A growing understanding of human genetics is prompting fresh consideration of how much control people have over who they are and how they act. The recent discoveries include genes that seem to influence whether an individual is fat, has a gift for dance or will be addicted to cigarettes. Pronouncements about the power of genes seem to be in the news almost daily, and are changing the way some Americans feel about themselves, their flaws and their talents, as well as the decisions they make.
For some people, the idea that they may not be entirely at fault for some of their less desirable qualities is liberating, conferring a scientifically backed reprieve from guilt and self-doubt. Others feel doomed by their own DNA, which seems less changeable than the more traditional culprits for personal failings, like a lack of discipline or bad childhoods. And many find it simply depressing to think that their accomplishments might not be the result of their own efforts.
Now, wait a minute! If you're depressed, it's because of your genes.
Parents, too, are rethinking their contributions. Perhaps they have not scarred their wayward children so much as given them bad genes. Maybe it was not their superior parenting skills that produced that Nobel laureate.Yes, quit blaming us, kids. Quit blaming yourselves too. There now, isn't life easier? No! The easiness or difficulty you feel as you try to live your life is determined by your genetic makeup.
Whether a new emphasis on genes will breed tolerance or bigotry for inborn differences remains an open question. If a trait like being overweight comes to be seen as largely the result of genetic influence rather than lack of discipline, the social stigma connected to it could dissipate, for instance. Or fat people could start being viewed as genetically inferior.Come on! Our tendency toward bigotry and our urge to harass those we perceive as inferior is in our genes.
The public embrace of genetics may be driven as much by wishful thinking as scientific truth. In an age of uncertainty, biology can appear to provide a concrete answer for behavior that is difficult to explain. And the faith that genetics can illuminate the metaphysical aspects of being human is for some a logical extension of the growing hope that it can cure disease.Hey, wishful thinking... it's in our genes.
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Divine will indeed. I once blew a job interview because of my jeans.
Others feel doomed by their own DNA, which seems less changeable than the more traditional culprits for personal failings, like a lack of discipline or bad childhoods.
How is this any different from the old beliefs that "blood will out," so to speak, and that you inherit a family character, with family virtues, and family faults. A tendency to drink, say, or to lassitude or to madness. Were these beliefs not active in the US? I'm sure they were, at least in part.
I think this is actually quite an old "culprit for personal failings," even if it fell out of favour among the "smart" set sometime last century. And I'm not even sure it did.
"Were these beliefs not active in the US?"
Racism certainly was.
My visceral reaction is this is more 'It's not my fault' BS.
It is tempting to think you aren't responsible. Yet, a propensity to alchololism, obesity, nicotine addiction, etc still require post conception and birth actions on the individual.
Genetics is not predestination, but rather a nudge in a particular direction.
(But, by no means are there innate differences or propensities between men and women! That is clearly impossible, and to even broach the subject will get you exiled from the ivory tower.)
Don't worry, Tristam, Big Brother will take care of us.
These kinds of whacky theories never fail to amuse me. Their proponents always manage to overlook their most obvious defect. If the "it's all caused by genes" story is true, then the content of thought itself must be caused by genes. And this means there must be a gene that causes these researchers to believe that genes exist and that their own theory about genes is true.
And round and round we go; science is one big circular argument.
"Were these beliefs not active in the US?"
Racism certainly was.
I think it goes much further than mere racism. In my own family, I know we have certain weaknesses, which we can see in our parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, great-aunts, and so on, down the line.
And when I was small, my mother consciously warned me about these things -- indeed, I recall quite vividly how horrified she was on seeing me with a purple tongue one day (after eating an artificially flavoured snack of some sort). She was reminded of one of her great-uncles (possibly great-great-uncles), who passed the state exams and got himself a position, but ended up wasting away his days drinking plum wine, abandoning his wife and children. The wine had (apparently) stained his tongue purple by the end. So she warned me explicitly against such a course (the tendency to lassitude). In more recent family history, we are given every reason to fear that we have an "addictive" personality, and all of us in my generation have been explicitly cautioned to pursue moderation, to overcome this weakness.
In thinking of ourselves as part of a family, we've always been told things about the character of our families, how we tend towards morbidity, in such a case, or towards awkwardness in another -- where we are skilled, and where we are not, and so forth.
Did other people not get this kind of lecture about the faults and virtues of your ancestors, with reference to where you yourself can expect to be strong and weak?
AlaskaJack: Yeah, that argument is pretty much the standard rebuttal for anyone who doesn't believe in free will. "If you don't believe in free will, then you had no choice but to not believe in free will."
Luckily, biologists are not making that strong of a claim.
What about when it's not only your genetic heritage, but your very own name that carries predispositional baggage?
My last name means "drunken brawler" in one of my ancestor's languages. Found that out when I looked up my name in a book of surnames and online. It's polish, if you're curious.
Talk about labels!
A friend's family name's motto? "Grip Fast" (Scottish Highlands invoking some kind of rugged swordsman)
Hawke's parents decided to go the natural route with him and therefore, due to his genetic imperfections (ie needed glasses)
Actually, his real problem was a weak heart. That is the reason he need the fake monitor to pass the runnning treadmill training. (I mean, we have laser eye surgery today, what will the fure hold to improve vision w/o mechanical optics?)
My last name is Polish (as in of the country of Poland), not the word "polish".
Sorry, should've capitalized.
WV: "Joyal" ... Polish for "drunken joy"? Or should that be "Joyalski"?
It is curious to me that people are in any way surprised that our behaviors and family tendencies (to a weakness for wine, tomcatting, or hooliganism) are in some way genetic. Of course our DNA -and the ways our brains are contructed- affect how we behave. That the physiology is now more detailed is a bit interesting, but it relates nothing really new about human behavior, choice, or determinism.
More simply, knowing more precisley how the modern internal combustion engine functions in a car doesn't help my driving much. And I don't pretend that the car's limitations force me to take the wrong exit to downtown Milwaukee. Again.
Cat, the reason the reason given for not surgically correcting his vision was that it would leave tell-tale scars.
I was on to this years ago.
What I found was that long term PTSD has two parts. One is genetics the other is trauma.
Is Addiction Real?
Funny thing is the Republican head of NIDA agreess with me. She says that 50% of addiction is genetic, and 50% is environmental factors (what I prefer to call trauma, which is in fact is a more precise description).
Now what we will do about it is another thing. Is it fair to punish those who "can't get over it" due to genetics and need drugs to make up for what the body does not provide? So far the answeris: perfectly fair.
I don't think it will stay that way forever.
I think the libertarian idea of you own your own body is the answer. If you feel compelled to stick knives in your own body. OK. If you feel compelled to do the same to another without permission - not OK.
balfegor,
So far given decades of search, no one has ever found a consistient descriptiion of an addictive personality.
However, if you would like to make medical history have a go.
Genetics and trauma have a better correlation to "addiction" than any set of personality traits.
I'd say depression and suicide have more to do with biology than environmental factor.
Depression usually makes no or little sense. Niether is really logically justifiable.
The lines of thinking that lead to each can just as easily be evaluated logically to produce posetive feelings and drive, but biologically we seem to lean the other way.
Genetics and trauma have a better correlation to "addiction" than any set of personality traits.
Er, yes. Genetics. As in, "heritable," no? Which is exactly what I'm saying. In our family, we are susceptible to addiction. We have addictive personalities!
I'm not sure how useful the warning would be if we had "addictive personalities" somehow separate from our genetic profile -- there's no particular reason we'd expect that to pass from generation to generation, is there?
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