More Edge:
To illustrate the importance of these findings for the health of our nation, consider the following frightening fact: the best predictor, internationally, of the level of violence within a nation is the proportion of young men in the population. Men are more violent than women in all cultures. Although cultures can shift the level of violence, the sex difference remains. Men are more heavily involved in risk taking. We now know that a significant correlate of violence in humans, both men and women, is the level of circulating serotonin�a key neurochemical in the brain. When serotonin levels are low, the level of control is lower; low serotonin levels are associated with greater impulsivity, more risk taking. We are only beginning to understand what determines and changes levels of serotonin in the brain. One thing is certain: the key lies in understanding what happens in development. A recent study illustrates this point, and shows why science must interface with policy. Genetic analyses have revealed that a particular form of one gene causes differential expression of an enzyme. This enzyme plays a critical role in the production of serotonin. In a study of several hundred young boys, results revealed that when this gene produces a low level of the target enzyme, such children are far more vulnerable to physical abuse by parents than in children with a high level of the enzyme. In particular, boys who were targets of severe parental aggression were much more likely to shows signs of antisocial personality disorder if the level of the enzyme was low than if it was high. Parental aggression should not be tolerated under any circumstance. But what this study reveals is that we are not equally vulnerable to aggression.
Marc D. Hauser{Dr. Hauser appears to be an unrepentant vivisectionist. the possibility of his not being didn't occur to me until after a half hour's worth of condemnatory vituperation. so I hold my fire. the most difficult moral decisions before the human race are right in the crux of that debate. anyone who justifies the captivity of higher primates for 'research' is a coward. in case no one's noticed, cowardice has become an acceptable human quality. fear is now used as a justification for otherwise reprehensible acts. but I'm sure on a personal level Dr. Hauser is a reasonably brave man. as a thinker, as a philosopher, as a leader of men he's a weak fool. though I quote him because I like what he said, and agree with it.
Professor of Psychology
Primate Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory
Harvard University
there's a quality of 'going on', of continuing, that is a necessity for victims of many kinds, but especially for someone who is the, say, child of a rape.
accepting the inability to separate the self and its denunciation of the wrong from the wrong itself. it's what drives the internal madness of so many of the oppressed, after a while it's what you are, what you've become. Irish children with Danish features. Mexicans. out of Dr. Hauser's laboratories, with their 'humane' conditions come the new circumstances, we are this now. like Americans with the names of the indigenous peoples on their tongues all day, Chicago, Tennessee, Mississippi, Ottawa. it's what we are now. that thing that was done. pretending it was good is the most evil response possible. it wasn't good. the batteries of cages with 'apes' and 'primates' in them. rhesus monkeys are horrible enough, but chimpanzees, for God's sake.
Dr. Hauser goes on, as he must, as must we all. but the arrogance of delusion, the impossible pride in what took place, in what still takes place, pretending that it's anything but a scar, a wound, a disfiguring that can only be born with shame, means we have to live as animals, never justifying anything, because there is no justice, no higher morality, only what's possible, and it's possible to do so much now, it's almost limitless the power we have, but what have we become on the way to getting that power? I'm afraid Dr. Hauser may be on one side, and I on the other, of a line neither of us can see. but it's there. and the caged chimpanzee sees it well.}
{I let myself get blinded by the higher issue, so that the screed reads like a mis-sent bolt of inappropriate lightning. so, to tighten the segue:
the research into blood serotonin levels is practical, interesting, and ultimately as trivial as whether a serial killer has paid his taxes. for the same hands that caged these brothers and sisters, I know no other name for them that fits, cousins sounds too forced, and lacks the intimacy the nightmare brings, for those same hands to build anything, bridge, house, barn or dam, without the cleansing of acknowledged guilt and its attendant shame and remorse, is ultimately without meaning. it won't stand, as the most recent batch of swine are fond of saying. there is no way out but through. you can tear down every chemical wall in the world, you can map all the sequences of every mechanically possible combination, without that heart you're nothing. the opportunity waits. for us to pass through the fire and enter the endless possibilities, not of control, think of it! the same blind wormlike consciousness that now so desperately flees its horrible mistakes, mistakes that collapse all around us, threatening everything, everyone, with increasing pressure, that same consciousness wants to control the destiny of the human race. think of that. are we rising to that task? or crawling through the sewage of our negligence toward some means of escape? the door is there. maybe we should ask for the key. humbly. for once.}
