Mr O, do you like Chinese, comes in Sweet N' Sour to suit all tastes.

The 'Old Man', of his 5 kids everyone said I was the closest. For all those who hate my political thinking on the Forum, blame Daddy, he was the biggest influence on me from an early age, sharing a beer in later life and talking politics among other things was a favourite of his. The 'Old Man' was a "Langite", devotee of Jack Lang (1876-1975), he was one of Lang's young men, and knew the 'Big Fella' well. Always claimed Lang was Australia's greatest politician, I would agree, but add the proviso "never to be Prime Minister". Pulled 200,000 to a political rally in Centennial Park when Sydney's population was about one million.

For Mr O, the Old Man's take on Chinese; "The Chow (his description) is a fair bloke, do you no harm." Remains to be seen these days. Life during the Depression, the no-go areas in the slums of Paddington and Surry Hills, (gangs and crime) the opium dens around Haymarket (drugs). People lining up at the Town Hall, to get a government handout, a cabbage off the back of a truck (Jobseeker). Men on relief shovelling sand, (work for the dole). The new burb that sprung up called Fly Flat, (the first unofficial name of Sydney Airport) where many of the evicted built shanties, no running water or power, eventually the government sent around the water cart to help out, shacks built from materials people had pilfered from unoccupied rental houses, gal iron, doors etc. Families on the streets with all their belongings, outside the house where they once lived, the landlord had evicted them for non payment of rent. Children on a cold winters day, with a thin dress and no shoes, freezing cold. Not all peaches and cream for everyone in those days.

david f,

It's fascinating stuff and I'm interested to hear your take on instinct in humans.

What things would you say are instinct re humans?

Mr O,

The question of "instinct" in humans is an interesting one.

Most modern psychologists agree that human beings do not
have any "instincts". As "instinct" is a behaviour pattern
with three essential features. It is complex, it is unlearned,
and it appears in all normal members of the species under
identical conditions.

For example, all members of some bird or insect species will
build complex nests of exactly the same type, even if they
have never seen such nests built before, as soon as the nesting
season begins. Any instincts we once once had , however, have
been lost in the course of our evolution.

The idea that we do not have instincts is difficult for some
people to accept, because it seems to run counter to "common
sense". One reason for the difficulty is that the word
"instinct" is often used very loosely in ordinary speech.
People talk about "instinctively" stepping on the brake, or
"instinctively" mistrusting someone, when these actions and
attitudes are, in fact culturally learned.

Another reason is that much of our learned behaviour is
so taken for granted that it becomes "second nature" to us.
The behaviour seems so "natural" that we lose the awareness
that it is learned, not inherited. But if you think about it,
you will see that there is no human behaviour that fits the
definition of instinct above.

We do have some genetically determined types of behaviour, of
course, but these are "simple reflexes" involuntary muscular
responses, such as starting at an unexpected loud noise,
throwing out our arms when we lose our balance, pulling back
our hand when it touches a hot surface and so on.

We also have a few inborn, basic "drives" - organic urges
that need satisfaction, such as our desires for self
preservation, for food and drink, for sex, and perhaps for the
company of other people. But the way we actually satisfy these
drives is learned through cultural experience.

Most people, of course, learn to fulfill their drives in the
way their culture tells them to.

cont'd ...

cont'd ...

Mr O,

We are not programmed to satisfy our drives in any particular
way. If we were, we would all fulfill our drives in a rigid,
identical manner. In fact unlike all other species, we can
even override our drives completely. We can ignore the drive
for self preservation by committing suicide or by risking our
lives for others. Protesters can ignore the drive for food and
go on hunger strikes, even if it means starvation.

The clergy and others can suppress the sex drive and live out
their lives in celibacy. Hermits can override the drive for
human company and live in isolation.

Within very broad limits, "human nature"
is what we make of it, and what we make of
it depends largely on the culture in which
we happen to live.

One of the most liberating aspects of the sociological
perspective is that it strips away myths about our social
behaviour, showing that what seems "natural" or "instinctive"
is usually nothing more than a cultural product of a specific
human society at a particular moment in history.

Foxy, I would say that we don't learn how to have sex, rather we learn how not to have sex.

I seems to me that typically a male and female don't need to told how to have sex. But rather they need to be told who they can't have sex with (eg: close relatives) where they can't have sex (eg. on display in public), etc. The way to have reproductive sex, ie. actual mechanics of it, I think they can figure out all by themselves.

Also, I would have thought that actions like a mother breast-feeding her baby are rather instinctive.

Foxy,

That is an excellent account. I like your breadth of knowledge and critical thinking.

There might however be one human instinct as one anthropologist said: childbirth.