic contribution as to how we respond to our environment, but there is also something about the human experience that gives us power over inheritance.  That power exist in the form of awareness and choice.  Herein lies our ability to influence the evolution of our species.  I feel that this is a moral dilemma because it has to do with our collective will and intention.

Essentially, we are one human community and if we do not take individual and communal responsibility for the ills we see in society we will never progress and move forward out of this violent and cruel dog eat dog world.  It is not our inherent nature to be purely self interested.  So I ask all of us, myself included, can we expand our perceptions and take responsibility for what we see?  At this critical juncture in human civilization it is of utmost importance to do the best we can to create supportive, nurturing, and symbiotic environmental structures if we want the prosperous future we really desire


Links to the researchers in this post:
Dr. Gabor Mate
Dr. Robert Sapolsky
Dr. Richard G. Wilkinson

Social Evolution is About Personal Evolution

In the same way that we must question our personal intentions and behaviors to grow so to do we need to question the social intentions and behaviors of our current society.  The two are never separate.

Growth and moving forward begins the moment we summon the courage to create change in our lives.  Courage is a universal phenomena.  It is something we all muster up in times of challenge.  The challenges and travails we endure as individuals we also endure as a collective society and no longer do I see personal growth as solely "personal."  It is our narcissism that keeps us solely focused on our individual troubles.  Yet I believe this narcissism is born from the standards of our cultural ethic.  It is not something we can really blame ourselves about.  Yet without awareness of this we fail to see that our individual problems stem from the fact that our cultural ethic condones a life of isolation, fear for survival, the need for comparison, as well as a multitude of other ways of being that diminish our quality of life.  And in the same way that we are numb to the disastrous effects that the corporate state is having on the planet, so to are we numb to the fact that this corporate state and the life it espouses is detrimental to us as individuals.

Our cultural ethic tells us we never have enough and that the only way to secure our personal need is to compete against each other.  This fear driven ethic is simply not working anymore.  We may not see that there is a way out.  And if we are wealthy enough we find ways to not have empathy for those who are suffering.  But without questioning and inquiring into the possibility of a new way of life, at both the individual level and at the social level, we condone a spiritual death that eventually consumes the entire soul of humanity.

What I am attempting to do with my writing is to encourage you to think for yourself and question standard cultural assumptions.  For example, question to yourself, what is "progress" at the social level?  Is progress all about how we create greater sums of profit?  But hasn't profiteering off the destruction of our ecosystems had devastating global consequences?  The dominant cultural ethic suggests to us that our advancements in technology, medicine, and production out weight the consequences of their proliferation.  Yet, a race that is not mature enough to use advanced technology destroys itself.  A race that does not allow its greatest medical achievements to reach everyone, because it is a for-profit industry, leaves millions bankrupt and or dead prematurely.  We need to look at this reality if we are to grow as individuals.

What ever happened to the idea that progress is the creation of a communal ethic that creates harmony out of the empathy we feel for each other?

Real individual growth is all about being aware to the fact that our lives are inseparable and thus creating a society that allows for harmony between our inner and outer realities.  Without questioning ourselves and without questioning society we fail to grow.  The two are not separate.  Let me give you a quick example.  Anthropologists that have spent intimate time with some of the few nomadic tribes left on the planet have found that these people never harm each other.  There is no rape, no robbery, and no murder.  The reason why is that the tribe instinctively knows it is one organism.  Everyone depends on each other for their individual survival.

Given the state of our world as it is now we can no longer afford to be afraid to look at the hard truth.

It is becoming overwhelming apparent that our society is in the midst of big challenges.  Here in a America we have staggering inequality, a real unemployment rate over 16% [source], and the future of our current economic infrastructure is in imminent danger of collapsing.  The corporate elite who cajoled the public, without a voice, into bailing out their institutions with taxpayer subsidies created a situation that devastated the middle and lower classes.  The elite who control political and economic affairs knows the system is broken.  They are using all tactics possible to accumulate the lasts bits of wealth and dismantle public power as they go out to create their untouchable gated oasis.  We live in a totalitarian regime with a faceless dictator.  Unregulated markets make monsters out of men, but yet the real problem is our apathy that condones this way of life.

Chris Hedges wrote that "cultures that do not recognize that human life and the natural world have a sacred dimension, an intrinsic value beyond monetary value, cannibalize themselves until they die."  In the same way that we must seek personal insights to overcome our unique personal challenges so to do we also need to seek social insight into the way we live.  Again, as we fail to see that the collective social problem is our personal problem we are creating a future that is not in the favor of the majority of people.  The excess and narcissistic indulgence that we enjoy now comes at a major cost when we will no longer be able to afford the security we need to survive in the future as the integrity of our planet degrades.

Spiritual and emotional work is not just personal.  It is primarily social.  Imagine asking Martin Luther King or Ghandi what was important to them.  It was not their individual gains that led to personal well being, but rather it was the joy and sense of accomplishment they received from their involvement in pushing society towards justice for all.  When we continue to allow those in power to keep "business as usual" without protesting for what is "right" justice and equality continue to decay.  To see the truth can be a scary thing.  But without knowledge and insight we will not grow, but rather, we will cannibalize ourselves into spiritual death.

St. Augustine stated that the rebel knows that hope has two beautiful daughters, anger and courage - anger at the way things are and the courage to see they do not remain as they are.  We are at a point now that individual growth is short sighted if it does not account for the well-being of others and a healthy functioning planet.  Do not expect any government to fix these problems.  These problems are not exterior to any of us.  They are within us.  And only with radical courage to see things as they are and a determined collective of voices to make change can we grow as both individuals and as a collective society.  We are undoubtedly one.  And the challenges we face as individuals, in a profound way, arise because we have lost sight of establishing a society that puts the gains of the community first as opposed to the gains of the individual.