Humanizing Warrior Genes

Much ink has been split on the much debated and researched topic of good and evil in relation to human behavior and morality. Moralists from every religion have tried to define morality in different ways. Psychologists have tried to unravel the mystery of good and evil for it might be relative. Victims of violence have questioned as to why evil is thriving feeding on the human power and dominance. Have you also been thinking and pondering on these two asymmetrical realities of human life?  

Browsing the TV channels to find a fitting program, came across a revealing and a pristine program on BBC Two named "Are you good or Evil?" I found it extremely interesting with some of the new discoveries in the field of moral psychology. The main issue that I gathered from it was, why do behind bars killers and psychopaths succumb to violence? 

Children are born with good morality. Despite their limited growth of the brain, they choose good impulses as opposed to the bad impulses which are true. If a child discovers that someone is in pain, its basic impulse leads the child to show sympathy and affection. For instance, if the mother is sick, the child does feel sympathy, but it won't be able to show the sympathy of adults. Thus, the scientists in California have proved with few experiments that Children usually choose good moral impulses. 

The concept of "warrior genes" are present in some of the people. They are innate and genetic. But in the case of marines, these warrior genes are trained and motivated. No marine or any humans would like to kill another human, but marines are trained to possess these 'warrior genes' which makes them 'bloodless' humans who will be ready to kill the opponents. This may be the same case with the team sports. The team must be trained to possess these warrior genes to fight against their opponent team. Therefore, in this circumstance, these genes are inflicted. In the process, they lose their basic moral impulse they had in their childhood. Could we place terrorists, suicide bombers, robbers, and criminals in this category where they are trained in their warrior genes? 

Scientist Prof. Jim Fallon learns from an extensive experiment with the psychopaths from the behind bars that the violent criminals and psychopaths have or inherit "warrior genes" by birth. They are unique people with some little impulsive disorder. These warrior genes take priority in their lives. Their genes feed on the abuses and bad experiences these children have in their childhood. And they grow to be violent with having nourished their warrior genes. This triggers their brain to act in a different manner. They don't feel but they think. Any feeling is the same feeling for this, whether its rape, or a table, it’s the same. This is an extraordinary problem which leads them to act violently even to the extreme of killing other fellow humans. If at all they had been treated well in their childhood, they would have turned out to be good people as it has happened to the scientist Jim himself who is supposed to be having a warrior gene, but he was well taken care of in his childhood. 

Criminal activities or violence is done not from their free will. As hitherto mentioned through their difficult upbringing, the free will vanishes and the warrior gene dominates. This ultimately takes over their lives leading them to commit criminal acts. Therefore, children must be cared for with utmost tenderness and love. The "warrior genes” must be treated in the sense recognized by some means and treated appropriately. Hence, we must understand why people are behind bars. Do we think they really want to be behind bars and not experience the light? Do we think that they have murdered or raped because they really wanted to? I think scientific discovery will throw much light on the questions. This will pave a path to the proper criminal justice system and to judge according to their ability to commit the crime not just the act of crime and hence, to treat the perpetrators. Parents must be more careful in handling their tender children. 

The climax of the Jesus’ ministry is the cleansing of the Temple of Jerusalem. All four Gospels narrate this event, but John’s Gospel has an interesting flavor to it. Jesus makes a whip out of some cord and drives out evildoer from the Temple. Heart of the event is not how he drove out the evil but keeping the temple clean and worthy of God. If our ‘warrior genes’ is active evil will be active but how to do, we domesticate those genes is crucial. We are potentially evil because of our flesh and blood. But most of us who are good prefer to supersede the evil and embrace the good and, hence, think and act well. For instance, when we are angry, we choose to overcome by not retorting at the spur of the moment. This will help us to be good although our inclination to retort and do evil. This is possible only if we have been able to domesticate our ‘warrior genes’. Let us ask for God’s assistance to work on our behavior and our character so that God is pleased with us always. Hence, we are ready to welcome the Lord at Christmas.

Pettiness: Not our way

Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur had finally succeeded in getting their homemade airplane airborne on December 17, 1903. Ecstatic over their success, they sent a telegram from Kitty Hawk, NC to their sister in Dayton, Ohio saying, "First sustained flight today. Fifty-nine seconds. Hope to be home for Christmas." Well, it seems sister was so thrilled by their success that she immediately took the telegram to the editor of the local Dayton, OH newspaper. The following morning edition found the Wright brothers' name splashed across the front page. The headline that day read, "Popular Local Bicycle Merchants Home for the Holidays." Quite obviously, the newspaper editor had missed the important point of the historic telegram.

Have you wondered why God became Man to save the world? God is almighty and all powerful yet became humble and seemed weak. God took on the flesh and became incarnated. During Advent, we focus on God becoming Man, the mystery of the Incarnation. God took initiative in the history of human salvation by sending His Only Begotten Son to be our Redeemer. Let us make this as the key of all our preparations for Christmas. In other words, it is to welcome Christ in our midst as Prophet Zephaniah says the King is in your midst and as John the Baptist says, He is mightier than I am. The king and mightier is in our midst, namely, in our lives, in our families, and in our Church community. Let us keep Christ in the center of all our preparations for Christmas.

The pettiness of Christmas might distract us from real and genuine emphasis. What does distract us from the praxis of Christ? Is it pettiness? If it is true, each one of us must guard against this to keep ourselves fixated. Petty things must not affect the true emphasis or else we will find ourselves vexing-over small matters of concern at the price of greater matters of concern. It is spontaneous to act in situations of concern, but it is equally imperative to discern before we act so that we may not miss vital focus on the situation. There are myriad situations in which we might like to act on matters, both at Church or at home. Pettiness is like a “chip on the shoulders” or an infection if which not treated might detrimental.

Pettiness can lead one to paranoia and frustration because of being petty, one is proving to be superior to the other or one is trying to be perfectionist considering others as imperfectionists. When we act without discernment, we tend to prove that we know better than others. This is a natural tendency that we have put up in our day to day life. A woman cited to me that she stopped driving because her husband always annoys her with instructions whilst driving. Obviously, the husband feels obligated to instruct her because he knows driving better than the wife. We know the persons in our lives who are “know all” persons. These people think that they have responsibility for the world, hence, they want to point out what is wrong with others. Pettiness can be the guiding force for the “know all” person. A perfectionist would love to point out to others, how imperfect another person is? Again, the person would like to point out errors of other persons because perfectionist thinks that he is obligated to make the world perfect. Hence, even the petty things might affect the perfectionist. A man elucidated his ordeal with his perfectionist wife. When husband washes clothe and presses it, the wife must find fault, either soap is still not washed properly or there is more than one line whilst pressing clothes. Hence, they have to struggle with each other, one being a perfectionist and another being, I am OK with what I do. There will be petty things bothering the relationship and friendships. If not attended and discerned, the relationship can be curdled.  

Joseph and Mary were not distracted with microscopic details at the manger whilst at the birth and nursing of Jesus. They embraced what is available with an attitude of sacrifice and surrender to the existing situation. If they had to fret over the things that were not in their favor, the childbirth and nursing would have been harder. They had to look beyond the pettiness to embrace the larger reality of God’s plan for Jesus. In life, we must look-over something and not fret about every little thing so that we look at the larger reality of life. Let us introspect, whether we fret-over trivial matters and hence distract others and ourselves or we, like Mary and Joseph, look at the larger reality. It is true, those small things make bigger reality, however, the small things must not allow us to distract from the bigger reality. This Advent must help us to supersede petty things and must help us to keep our horizon open to welcome and invite the Lord into our midst. At the same time, the Advent must help us to keep our minds and hearts fixed on important things in life and if possible ignore petty things, in order that we live a happy and good life with each other.