And when you think that each new
generation is the casual victim of the way a previous generation was
conditioned, as well as the inheritor of the environment that
resulted, the possible combinations and permutations are enormous.
There is no prima facie case then for supposing that because persons
crave some particular thing, or behave in some particular way, human
nature is fatally constituted to crave that and act thus. The craving
and the action are both learned, and in another generation might be
learned differently. Analytic psychology and social history unite in
supporting this conclusion. Psychology indicates how essentially
casual is the nexus between the particular stimulus and the particular
response. Anthropology in the widest sense reinforces the view by
demonstrating that the things which have excited men's passions, and
the means which they have used to realize them, differ endlessly from
age to age and from place to place.
Men pursue their interest. But how they shall pursue it is not fatally
determined, and, therefore, within whatever limits of time this planet
will continue to support human life, man can set no term upon the
creative energies of men. He can issue no doom of automatism. He can
say, if he must, that for his life there will be no changes which he
can recognize as good. But in saying that he will be confining his
life to what he can see with his eye, rejecting what he might see with
his mind; he will be taking as the measure of good a measure which is
only the one he happens to possess.
Pages:
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204