cyberbuddy
When at birth man is plunged into this changing world, he enters into two main heritages. In the first place, he has acquired a bodily structure, apparently complete, with bony organization which evolved through countless generations from early forms of life. The range and power of his sense organs set limits to what he can see, hear, smell and feel.
Modern scientific instruments like telescopes, microscopes and telephones have extended his power of perception. He cannot see far off things. But he can do so with the help of a telescope. He can see tiny things with the help of microscope which are not visible to his naked eye. He can talk to a person in the far-off corner of the world through telephone. Such an increase in the power of our sense organs makes us realize how limited our direct powers of perception are. In the second place, man inherits a social environment. Most of us are born into a home, have school companions, friends and acquaintances. We find readymade institutions, books which have been read and laws which have been obeyed for hundreds of years- a mass of established tradition and belief. All these influences surround us from birth with rules of conduct, social taboos and prohibitions, shaping the greater part of our behavior and coloring our thoughts until we die. Our attitudes towards our parents or our children, to individuals in other social classes, towards religion, politics, towards the whole society are more or less determined by his social environment. We have customs and beliefs which are scarcely more than historical relics of our savage origin. We have taboos about food and about thunder. We are still very close to primitive man in outlook, temperament and social background- a fact which became evident in terms of danger and great excitement. It is easier to see the caveman in others than in ourselves. Only about ten thousand generations, after all, separate us from our savage ancestors. And looking back along the line of our ancestors we can see that ancestors were naked, wandering savages.
Modern scientific instruments like telescopes, microscopes and telephones have extended his power of perception. He cannot see far off things. But he can do so with the help of a telescope. He can see tiny things with the help of microscope which are not visible to his naked eye. He can talk to a person in the far-off corner of the world through telephone. Such an increase in the power of our sense organs makes us realize how limited our direct powers of perception are. In the second place, man inherits a social environment. Most of us are born into a home, have school companions, friends and acquaintances. We find readymade institutions, books which have been read and laws which have been obeyed for hundreds of years- a mass of established tradition and belief. All these influences surround us from birth with rules of conduct, social taboos and prohibitions, shaping the greater part of our behavior and coloring our thoughts until we die. Our attitudes towards our parents or our children, to individuals in other social classes, towards religion, politics, towards the whole society are more or less determined by his social environment. We have customs and beliefs which are scarcely more than historical relics of our savage origin. We have taboos about food and about thunder. We are still very close to primitive man in outlook, temperament and social background- a fact which became evident in terms of danger and great excitement. It is easier to see the caveman in others than in ourselves. Only about ten thousand generations, after all, separate us from our savage ancestors. And looking back along the line of our ancestors we can see that ancestors were naked, wandering savages.
