David Brooks sexually harassed by G.O.P. Senator?

4 Responses to David Brooks sexually harassed by G.O.P. Senator?

1. John says:

   July 11, 2009 at 9:45 am

   Well, at least Brooks admits that genes can effect behavior. Right now, it is OK to mention genetic effects on human differences only when either men or whites are at the worse end of behavior. Fortunately, this situation cannot last. Once the idea of genetic differences enter the general vocabulary, the PC taboo won’t last long.
2. EKurtz says:

   July 11, 2009 at 3:59 pm

   The Senator had his hand on Brooks’ inner thigh throughout dinner, and Brooks made no attempt to dislodge it? He simply looked forward to the dinner being over? And the subject of this exchange is the “lack of dignity in Washington and across the country”?
3. mnuez says:

   July 11, 2009 at 11:37 pm

   John, your fresh-faced optimism is adorable! This whole “belief in progress” thing is really very cute. Seriously John, don;t you know by now that there was never any “Dark Ages” but rather “Dark Man” and that he is us? “The idea of genetic differences” has been around for quite some time – in fact, pretty much throughout all of recorded history and likely quite some time prior to that. At the start of the twentieth century it wasn’t just in “the general vocabulary” but was almost an idee fixe within it. Progress, my friend, is bunk.

   There may be more evolution-denying grandchildren of evolution-accepting grandfathers in this country than the other way around, certainly the general respect and interest in science has decreased. Human progress moves along haltingly, erratically and rather drunkenly. In fact, it’s hard to say whether progress is actually taking place at all. I’m tempted to expand on this theme and imagine how a post-apocalyptic world would judge the Industrial Revolution and engage in similar excursees (I’ll spell it how I wish) but I know that the further I venture off the reservation the more my point is likely to be misunderstood. So to state it simply: Most matters relevant to human culture do not move in a linear direction. They meander about. The “PC taboo” against discussing/believing-in racial or gender differences may come and go ten more times in the next five hundred years without any discernible forward motion among the general populace.
4. John says:

   July 12, 2009 at 9:19 pm

   mnuez, my belief in progress is well justified. Fashions come and go, and even political ideas can be slow to give birth and die, but facts are stubborn things. At one time, people thought that the Sun revolved around the Earth. That viewpoint will never come back. It has been proven wrong. The story is similar with human differences. You are right that the idea of inherited traits has been around since antiquity, and that the genes/environment pendulum has swung back and forth a few times, but the difference is that now we are starting to KNOW the relative effects. We are zeroing in on the influences of specific genes on specific abilities and behaviour, and the effect that environment has on interacting with those genes. In 100 years, it will be impossible to claim that either genes or environment is responsible for 100% of personality or ability, as some people have believed in the past. We’ll be able to say: extroversion of X% heritable, IQ is Y% heritable, ect., and the dwindling number of people who deny it will be in the same class as the flat Earthers.

   Progress is slow, and sometimes we take a step back, but it is real. Just ask Napoleon’s dentist or Frederic Douglass’s former owner.

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