The Smiling Ape

We are not thinking beings who feel, nor are we feeling beings who think. We are a complex mesh of thinking moderated by emotion-driven values--or so says David Brooks in his new book.

This notion seems a part of a growing consensus among physiologist and thinkers as to how the human brain works, a consensus that inherently raises suspicion because there is nothing science hates more than momentum. None the less it is gratifying to see and hear concepts in neuroscience that confute last century's vision of humans as blind, reactionary beings in thrall to subconscious conflicts that each individual must untwist and resolve before they can become functional. (Happiness is a further away land.)

Thus far integration with others, especially from infancy, seems to be key. And this continues with growth, the emotional reward of integration flowering in the rational decision-making of adolescence and adulthood. It offers great reward--and challenges. The virtual office--distant, separated and filtered--is unrewarding and must be solved. A caring, involved teacher might overcome a distant or absent parent -- or the damage may be already, irretrevably done. The remarkably personable politician can succeed and advance without any management ability at all. The soldier can fight and sacrifice with his comrades completely absorbed in his unit without regard to its objective.

So families thrive, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, at Thermopylae the Persians never had a chance, the Japanese have their nation leveled and there is no looting, the White Rabbit goes twenty-four hours under Nazi torture before giving up his friends.

Certainly there are downsides. Unengaged children grow up as shards in a cultural web, angry mobs show up at some vague target, the less rational have little to modulate. But at least there may be a positive interaction between the rational and emotional. At least that honing of the human mind over the last 500,000 years may have created a sharper point that has driven, and been driven, through history without the burdens of self destructive conflicts and doubt and with values that can make us proud.

At least we may have a chance.