Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 1, No. 19 September 6, 1938

Reasons for Reason

Reasons for Reason.

More connectedly. If you subtract from the human mind all that has been communicated to it by the spoken and the written word, by example and by the influences of its social surroundings from birth onwards, all you have left is an uncogitating animal mind, actuated by purely animal urges and emotions, and not differing in any noticeable respect front man's closest biological allies.

This much is undeniable.

cartoon

"All I've got to say it that you're a product of your environment."

Now let us analyse how the involved mentality of the civilised adult is built up. Step by step.

  • Step 1.—The power of speech—spoken and written—is imparted by the social environment. This is the only way it can be developed.
  • Step 2.—All formulated conceptual thought depends on language of some kind.
  • Step 3.—The nature of emotions and sentiments depends on acquired systems of thought and training.
  • Step 4.—And therefore the aims and desires which determine behaviour are the resultants of mentalities derived from the material and social environments.

The terrifying extent of this social conditioning is hard to realise. Simply because we ourselves are part of the process.