Ignorance vast, regrettable, and intrusive

[David Ziglin <davidz@mail.execpc.com>]

Your forebearance please : I had sent this out earlier but never saw it
appear.  Further, other digesters pointed out that they had missed mail -
and so, encore.  The timing and context is a bit off now, but it does
address a handful of hot potatoes recently bandied in the AD.


>>> Ignorance is a vast, and regrettably intrusive resource.<<<  : wisely
>>>pointed out to us by chris brown

As I can think of nothing so human as story, please let me tell you a brief
one and then comment on chris brown's gentle warning and allude to several
previous digests.

A couple of years ago I attended a Wisconsin AROC event at the Dave Uihlein
auto museum nearby.  Across from the museum is a parking lot; in front of
the museum is a gravel apron with a width about the length of a car.  Of
course, everyone parked in the lot, except .........

While we were chatting with Dave Uihlein before his tour, a Ferrari pulled
up on the aforementioned apron driven by a gentleman whose young son tagged
along.  We moved and scattered to make way for the Ferrari; the gentleman
had decided to park in front of the building rather than the parking lot a
stone throw away.

As the boy left the car, he began a mantra which, frankly, caused me to
fantisize slapping the kid up.  ( The Id Monster )  However, this would
have been a case of punishing the messenger.  The little boy had only one
thing to say and began to say it over and over from the time he began to
open the door : "We've got a Ferrari.  We've got a Ferrari.  We've got a
Ferrari. "   Can little innocent children be gauche?  Damned right.  They
can be polite and socially poised as well.

Let's call this male child Mario although his real name is probably Jason
or Matthew or Jacob or Dylan or Cody or X. Simply, Mario was born with no
"male gene" or other "inflexable and determining factor" that accounts for
his swelling ego, self absorption, brashness, and early association with an
international icon.  This boy was not for a moment reflecting his
"maleness" any more than the mom or daughter who stayed home was exhibiting
her femaleness.  We all know what was being reflected here, don't we. (
Later, of course, Mario will be accused of owning 4 wheel penises and
experiencing mid life crisis )


MEN ARE FROM MARS, WOMAN ARE FROM VENUS-AND OTHER BULLSHIT : Too assign
human behavior - and most especially "male vs female characteristics" -
commonly seen in our society to its being inherently imbued or genetically
and irrevocably determined, is ignorant.  This view - if it can be called
that - is the stuff of pop sociology, uninformed and misinformed education,
and common logic falicies.  Note that another common characteristic of pop
pseudoscience is that it offers us - men and women alike - that which we
are most comfortable with.  ( John Grey has gotten filthy rich on our
ignorance and now he's turning his stuff into a broadway musical or
something. )

As so, if your teenage son gets busted for "inappropriately touching girls"
at school, or gets ticketed for teasing cops and deveating in traffic or
come November can't get his face out of gun magazines, we say : The boy's a
Martian,  Raging Hormones, Boys will be boys, testoserone rules.  This is
nonsense, myth, convenient rationalization.

THE MYTH OF TESTOSTERONE : This is not the best forum for a depthful
discussion of this subject; however, let me briefly make some points
beginning with another story.  When I was in college, my father bought the
very first new car we had ever owned, a Chevy Impala.  My brother and I
begged and pleaded that my father get an 8 banger; he was intent on a six.
So, he bought the little 8, babied it relentlessly, and insisted on putting
into it the most expensive high octane fuel he could find.  He was manic
about it and would not be convinced that the High Test fuel added nothing
to the car's performance, that the car's ultimate behavior was much much
more a reflection of the driver's personality.

My father drove his Chevy automatic as if it were an ancient mule just
plugging along.  When I drove the car, things were different.  I
immediately taught my self how to rev in neutral and down shift with the
automatic and horrified my father.  ( Perhaps rightfully so )  With care
one could come close to "overcoming" the insufferable push of the car as
well, something I did not demonstrate to my father.

The ever so common myth that the higher the octane testosterone the more
"male" the behavior (i.e. violent, insensitive, egoistical, confident,
tough,  controlling, peak running, etc ) is simply wrong.  Wrong.  It is
surely not the first time that a common belief resulting from a little
knowledge has been shown to be wrong.  The biggest problem with common
knowledge is that it is so common, i.e., vulgar and unsophisticated.

*Very* simply but correctly, here is what we know about why we humans do
what we do.  In every culture human beings - male and female - are taught
to behave in some prescribed way.  Taught.  Indeed, it is clear upon close
examination that we humans are taught and begin to learn "even before
birth."  Being feeble creatures, in order to survive we need to adapt to
our environment ASAP.  (Under some conditions, a whiney brat of a child
will be given attention, needs taken care of, survival improves.  Under
other conditions a whiney child will be discovered and eaten forthwith by a
predator.)

Testosterone levels *do not* directly equate with behavior.  ( e.g. in
certain studied animal groups - including primates - it is perfectly clear
that testostorone levels can increase in a low ranking individual male when
he *becomes* and *behaves* as the Alpha male he replaces due to, for
example, the death of the previous Alpha. ) { tail waving dog?}


 Further, there is a point - *and not an extreme one BTW* - where an
increase in testosterone has no effect on behavior whatever.


NATURE AND NURTURE : We humans are an *integration* of Nature and Nurture.
This is a cliche; however, it is immensely important.  Nature and Nurture
*cannot* be separated.  One alone cannot dominate the other.

LEFT BRAIN, RIGHT BRAIN : Same thing; the brain is an *integration* of left
and right hemispheres.  To refer to right brained or left brained behavior
is silly, common, myth, pseudoscience.  As soon as we label a human as left
or right brained, testosterone provoked or not, we are disabling that
person's growth and potential.(  After a parent says : "I was never good in
math;  I was never good in English." "You're good in sports." the paradigms
are built, the mountains appear  )

Experience has the very most profound influence on our brains -  all things
being equal.  If Mario grows up to be a person who measures worth by brand
name, becomes a stereotype Xer, demands attention for being, and somehow
sees himself to be somehow better than his fellows, it will not be the
result of testosterone or of his maleness or of his genetic makeup.  Put
another way, if Mario had a twin brother and he was raised under other
conditions, he would be little like Mario except perhaps in some physical
and finally unimportant way.


DETERMINISM : No question, everything is connected.  However, no one was
irrevocably born and raised a red neck or a nationalist ( in its repulsive
form) or an Alfa lover or a bigot or a rationalist or a Ferrari snob or an
exhibitionist or ......  Along with the acceptance of that truth, the way
we have agreed to play this game is to say that with effort we are able to
and should "think" our way past any set of circumstances including Id
provocation, and so we are responsible for our actions; we call this free
will, acting freely.  I mean, that's what we say.

And so, using that as a premise, when I see a parent in East Troy wearing
camo clothes with a little boy in camo, driving a camo truck with a gun
rack and "kiss my ass" and "war is God's way" bumper stickers, and all the
flags and "don't blame me, I didn't vote" stickers and all the rest of that
clanging and banging and warnings of black helicoptors and printed circuit
implants, hot guns and warm women in that order - I do *not* think about
testosterone.  That would be missing and dismissing the point.  We are a
more complex result than of mere testosterone.


Testosterone is the least of my concerns here.



I suppose that that is quite enough thank you.  And so, thanks in turn for
listening.


David
East Troy, Wisconsin

'79 F150 3/4T Rust carriage - junk ( I need a free truck)
2 85 RX7 GS indefatigible work horses, ready for pasture or worse (rust)
84 & 85 RX7 GSL-SE : one for winter go, one for summer show
'73 Le Mans Blue, Heart Throb GTV  needs paint and interior
'66 Duetto (warm sigh)
'59 750 Spider Veloce near resto-end
'66 Lotus Elan Street Racer/R26 ( Elans were *intended* by Chapman and the
gods to be modified.  Look what he did to the Austin 7  )
'54 XK120 SE ( rust free, mechanically fine,  wai$ing for interior and
paint) .... thinking about a trade for a perfect Speciale _