EARLY (AND CONTINUING) THOUGHTS

WHEN I WAS SEVENTEEN I WAS ALREADY MARRIED AND LIVING BRIEFLY IN THE HOME OF MY INLAWS.  I HAD GOT USED TO THE FACT THAT MY WIFE SNEEZED NINE TIMES WHENEVER SHE SNEEZED IN OUR FIRST FEW MONTHS ALONE TOGETHER — SHE WAS INCAPABLE OF SNEEZING ONCE OR TWICE — AND THOUGH IT WAS UNLIKE ANYTHING I HAD EXPERIENCED IN MY FAMILY I CAME TO SEE IT AS A ROBUST AND RELIABLE CHARACTERISTIC OF HER BEHAVIOR.  WHEN I FIRST ENCOUNTERED HER DAD SNEEZING IT STRUCK ME AS INCREDIBLE — HE SNEEZED NINE TIMES AND ACCORDING TO MY MOTHER-IN-LAW HAD ALWAYS DONE SO.  THIS BEGAN A LINE OF THOUGHT IN ME THAT HAS CONTINUED TO THIS DAY.  WHEN LATER I JOINED THE RANKS OF STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION I HAD MANY QUARRELS WITH THE CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY TEACHING OF THE DAY — THE LATE FIFTIES — AND EARNED THE WRATH OF MORE THAN ONE RATHER CONFIDENT PROFESSOR.  ACCORDING TO THIS ORTHODOXY AN INFANT WAS MORE OR LESS A BLANK SLATE AND EVERYTHING THAT THEY BECAME WAS AS A RESULT OF THEIR ENVIRONMENT.  I COULDNT UNDERSTAND WHY THEY ALL THOUGHT THE SAME THING, WHICH BEGAN ANOTHER CONTINUING LINE OF INQUIRY FOR ME, AND DIDNT THINK FOR A MOMENT THAT THERE WAS MERIT IN THIS VIEW OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR..  THE FACT THAT MY WIFE WOULD HAVE LEARNED TO SNEEZE THAT WAY BY IMITATION OF HER DAD, WHO WOULD HAVE IMITATED HIS PARENT OR SOMEONE ELSE IN HIS CHILDHOOD, SEEMED TO ME ABSURD.  MY WIFE’S SNEEZING WAS COMPULSIVE AND TRY AS SHE MIGHT SHE COULD NOT ARREST THE PROCESS ONCE BEGUN.  NEITHER COULD HER DAD. 

I HAVE NOW LIVED LONG ENOUGH TO SEE THAT BOTH THESE IDEAS — CRIPPLING CONFORMITY AMONG PEERS AND GENETICALLY CODED BEHAVIOR — HAVE MORE OR LESS COME AROUND TO WHAT I THINK WAS PROBABLY OBVIOUS AMONG MANY PEOPLE WHO DID NOT CONSIDER THEMSELVES EXPERTS IN PSYCHOLOGY.  LIKE THE KIDS IN GRAMMAR SCHOOL — I WAS ONE — WHO THOUGHT AFRICA FITTED RATHER NICELY INTO SOUTH AMERICA, ONLY TO BE TOLD BY OUR SCIENCE TEACHERS THAT THE IDEA WAS ABSURD, SOMETIMES I FIND THAT EXPERTS ARE THE LAST TO KNOW.  AFTER ALL, THEY HAVE THE MOST TO GAIN BY NOT KNOWING, INVESTED AS THEY ARE IN THE IDEAS THAT ARE PERSUASIVE IN THEIR FIELD IN THEIR TIME.  IT IS ALMOST AS HARD FOR  MOST PEOPLE TO SAY ‘I WAS WRONG ABOUT THAT’ AS IT IS FOR THEM TO SAY ‘NO, THAT IS TOO MUCH.  I WANT LESS.’  AND THAT IS A VANISHINGLY SMALL PART OF THE POPULACE I OBSERVE IN MY TIME ON THE PLANET.