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Stefan Claudiu
The Zeitgeist Movement - Orientation Guide
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There is no scientific evidence that really supports the notion that any of our
behavior
s are strictly the result of our genes. Those
behavior
s that people often attribute to `instinct' or `human nature' can almost always be tracked to environmental influences. The notion of `human nature' is largely mythological. It stems from primitive religious notions that the human being is either `good or evil' inherently. The pursuit of people who seek to find the "gene" or the like which causes a particular
behavior
is essentially a form of superstition. It is like a person being "possessed by demons" which control their
behavior
. The fact is, while Neurochemicals and physiological traits set propensities for a person's reactions and social gravitation, it is the environment that really creates our values and
behavior
. There is no fixed, predetermined `human nature'. Our values, methods and actions are developed and derived from our experiences. As referenced before, the `Merva-Fowles' Study, done at the University of Utah in the 1990s,
found
powerful connections between unemployment and crime: Their findings
found
that a 1% rise in unemployment resulted in: a 6.7%
increase
in homicides; a 3.4 %
increase
in violent crimes; a 2.4 %
increase
in property crime. Not only that, they also
found
that those who were recently unemployed and deprived were especially vulnerable to illness and disease. Their findings
found
that a 1% rise in unemployment also resulted in: a 5.6%
increase
in death from heart attacks a 3.1%
increase
in death from strokes Based on the 1990-1992 unemployment rate, this resulted in 35,307 more heart attack deaths and 2771 more stroke deaths. They also
found
that those unemployed had a much higher likelihood of high stress, alcoholism, cigarette smoking, depression and the consumption of less healthy diets.71 This study reveals how suffering and aggression can be the results of environmental depravity, and how powerful the environment is in shaping our
behavior
and values. If a person needs to survive, they will do what they need to do. Does this make them "criminal"? Not necessarily. The bottom line is that our
behavior
is based upon what we learn, coupled with the bio-social pressures that we must deal with in order to survive. Our genetic makeup does not tell us anything about how to actually function. It is what we learn and are accustomed to which creates our
behavior
. An insulted man who pulls out a gun and shoots somebody had to learn, at some point in his life,
71
Merva & Fowles, Effects of Diminished Economic Opportunities on Social Stress, Economic Policy Institute, 1992 74
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