The Hard Facts Of DNA–Progressivism Is No Match For Human Nature

Bobby Lucca got his mother’s red hair, his father’s oversized lips, Uncle Harry’s long, Roman nose, and Aunt Betty’s ears.  Every Easter when the family got together at Tilly’s for antipasto, lasagna, pork roast and ham pie, the family marveled at how much Bobby looked like just about everyone around the table.

“Let’s hope it stops right there”, said Lou Lehman, the next door neighbor, referring to Harry Grillo’s temper, Leona Petrucci’s drinking, and Joe Bello’s womanizing.  Lou had seen generations of Luccas come and go, chips off the old block, clones of wayward fathers and flighty mothers, and collages of the second and third cousins who sat in Tilly’s living room, gossiping about their men and how this irresponsible, wayward strain would someday have to peter out.  Lou doubted that the men would ever change, and that as caring and pleasant as the women were, there would always be a succubus in the bunch.

Angie Panto, for example, was an apple from a different orchard, and as much as the Luccas tried to figure out where this nasty, brutish, harridan came from, they came up empty. Genes and heredity being what they are, searching in a more distant past might be revealing.  Bits and pieces of genetic material come down through the generations, get twisted and gnarled and show up in the most unusual places in the most surprising forms.

Of course memories of anyone that far back had been so distorted by telling and retelling that after two generations of false recollections resembled nothing like what they might have been; but she had to have come from somewhere, so the Luccas pinned Angie on ‘The Fat Lady From Silver City’.  In fact, in Lou Lehman’s opinion she was a lot like Tilly’s sister, but no one had ever brought that up.

In any case, everyone knew where Bobby came from, but, given the vagaries of genetic code, they watched him carefully to see how closely his DNA matched that of his parents, aunts, and uncles.  There were early signs of stubbornness and inattention, and later a certain moroseness and funk, all of which traits were unfortunately recognizable.  He got none of the intelligence of his father’s side of the family, and certainly none of the looks and charm of his mother’s; and his personality was just as jumbled and Francis Bacon-looking as his face.

The argument over Nature-Nurture goes back and forth depending on socio-political zeitgeist.  In a more progressive era, few want to nail anything down.  There can be no such thing as an immutable, predictable human nature, for if there such a thing one would have to accept territorialism, aggression, and implacable self-interest as givens in human society.  If, on the other hand, human nature was only genetic predisposition – a predilection for putting one’s family first, expanding one’s horizons and fields, and guarding against one’s enemies – then it could be tinkered with and reconfigured to fit the time’s utopian vision.

In a conservative era, few want to accept any kind of genetic weak wiring.  We are as we have always been, and better off for it.  Competition between weak and strong always end up in evolutionary progress.  Wars may be unpleasant but necessary to clear the chaff from the wheat.  There is no such thing as the best of all possible worlds, just worlds as they are.

Yet it is hard to understand how, with only a cursory look at history's wars, empires, territorialism, and concentration of wealth; internecine warfare between competing tribes, religions, and regions; and the family battles for wealth, influence, and power, that anyone can dismiss a hardwired, genetically-programmed, immutable and ineluctable human nature - one that is fundamentally self-interested, protective, territorial, and aggressive.

It is equally hard to understand why there is such a reluctance to attribute personal traits to DNA.  If it is absolutely clear and uncontested that physical traits are passed on through the genetic material of mothers, fathers, uncles, and ancestors, then why not non-physical attributes? Scientific work on shyness has determined that whereas there may not be one specific gene for the trait, there are certainly others which facilitate its emergence.  Twin studies of adult individuals have found a heritability of IQ between 57% and 73% with the most recent studies showing heritability for IQ as high as 80% (Ploman and Deary).

What then to make of the high performance of Asians in America? Over 80 percent of talent schools like Stuyvesant High School in New York which admit students on the basis of test results only are Asian.  In previous decades Jews were similarly disproportionately represented.  While it is likely that the Confucian ethic in China, the rigorous family standards in India, and the importance given to the Torah and to learning are largely responsible for such performance, might not genetics play a role?  That is, a social selection process where intelligence is valued, marriages are based in part on it and thus its predisposition is strengthened.

At the same time Asian academic success is more than likely due to a highly-disciplined society which values intellectual achievement; and the natural selection of the most ambitious families and the genetic predisposition to intellectual ability within them account for the rest.

American Jews have always been represented disproportionately in academia, science, the arts, and other professions requiring intellectual ability, mental discipline, and insight.  The situation may not be little different from that of high-performing Asian Americans - a combination of a millennia-old tradition of intellectual excellence and highly selective marriages. Whatever the reason, these high-achieving, ambitious groups leave other ethnic groups far behind.
Black athletes have always been outstanding for their athletic preeminence. There have been no white Olympic gold medalists in the 100 yard dash since 1980 – and black athletes who have won come from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds as diverse as low-income African countries to highly developed Western countries like America, Canada, France, and the UK, suggesting at least some genetic link.  Any such excellence valued by society is sure to gain and hold ground through successive generations, a fertile, accommodating environment, and socio-cultural homogeneity.

Such physical genetic predisposition is found in many ethnic groups. Recent physio-ethnic studies have shown that Ethiopian children born to Ethiopian parents but raised in Europe consistently outperform white children in long distance running events, a phenomenon laid to a genetic ability to more efficiently use oxygen.  It is no wonder that Ethiopians, Somalians, and Eritreans are consistent winners in international marathons.

We live in an era which defies and challenges common sense.  Everyone in the Lucca family could see right before their eyes where Bobby came from.  His narrow eyes, hanging ears, large mouth, and long nose shouted ‘Lucca!’; and as he grew older and out of the range of the meddlesome aunts and uncles of his childhood but well within the radar of very different, equally eccentric, unique friends and colleagues, he still retained the same fortunate and unfortunate personality, character, and cognitive traits of his family.  ‘Once a Lucca always a Lucca’ went the refrain around Tilly’s Easter dinner table; and no one ever doubted it.

There is no multivariate equation to determine the balance between nature and nurture; but while there is no doubt that environmental factors influence personality, character, response, and ability; it is hard to dismiss the essential traits that come with the human package.  Physical characteristics are clearly inherited; but more subtle, complex, and hard-to-measure traits like intellectual ability, psychological makeup (shyness, will, confidence), or temperament may also be.

Most importantly of all, human nature itself seems to be hardwired - an inescapable drive for self-preservation and -protection; the survival of the species through garnered wealth, territory, and influence; and the spread of culture as an influential ancillary.
Does this genetic determinism deny individuality, free choice, and flexibility? To the degree that genetic make-up predisposes one to certain behavior, excellence, or failure, yes; but it is the illusion of free choice that makes us human.  The two have always existed.

Perhaps most importantly genetic predisposition does not obviate anomalous talent.  Anyone from any group can excel in any enterprise.  Predisposition only suggests outcomes.  Assuming otherwise is wrong and dangerous.

Last but not least, the pluralism of American society, and the increasing wealth, mobility, and opportunity of all groups assure that any and all ethnic groups that have existed in the past will soon disappear.  Inter-ethnic marriage will assure a society where the discussion of group characteristics is moot.

It is the denial of genetics which is most problematic.  An understanding of the role of human nature in history can temper futile, idealistic, progressive aspirations to progress.  Competition between people, societies, or countries is not a bad things; and while it may not produce a better world, it is the only proven way to arrange resources.

So there was a point to Tilly's Easter dinners, and everyone around the table realized it, understood it, and accepted it.  Bobby Lucca would only go so far.

Kamala Harris’ Pronouns–How An Indian Girl Became A Bollywood Princess

Vice-President Kamala Harris, biding her time until her boss stumbles over the line, said “I am here, ready to assume the leadership of the country and fulfil the anointed course of history”.

Of course she had no idea what the course of history was or would be, but took the phrase out of her songbook, carefully curated and edited by her staff, and used it often. She wanted more than anything to be President of the United States, to assume the mantel of office with pride and dignity, and to rule with justice and vision. It was only a matter of time, she knew, until President Biden finally bumbled his way into the wings, and patience, always a virtue in politics, was now her modus operandi.

Kamala demurred in public, expressing an undeniable, absolute fidelity to her president; but in private she was the agile ferret, alert, ready, and ready to strike.  She had never really liked Joe Biden.  He was far too uxorious. toadying, and simple to be President, but the people had spoken.  They had voted for Biden because they hated Donald Trump, but had no idea what a flaccid empty suit they were electing.   Kamala knew, and although many wondered why she was attaching her wagon to such a fading, dimming star, she knew that his tumbles would lead to a fall, and her time would come.

“I am a proud woman of color”, the Vice President intoned to a crowed of supporters.  “Black, and proud of it.  A woman and proud of it. And a champion of the poor, downtrodden, oppressed everywhere.”

Of course in this day of venal, attributable ethnicity, she conveniently forgot her South Asian, Indian roots and the tradition which got her where she was.  The Upanishads, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Aryan holy scriptures, the foundation of Hindu morality and social structure, were ignored; and yet they, rather than the American inner city- based ties to a much more primitive, enslaved past, were ignored.

Closet shelves are for sorting, organizing, and prioritizing according to preference and inclination, so Kamala should not be dunned for preferring her simple, African roots to the more sophisticated cosmology of Hinduism and its moral precepts.  Color is marketable in  today’s trade.  The nature of being and the prescribed path to enlightenment and God are irrelevant – dust bin material, references to an irrelevant if not discredited past.

A journalist had the temerity to ask the Vice President about her Indian, Hindu roots., inquiring about the moral, ethical, and social traditions which might have influenced her political choices. 

“I am a black woman”, the Vice President responded; “and while I embrace all religious traditions, my heart is in black America.

“I am a woman of the inner city streets”, she said, “and I am proud of it.”

Her detractors immediately called her out for what was a clear if tacit endorsement of the culture of bling, disrespect, machismo, and anti-white animus.  She demurred, saying that while of course she didn’t endorse prostitution and drugs (the hookers and crack of ‘the bitch set me up’ days of DC Mayor for Life Marion Barry)  she valued the indigenous, righteous culture of the streets, a culture of ethnic and racial populism, a fiercely democratic way of life.  She was happy to be the poster girl of the ghetto.

This hyper-glorious racial touting would be ignored for the political pastry it was if it hadn’t occurred in woke times – a historical blip when political sanity disappeared and radical idealism became  the meme of the day. Black is everything, the whole thing, the only  thing.

 “I am the black man”, Kamala said. “His struggles are my struggles.  His blood flows in my veins”, and she went on to political prominence, trading on her middle-age Bollywood looks rather than the heart of darkness. 

The melodrama got even more drippy and treacly when the Vice President said, “I am a woman, my pronouns are ‘she’ and ‘her’, and I am wearing a blue dress”.

Of course everyone in the room knew that this devious, calculating woman was just that – a female, ambitious, political courtesan.  Her disingenuous introduction was meant to signal to all that while she was solidly, unquestionably, and deeply a woman down to her most sacred parts, she respected and acknowledged all other women who might have come to their sex in other ways.  

There is room for the cross-dressing, transgendered, alternately sexed and all other possible sexual permutations in her life and in the Biden Administration.

She brushed back her full, luxuriant hair, turned to the cameras, her face redolent, a bright lipstick chosen to set off the copper-, coffee-, and slightly mauve highlighted color of her skin.  She gave the camera her best side, then her lesser side, a full frontal, and a Bollywood smile.  Let there be no mistake about it, men found her hot, and would vote for her because of it.  AOC was no drop in the bucket.  Multiculturalism – if expressed sensually – was an electoral benefit.

Harris often thought of herself as a modern-day Hedy Lamarr, one of the most beautiful women to have ever graced the silver screen and a brilliant scientist as well, responsible for telemetry, satellite communications, and host of other significant discoveries.  The Vice-President was surely in Lamarr’s league of beauties, and while she had not discovered anything, she was a leader of the free world, a champion of democracy, an inclusive leader who would go down in history for her progressive purity and liberal faith.

Harris had winced a bit when her President nominated transgender, gender-queer, and men and women of questionable sexuality.  While she was front and center in her political commitment to sexual equality, the gender spectrum, and Free To Choose sexual politics, she was a bit queasy when it came to intimacy.  As a whole-hearted, full-throated, sexually active heterosexual woman, she wondered about those faux women in the Cabinet.  In public she always gave them the most gracious and welcoming hugs, but privately shivered at the thought of what they did after hours.

Usually a woman never given to reflection or second thoughts, she dismissed these anti-multicultural thoughts and proceeded with the President’s liberal agenda.  What she would do once he left or was removed from office was another thing, and she would cross that bridge when she came to it.  

Maybe once seated at the presidential desk in the Oval Office she would surprise everyone and go Las Vegas glitter.  She, like all little girls, wanted to be a princess and thought that to be one of those beautiful, sequined, shimmering women on the runway would be life’s dream.  Enough dowdy, sensible shoed, buttoned-up, sexless women.

Of course she would have to run the gantlet of the righteous, but as president she would be able to deal with them unceremoniously and quickly.  Rule by fiat was her secret motto, kept more under wraps than even her sexual revolutionary ideas.  What was wrong with that, especially if you were on the right side of the divide?

Biden, Griner, A Drug Bust And Racial Diplomacy–Putin Loves Diversity

President Biden is negotiating for the release of Brittney Griner, a black American professional basketball player who was arrested and detained at Russian customs for attempting to smuggle cannabis oil into the country.  She admitted the fact, but stumbled over herself trying to explain and justify it.  “I didn’t know it was there….I packed so quickly i didn’t realize that I had put it in my suitcase…I have a prescription for it…I forgot to bring the prescription with me….” and other less publicized self-serving remarks to save her skin. 

Biden has made the Griner affair into a cause celebre because of the war in Ukraine and his avowed commitment to endorse and promote the rights of black people everywhere.  His political stature depends on his challenge to the authoritarian, brutally murderous regime in Moscow and his solidarity with historically oppressed minorities.  He has said that obtaining her release would be a top priority of his administration, and that he would stop at nothing to prevent the incarceration of an innocent black woman at the hands of America’s most corrupt and dangerous enemy.

Vladimir Putin was delighted at this turn of events.  Once again the American President put all his cards on the table before the betting even began.  There was no hole card, no bluffing, no intimidation.  We will give you anything for Griner’s release.

The deal is in the works and the result a fait accompli. Griner -  a political nobody except for her race and her sexuality, a woman of petulant white animus and rejection of America’s patriotic pride, will be sent home, welcomed as a champion of justice, feminism, LGBTQ pride, and black righteousness, while Russia will get back Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer, nicknamed the "Merchant of Death" by his accusers.

Bout a former Soviet military officer, is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles, and provide material support to a terrorist organization. Bout has maintained he is innocent. The Kremlin has long called for Bout's release, calling his sentencing in 2012 as "baseless and biased."

It is likely that given Biden’s naïve opening gambit, exposing his queen in an amateurish move, Putin will not stop at Viktor Bout.  Why not ask for some Ukraine concessions, elimination of economic and financial sanctions, and a blind eye to Russia’s currency swaps?

The American Justice Department, the State Department, and all but the most compromising members of the progressive Left are rejecting the idea of a prisoner swap, particularly when it concerns a most wanted, hunted, and finally captured arms dealer. Such a swap, especially for a rich, privileged, thankless, and duplicitous woman, sends exactly the wrong message to the international community.  Viktor Bout = Brittney Griner?  

The deal negates all that the US has said about arms trafficking, international terrorism, Russian treachery, and its own justice system.  It says that the purely national, politically inspired, transitory issues of race, gender, and ethnicity trump all serious international issues and concerns. It also opens the door to hostage-taking terrorism.  If Biden is willing to swap for such a trifle, he will certainly given in to hostage demands for more significant prey.

Behind closed doors, President Biden listened patiently to his military, diplomatic, and judicial advisors who to a person counseled against the swap, but was unmoved.  Not only had he made a commitment to the black and LGBTQ community and to his progressive political supporters, but to the world.  America’s greatness and international stature is based on moral issues of fairness, compassion, and diversity, and he would never compromise that ideal.

Of course Biden’s critics have had a field day with the Griner affair.  Here was an American president, at odds and arms with the world’s biggest strongman, Machiavellian par excellence, brutal, amoral dictator playing  global Go Fish, an absurd childish playroom game of political simplicity.  Here we are at war with Russia, obstinate in our tracks against Putin and his empire, engaging him in a globally significant conflicting Ukraine, dealing for an insignificant, rich cipher who was stupid enough to try to sneak drugs past Russian customs.

“You’re doing the right thing, Mr. President”, said Biden’s Special Advisor on Diversity.  “Brittney Griner is more than just a black lesbian.  She is a symbol of courage and rectitude for all oppressed minorities in our great land.  Her value is universal, absolute, and undeniable.” 

The President listened quietly as his advisor went on, rising in tone and spirit like a Sunday preacher, urging, cajoling, insisting that the President do the right thing.  Her pitch became feverish until she reached a fiery crescendo, stopped, took a breath, and looked with anticipation and her boss.

Geopolitics had never been the President’s long suit.  As much as he tried to follow the arguments and expositions of CIA intelligence strategists about the consequences of militant support of Ukraine - the destabilization of the region, the new alliances between Russia and China, the new moral authority given to the Chinese in their claims to sovereignty over Taiwan, Tibet and the Uighurs, and the upsetting of world energy markets in a time of recession- Biden could only bring up images of old Cold War politics, the Evil Empire, and the American-style revolutionary courage of the Ukrainians. 

The fact that Ukraine was the equivalent of Brittney Griner – a symbol rather than a valuable geopolitical asset – was lost on him.  A good fight, he said, a fight to the death, a just war, a holy war, a righteous claim to goodness.

All of America’s adversaries were salivating over the Griner swap.  The American president was a patsy, a man who could be had for peanuts, a pushover; and so encouraged turned to their own arms buildup, terrorism, regional bullying, and international intimidation.  Biden was a suit and a smile and nothing more.

The Griner affair is nearing its end.  Her trial is nearly over, and the closed door negotiations are in their final rounds.  Whatever the outcome, it will be a shameful story for Biden and America, another white flag of surrender, and a sure sign of America’s political and cultural decline.