White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1930-09-12
Why We Behave
Like Human Beings
BGEoRGE DORSEY, ph. D,u.p.
The Goal of the Faster, Freer
Life

VOU and I and all living beings diff.
L fer from dead things in one re-
spect: we grow, and by one process
we incorporate inorganic and dead or
ganic matter into our individual
bodies. Our nature is such that we
are impelled to do this. This ,giyes
US clew to organic evolution.
For, note: The matter which must
be Incorporated within our bodies is
outside US; we must get it. During
organic evolution, it was not life that
evolved; it was the rate and the kind
of life that was lived; faster, freer.
The visible agencies finally evolved
for the faster, freer life were: motor
mechanism Of bony levers worked by
muscle engines; special analyzers OF
distance recepters; cerebral cortex !;
and vocal cords and voice mechanism.
These agencies made for improved To-
comotion, more exact information,
more space for storing information,
and improved facilities for exchanging
information. Accompanying these Wis
ible agencies or tools for faster free
er life, there evolved special physico-
chemical mechanisms for driving life
as though life had grown a firecracker
under it's tail, as it were. These
agencies and the emotional-driv me-
chanisms man shares with other pri-
mates, and to large extent, with all
mammals Only, mans motor mechan-
icr on fxra fr,e 80
his hands are freed from the drudgery
Of footwork; and his cortex is so vast
that he can measure stars and cleo
irons, but not his own capacity for
intelligent action. In fact, his poten-
tialities are as far beyond our powers
Of vision as we Of today were beyond
the vision of our ancestor who invent
ed fire by rubbing two sticks together.
Are language and culture the newt
able consequences Of mans nature?
Are they the goal Of the faster, freer
life made possible by certain agencies
and mechanisms? Is man himself the
finished product of an evolution which
continually created life on higher lev
els? The idea is worth manipulating.
Death is common affair in nature;
for millions of years man had been
dying of old age or disease or killed
in combat. But he suddenly becomes
conscious Of death! And within a few
centuries he has raised a natural
phenomenon to vast and complicated
rite, and expects the very stars to
stand still while he breathes his last.
The monuments to the dead, the wor-
ship of the dead, the prayers for the
dead! Yes, and the communion with
the dead! All this had to be, pre-
sumably; and had become that kind
Of an animal.
1t was inevitable that his curiosity
should impel him to explore his world,
to manipulate it, to play with it and
experiment with it; that with hands
he should tear down and build up,
that with voice he should fashion
speech and with words should remold
the world to his hearts desire.
1t was inevitable that upon his BIZ
sexual world he should erect a family
hearth; it was not inevitable that he
should invent this or that kind of
household god, or that upon that
hearth he rear harem or found an
order of celibacy or vestal virgins. Or
that he should worship his wife, or
degrade her to a parasite, or that she
should make a fool or a criminal of
him.
1t was inevitable that his love for
life and fear Of death should lead him
to magic rites and groveling super
stitions; it was not inevitable that his
religion should be used as a cloak to
hide his selishness, justify his greed,
and sanctify his lust for blood and
gold.
Culture, in short, was inevitable.
Man was, man did. Our evidence of
the causal relation of tides to moon
rests on no more solid foundation.
A D. 1000 seems long way off; it
is no more remote than 1850. My ia
Their, now living, was young man in
1850; my grandson, now living, may ex-
pect to be alive in 1000. How free
will the next generation be to work
out its own salvation, to guide it's life
in the light Of wisdom? Will life be
more free seventy-five years hence
than it is today? Are we more free
than were our ancestors two thou
sand years ago?
How free are we of today-from
war, pestilence earthquake, volcano,
fire, sickness, idiocy, imbecility, pau
perism, crime, squalor, shipwreck, stu
pidity, ignorance, superstition, famine,
disease from accidents of mine, fac
tories, railroads, automobiles, and air.
planes; from harsh sounds, bad air,
and foul odors; from scorn, malice,
and intolerance; from vested interests
and established opinion in church,
school, and government in home, soci-
ETY., and nation; from clocks, time
tables, and calendars; from the de.
crees of fashion, the convictions of the
,,,oh fho mandates Of tho nO1itfcionc9