_The Blank Slate: the Modern Denial of Human Nature_
by Steven Pinker
read by Victor Bevine
For most of the twentieth century the majority of serious psychological
thinkers tended to believe that children were born with no
preconceptions or innate wiring of human nature, and that what they
turned out to be as adults must all be due to the manner in which they
were brought up by their parents and conditioned by society. Instead,
neurological and sociological research indicates that environment as
represented by the individual's peer group during adolescence has far
more to do with how an individual will perform within society as an
adult, and that tendencies toward conservative or liberal manners of
thought are far more influenced by genetic disposition than by
environment.
This survey of the history of beliefs regarding human psychology and
why different means of child-rearing OUGHT to have more of an impact on
the natures of our children yet fail to do so in the end I found
fascinating. He looks at how would-be sociological architects such as
Adolf Hitler, Marx, Stalin, Mao Tse Tsung, George Orwell, and B.F.
Skinner came to believe that if they could only rid the world of old
ways of thinking by purging out those who might most influence children
and adolescents to what they believed were outdated values and modes of
thinking they could forge whole new societies, only to find that once
those children grew up they wanted the very things their parents,
grandparents, and purged teachers, et cetera, had wanted for
them--peace, a feeling of being equal in the eyes of the law with
everyone else, the ability to choose the lives they want, and the
ability to pursue their own happiness and wellbeing for themselves and
their families. Human nature is not fixed, isn't necessarily affected
by our stars, and develops in part due to genetic coding as to our
individual natures, in small part due to the manner in which we were
brought up, in part by the manner in which we learn to adapt to the
hands thrown us by fate, and in large part as we've learned to do to
fit in with our peers while we were developing our autonomous lives as
teenagers and young adults. I remember sitting through lectures on
B.F. Skinner and his behavioral conditioning experiments while in high
school and college and grad school, and thinking, "But that's just not
going to work with everyone, as there are always going to be oddballs
like me who will insist on trying it all out for myself to see if there
isn't a better way!" To see Pinker agree with me was a triumph!
The one matter in which Pinker and I disagree has to do with the idea
that there might just be a Creator out there who thought up genetic
structure and the theory of natural selection to help engineer humanity
and perhaps other species as well to develop group knowledge and
scientific research as we have. He tends to disagree with there being
a Creator, while all I can do is look at all the chemical compounds
that never became self-replicating, all the possible structures for
organs that react to light by becoming eyes and see that as an
indication that there is an eye-maker out there who has experimented
with a variety of prototypes but chose variations on the same theme for
almost all vertebrates, and that we have been able to identify specific
portions of the brain's structures that deal with spiritual experiences
such as near-death experiences, out-of-body episodes, psychic phenomena
of various sorts, transcendental ecstasy, and so on. I am definitely a
deist, I must admit, and see that science is having to admit that the
more we learn the more we realize we have to learn. After all, our
physical universe which seems so solid to us is, in the end, all
expressions of energy!
I'll admit I've had this book in my print library for years but failed
to read more than a few pages here and there until I saw it on sale on
Audible and purchased it to read while driving here and there. It
comes in three parts from Audible, and I read other books in between
sections so as not to overwhelm myself with data and Pinker's insights.
His writing is clear and understandable, free of technical and
psychological jargon. I appreciate his ability to communicate well
with the reader, and definitely recommend it. And Mr. Bevine was an
excellent choice as the reader for the text. Definitely recommended
for those who love learning more about how we homo sapiens have
developed and learned to better understand ourselves as well as the
world and universe in which we live.
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large
"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise
cannot see all ends." LOTR
"Don't go where I can't follow."
