HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009

Nature vs. nurture - which prevails? If nurture (culture) has the dominant effect on a person’s life, social engineering can be justified from the earliest years. If nature (genetics) has the major role, brutal selection can be justified in an attempt to improve the race. Because both factors diminish in significance as a person matures (thanks to free will), the debate will continue. But where do we as Americans stand in this controversy? Seems to me we are compromising the inescapable ergo in the biological syllogism of human beings. We are born with both a fixed nature endowed with free will and with a nurture constantly mutating but also allowing for free choice. Therefore, given the common denominator, humans’ lives can be what they ‘will.’ "Holy homo sapiens," as Robin used to quip. Each individual is a caped crusader capable of doing good or embracing evil.