Born This Way?

Professor J,

Our readers have had so much me lately, and so little you, I hate to dislodge your current post. I'm sure our regular readers join me in sending along our deepest condolences on your recent loss of your mom. Your current post on your personal blog was a beautiful tribute to her.

Last night was the annual State of the Union Address. From what I can gather (having been unable to watch it live)  he pushed a far left agenda, single handedly killed small businesses by wanting to increase the minimum wage, and launched a left wing conspiracy to confiscate guns by personally going door to door. Oh wait...that's just according to the comments from Facebook friends who are conservatives. Guess I'll have to read the transcript myself when I get a pair of minutes.

I can't help but wonder why it is that it seems so hard for so many to listen to anyone with a differing opinion. What makes it so hard to listen and pick out at least a few things you might agree with? What makes it seem like treason to look for common ground? It is certainly getting worse due to the powerful forces at play, but is that all?  Every once in a while I come across something that gives an insight.

A couple of months ago I saw something I found so interesting, a 60 Minutes segment about research being done that seems to prove that a certain level of morality is hardwired into the human mind from the very beginning. The experiments seem to prove that while altruism is an innate quality that bigotry is also.

I've covered before the science behind fear, a larger amygdala, and the connection to a fear of change.  This recent testing seems to lend credence to the argument that before we can make real decisions based on any evidence and before we are capable of any critical thinking skill whatsoever, we are inclined to distrust, dismiss, and dislike the "other." The research seems to indicate that we not only like people who look like us or act like us, but those who simply like the same things we like.

We'd like to imagine that those around us are weighing information, listening to evidence on both sides of arguments, and using critical thinking to make decisions about what they believe. But it seems that much more than that is going on. In addition to cultural bias, intolerance picked up on in our environment, and a myriad of other issues that can cloud and affect our thinking, now, we can add biology.

Forget trusting anyone else. The new question seems to be--can we trust ourselves?