Every so often, each of us comes across an idea, a phrase, a sentence, an essay, a book, a film or television show, or a work of some other form of art that strikes a chord, and that reshapes how we look at the world. I had one of those aha moments a couple years ago, when reading a small book about the roots and causes of belief. That aha was the realization that we are each, in essence, sacks of chemicals. Our interactions with and reactions to all things are shaped by this simple fact. The reason we find certain foods tasty is because they’re more likely to have nutritive value. Sweet fruit provides more energy than unripe fruit. The reason we find certain tastes repulsive is because they’re associated with things that are harmful. Poisons often taste bitter, for example. We find certain physical attributes in others attractive. We find certain smells appealing and others noxious. Some sounds are ominous, others are soothing. These are all biological, which is to say chemical, responses. They’re all wired in to our brains and bodies, the responses have been selected over millennia by evolution, and they represent adaptations that have improved the survival of the species.
Going beyond the directly sensory, it’s obvious that there are instinctive reactions to circumstances. Our ancestors who saw a blade of grass twitching unnaturally out in a field felt a rush of adrenaline in anticipation of a possible threat. We might feel the same if we mis-step going down a stair case. Similarly, we may have “gut” reactions to individuals, groups, circumstances or situations. Some of what comprises those reactions is learning and conditioning, but deep down they include evolutionarily developed chemical responses. While we can recognize and control those responses (you’re hungry, you smell food, your stomach grumbles, but you choose not to eat), those responses cannot be eliminated from our chemical wiring.
When I realized and understood this, my understanding of the world and of human behavior took a great big leap forward. It explains the persistence of certain seemingly destructive modern behaviors like overeating and addiction. It validates the field of psychiatry – if we are sacks of interacting chemicals, it makes sense that sometimes those interactions go awry. And, it explains the persistence and ubiquity of various types of belief, from religious to “new age” to political.
This notion came to the fore recently when I read a story about a school system that sought to eliminate the use of gender-specific words by students. There’s been a long-running meme in liberal educational circles that children are “tabulae rasae” or “blank slates,” a concept first put forth by John Locke 260 years ago. That is, they are born neutral, that at the beginning they are infinitely malleable, and that what they become and how they think is entirely dependent on the input they receive as they grow. This bit of gender neutrality isn’t something that arose in a vacuum, but rather just a small piece of a long-running effort to eradicate the sociological distinctions between males and females, possibly and presumably out of an overreaction to centuries of male societal domination, and possibly out of the arrogance of the Best and Brightest. While I certainly prefer an egalitarian society to one dominated by one gender or the other, I know that “egalitarian” doesn’t mean “the same.”
There are mountains written about this over-shifting of society from men to women, but that’s a topic for another day. Today, the point is simple. Each of us is a sack of chemicals, and those chemicals are at the root of our behavior. Men and women have different mixes of chemicals running their shows, therefore men and women are different, therefore men and women cannot be “educated” to be not-different. Attempting to do so is just stupid.
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