Heredity and Environment: Flamebait for Epidemic

Originally posted by daveleau
(something that America and the liberal world is rife with...shirking responsibility)

I agree wholeheartedly. We all try to blame someone else before we ever look at ourselves.

IMO we all have choices. What we do with those choices will mold us the most. Yes, our parents and peers can place a lot of pressure on us to make certain choices - but the buck still stops with me. It's MY choice. I either decide to go along with something, or I don't (and wear the consequences).

I'm not saying it's easy to go against the entrenched stuff: but it is possible.

IMO, anyway

Cheers
Mick

[fatal xception]

I say...send them all then criminal types to Australia

Nah, the Brits tried that - and look where it got them!

note the Commonwealth games medal tally

http://abc.net.au/commonwealthgames/default.htm

Cheers
Mick

[no1_vern]

So the article quotes
"Justice Department figures show that 47 percent of inmates in state prisons have a parent or other close relative who has also been incarcerated"

Are you saying that 53 percent of the inmates have not had any criminal reletives? - Proving that having a criminal in your family doesnt necessarily make you a criminal?

[Epidemic]

no1_vern,

No it proves that there are many causes of criminals.

I do not believe it is genetic. It is a family culture thing. You teach your kids not to respect others and poof you have a criminal. This is kinda evident in the super rich as well. Since they are above the little folks and above the law they can do what they want. with poor criminals you see the I need that attitude. The I know I can get away with it attitude as well. That is fed by a liberal judicial system. But respect for the LAW and repect/empathy for OTHERS makes non criminals.

hopfully if you think of a crime the trigger goes off (what will these actions do to the victem.) As a young child I went through a little shop lifting stage. I rationalized it with the store was overpriced so I would be the one to reap the benifit. I figured that they charged so much that I would help reduce their profits. One day I thought about that logic and realized that it was not for me to judge. The things I took also made like no sense little stupid things like pen lights. I did it like 10 times and saw the light. Funny though it kinda sounds like the arguments that the software pirates use. "They charge too much so I steal it."


Another funny thing is that the empathy thing does not always work. People have found ways around it in their own heads. If they do not perceive a victim they do what they know to be wrong. Stealing cable, suing when they know they are in the wrong, all sorts of wrong doing.

Originally posted by daveleau
I believe people have certain traits they are born with. I also believe that the first years of life mold a person's character.

I think you are born with your personality. I think it's inherited just like your eye color. How can we ignore that concept when there is no question about physical traits being inherited? Why wouldn't the brain and the way it responds to situations and reacts be the same?

Originally posted by daveleau
My dad died when I was 5 and now that I am grown people always comment on how similar our personalities and mannerisms are.

Me too. I was 5 also. And I heard the same comments growing up. I think that reinforces all the more what I said above. I didn't get any character building etc from my father. He wasn't home much. He was either working or drinking. He drank himself to death at the age of 48. My mom remarried and I was not raised around that side of the family.
I met a cousin about 6 years ago. His dad was my Uncle, my fathers brother. He died at 48 too. Drank himself to death. My cousin never really knew his father. His mom left his dad when he was a baby and hated the family. He didn't know any of that side. When we met it was really bizarre. He was a male version of me. Same sense of humor, personality type, we watched the same cartoons as kids. Played the same types of games (we were both pretty much without siblings or childhood friends, alone a lot).. We even had many of the same mannerisms and same kind of laugh. Anyone would have thought surely we were raised together if not brother and sister. I say we were just born that way.....




man that spell checker is shweet!

Well put, Dave. I agree fully.

Very well put and in a nutshell.