Essay:The forebrain, a hindrance to evolution.

It is the present and man is at the Apex. He has on the way to the top of the Food Chain, manipulated the environment toward the satisfaction of needs and desires. Survival and fittest, food, the conservation of energy, the sex drive and the herd relation; these needs and drives, that consumed the major part of every day and involved everyone in some way for many thousands of years, now have higher success rates and require less time and less involvement and they have more complex structures that not all have inherited in full. Having overcome most of the external threats from other species while at the same time improving our ability to manage the environment, survival instincts and definite purpose in primitive form are mostly out of place in the social groups of adolescents under adult control. Also not needed is the primitive, mostly insensitive, Alpha Male type. Our social groups might not attach value (importance) to the inheritance factor(s) and understanding the many different behavioral patterns that appear from them during adolescence. These qualities are known to be in the Hindbrain, (and inner brain), the older part of the brain, and assumed to be most of Freud’s “ID”, one of the three parts of the Psyche; whereas the cerebrum, a major part of the Forebrain that has developed more recently, and might be considered ‘’’A hindrance to evolution’’’, where intelligence, memory, imagination and thinking develop in some of us, essentially following the growth of the individual as he negotiates ‘biological and sociocultural forces - Erickson’. For many thousands of years, the distinction between adult and adolescent has been reflected upon, and the actions to be considered have hardly changed. It is known that qualities good and bad can be adjusted easier at the earliest stages of development and if left alone, can progress to socially unacceptable proportions. An example is; from long ago, ‘The Cry Wolf’ syndrome which apparently has developed to beyond ‘hyper startle’ and is not possible to contain, nor convince one it exceeds reality. Szondi describes drives as having opposing forces and this suggests ‘The Cry Wolf’ syndrome that might not seem critical, might be displacing a very necessary positive force. Now responses to needs, drives and desires, require additional thinking for one to interact successfully in a social group. Training and adjustments are easier early on and become increasingly more difficult as one advances in age. Within the group, (our part of the Food Chain), one will invent or discover a tool (or different action/response), and many will copy the tool, (some by the use of flash memory), and eventually it will be used (not necessarily understood), by all. Copy and follow seem to be in all of us (instinctive) at various levels of excitation. They are a part of our social nature and the desire to belong can interfere with our feelings of fairness, not having an early introduction to the elements and understanding of Natural Law. One in this group reaches a point, sometimes early, where suddenly he has a strong impulse to strike out on his own and his actions, mostly physical in nature, can lead to his becoming self-sufficient. This is suggestive of the basic pattern understood to be the end of adolescence and entering maturity that has been a part of us for thousands of years or more. Very little is required for this biological event (stage) to be seen and for many it can be the disruption of or end of academics. All animals do this; reach a point where he (a crock) is now a (crock) mostly like all the others. We, more complex, most reach this point, assuming successfully, and they adopt a skill or interest (like carpenter) and they are fully satisfied that they are a (carpenter)-man, mostly ignoring other endeavors. Erickson’s psychosocial stages of development outline the steps that lead to maturity. In some instances, the pattern is the same, up to a point, the impulse is strong but he does not necessarily strike out on his own, he just feels that he knows enough of everything and his now independent nature is lacking the training that would build self-sufficiency in today’s environment. This is suggestive of the end of adolescence (biologically) but not the emergence from ‘Piaget’s, Egocentrism’. The present action of the majority today, ‘going to work’ seems to fit where hunter/gatherer has been and long before that he was carnivore; but he and some have an incomplete response to this stage. It is possible that for many, this stage now has so many options and he wasn’t a hunter/gatherer, he was perhaps, a tool maker, fire builder, skinner, or look-out; so his inheritance (gene structure), might be of such that from long ago, his entering and reaction to this stage has taken on a subtle form hardly to be recognized and activation stimulus is missing. This part of the group has become the majority, skills along with associated physical ability and training are the elements that can aid one in becoming self-sufficient. Those in the group who are emerging from adolescence and have not adjusted to and do not have a mental conflict with, current social/group patterns, have a near final chance at entering the social group by receiving support/training from others. Some in this group, in their formative years, will be influenced to accept/recognize the changes to basic actions, needs/drives they are missing or do not know they are missing. Being eager to participate, their support will come from social interaction, peer pressure and education. Those being drive deficient, and not a follower type, having a lack of understanding of the source of this independent nature, will have difficulty with the learning process. Others, Perhaps the Alpha hopefuls, sub-Alphas and followers, all with the use of their now larger brain and the many accumulated survival and adaptive options, (such as being alert to everything everywhere at all times and ready to defend, escape, confuse and more), available effected in part by gene scattering and the displacement of the instant fight/survival impulse/response, have become dominant in number and their cognizant and sensitivity levels expected in us at maturity, begin (are available to begin) much earlier and can be very active. Hardly is it possible to locate the activator; although ’some life choices are inherited – Szondi’. Erickson’s psychosocial development is very descriptive of this group’s path to maturity.

These two groups do not know each other although they have existed together for many thousands of years.

From the very beginning, one of the basic needs/drives has been the acquisition of food, Many changes/modifications have occurred as to how we get food, and how important we perceive it to be. These changes involve our physical and mental abilities and the influence of the environment; the need/drive is still here. Very noticeable in the animal world, when in the pursuit of food, is the ‘conservation of energy’ where one must know the boundaries and limits of his abilities. Survival in this state, not only depends on the extreme factors; but there is also the waiting, resting, measuring distance and size factors. From this one might suspect that the drive to acquire food, having been at the top of Survival elements, might have left in us the obverse of the hunting drive, (opposite drive need) and perhaps this is why we all seem to have in us the ‘Do It The Easy Way, Factor’. While in the adolescent stage, many are fortunate to be in a group/community that the repetitions they encounter are all aimed at, “just do good”, and the environment is friendly and supportive. Attempts to understand adolescent behavior and convey a lesson or moral lesson are as old as writing. The use of Parables, Apologues, Aesop’s Fables, and Folklore fit easily into the process and they have been used for thousands of years. In many areas today, there are no aids of this type. When problems occur during our growing stages, hardly has Algebra been at fault, a different section of the brain is involved. The formal learning processes have been developed with much care and one progresses level by level to some measurable point; whereas learning our basic physical and mental nature and to accomplish things physical, if only that which has improved everyday life, and to exist in a social order, being aware of the necessity for sources of information, and understanding more about the elements of our environmental infrastructure, these elements were always left, mostly by tradition, to other stages that are fading, perhaps, thru population density and many social factors. It is becoming more and more evident that the very nature of our genes along with the working of the food chain caused a sort of consistency, a balance of traits that always continued that helped control and preserve the order of things. That Survival was the highest order is easily seen; but as a group, the selection process had to provide soldiers, followers and specialists for future generations also, not only Alpha Male. From this observation, there is a hint of pre-destiny and possible identifiable character traits. There appears to be no master plan for groups at or near the top (of the food chain), where little or no external opposing/balancing/controlling forces remain in the sphere of influence. That is to say, we are/appear to be disturbing the natural biological balance, the social order and the selection processes purposeful to survival that have been with us for a very long time. For us, it appears that realism about man as an animal is of little interest. Perhaps there will be clues in the bones of the groups that went on before us and artifacts from the civilizations that vanished.

Jim DeOre jul2014