Below is a response by my son, Chris Warner, to my blog post about twins research, Benford’s Law and confirmation bias.
We are who we are, and each individual has a personality they are born with, even twins. Their nature is the realm of psychology. The concept that “we” are bigger than “me” relates self to other.
It takes at least two to get along. This is the realm of sociology. government, politics, the economy, etc., and are social issues. The lone wolf is a myth. It turns out that wolf packs have social hierarchies. Short of killing bad people, the worst form of punishment in our penal system is solitary confinement.
Demonizing social constructs is a profitable mental disorder. Hopefully, the focus can be shifted to emphasize that social is natural and good. The battleground of individual freedoms vs. common good is a tenuous balance. Both exist in each of us, as a running dialogue with the devil of greedy self-interest on one shoulder and the better angel of our nature whispering on the other shoulder, competing for our attention.
Sadly, the inexorable march toward social democracy that Steven Pinker [author of The Better Angels of Our Nature] documents, takes generations. It’s hard for early adopters to wait for stragglers. The incessant noise distorts the air and brain waves deliberately to scramble the signal.
Fake news is popular with masses. The boring drone of science, technology, engineering and mathematics eloquently state the obvious of who, what, when, where and how. The arts and creativity unlock the “secrets” of why, take a lot of effort to search, mine and filter, but often don’t pay the bills.
Although futile, the arts are rewarding, worthwhile and important to try. Although nobody with the possible exception of the Dalai Llama, Mother Teresa, etc. gets it all the time, and some don’t ever get it, love and kindness are the answer.
Many are born with wounds. It has been documented that abuse can be passed down genetically through several generations. As evolutionary psychology has demonstrated, homo economicus is an adolescent mindset because the art of the deal has a winner and a loser. The survivors of descent with modification by virtue of reciprocal altruism are those that can practice win-win cooperative exchange, which ensures the other wins too.
Except for life and death, living is not binary, but a spectrum. We are blessed with choice, so I try daily to choose happiness. It is hard work, and worthy. I continue to imagine that one world is enough for all of us.
