Quote:
Originally Posted by ThaVirus
Yeah, there’s probably a deeper nature vs nurture debate baked in there.
What always trips me out is the fact that, statistically speaking, if your parent is an addict, you are more likely than the average to also be an addict of that particular vice. That’s wild.
Addicts, abusers, etc. who were raised by an addict, abuser, etc. had front row seats in the class of How Not to Raise Your Children and failed miserably. You were literally given a blueprint on how not to be.
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I read a book a few years back that talked about how society is far more beholden to a handful of personalities than we seem to realize.
Something as simple as evolving into an agricultural society may have truly come down to a handful of guys in early human history who said "No, we are GOING to do this..."
Because look at things like cultivated wheats. They have anti-drought protections whereby only 1 in 5 seeds will germinate in a given year - the rest stay dormant. Well thousands of years ago, they didn't know that. So they planted enough food for 100 people in the village, 1/5 of it germinated and then 80 people starved to death.
99% of society says "Nah, we're done with that nonsense..."
1% tries to figure out what the hell just happened, bows their backs and tries again. They fight through it. And hell, of that 1%, 90% of THEM probably die in the attempt. They try and fail. But that's where large numbers come in. Eventually the right person hits the right circumstances, gets a proof of concept and you have a new normal.
That generational decay within a family could be very similar, IMO. You need one person somewhere in that lineage to be the guy that said "No, we're planting wheat again and by God we're GOING to figure out how to make it work..." And then that person has to make it work. And in a smaller subset of people, even one person trying and failing could keep a family line stuck in neutral for decades to come.
That level of stubborn isn't common. We know from anthropological records that its rare as hell. We know from history. Inertia controls almost everything people do. Within that group, it takes a
person who's just preternaturally obstinate to force things out of the ordinary course. Agriculturally, militarily, societally, etc.... So often these things come down to a person or a small handful of people who are willing to just nut up and try again.