Until recently, we have been spared this brutal self-knowledge. Mawer suggests that, in this age of rapidly proliferating identification of genetic defects, we will be similar to Benedict Lambert. In our mind's eye, we, too, will be dwarfs. It is a new psychology, one which looks not to motive but to misplaced amino acids. The self is redefined as an unruly crowd of genes.
Personal responsibility is sidelined, a mute onlooker in the spectacle of randomness.
If not, don't plead ignorance when the new genetics arrives at your doorstep. Robert A. Burton is a San Francisco neurologist and novelist. You can buy this book online at Barnes and Noble.