naked nurse 10

SOOTHING OUR SOCIAL/SPIRITUAL/SEXUAL STRIFE

Dear naked nurse,
What do you think about the argument that humans are inherently selfish (or "evil", as the taterheads say), based upon the behavior of babies?
-gnonplussed in Gnome

Dear gnonplussed,
Are human beings self-oriented by nature? It's hard to imagine that we're not. Yet we're also profoundly social, more so than much of the wild kingdom. Our personalities are determined by the culture in which we happen to be born. Daily social interaction defines humans, and without it an individual will gradually (or not so gradually) go insane.
The thing that sticks in my craw about the argument that babies are evidence of inherent human selfishness, is this - any observation you make of a human under eighteen months, is essentially observation of a fetus. Unlike other mammals (with the exception of kangaroos and a couple others) human newborns aren't fully "baked". Other mammal newborns are pretty much up and around right away, but not us. Evidence suggests that human gestation used to be closer to two and a half years...but our growing brains forced our mommies to push us out earlier and earlier.
So...are you really comfortable judging a species by the behavior of their fetuses?? Cultural anthropologists are amassing evidence that the natural human state is one of radical sharing. If you use "the terrible twos" as evidence that my counterpoint is self-defeating, i'll reply that by the time a child is two, they've already received HUGE amounts of socialization...and living in a greed/competition-based, fearful, violent, touch-deprived society, most of that socialization is (like our society itself, obviously) pretty dysfunctional. For that matter, are you sure the "terrible twos" aren't just a reaction to no longer being held almost constantly, by nearly every adult they meet? I'd get cranky too, if everyone i met hugged the hell out of me for two years, then one day just stopped.
perspicacious ponderings,
the naked nurse

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