Stalemate

This week's topic isn't one that I'd ever really put a lot of thought into.  As of beginning to write this, I don't think I'm leaning toward either side of the topic -too- much, though I'd initially have to give my preference to "nature", or the natural predisposition of people.  Let's explore my thinking together, shall we?

I don't believe that either of the two ideas is completely dominant - rather, it seems like you might be steered toward certain choices by either side.  If you take a peace-loving teenager in North Korea and conscript them into military service, will they change in the process?  ... Possibly, but it seems more likely to me that if the person truly loves peace, they'll hold onto that ideal even through conflicting circumstances.  I don't think that it's necessarily an absolute idea for either side of the argument, though - there are plenty of instances where a well-meaning person was influenced strongly by events outside of their control, and it changed the very core of who they were.

Foreshadowing, using a shadow.  I cannot overstate how much I like this picture.

Let's delve into some more personal examples.  Readers of the blog should have a basic idea of the circumstances surrounding my childhood (and casual or first-time readers should go back and read all of the old entries from all of our posters), so I won't spend a lot of time talking about those.  But I think it would be fair to say that I grew up in an environment ruled by the concept of "no rules".  (Yes, I'm aware that statement is paradoxical.  No, I'm not going to change it.)  One of the most common things to observe in my environment, from as early as I can remember to... well, to present-day, was media based around violence.  Did this constant exposure to violence shape me as a person?  ... Well, it's hard to say.  I definitely have a high tolerance for the presence of violence in media, but I'm definitely not predisposed toward violence as a person.  I try to avoid it, if at all possible (though there are times where I think fondly about it... usually concerning specific people/circumstances).  I think that I'm a clear example of nature winning out over nurture.

On the other hand, however, you have my oldest sister.  She was quite intelligent from an early age onward, and she never got into the same activities that I (and, to a lesser extent, my other sister) did - she greatly preferred 4-H and NJHS/NHS as her activities of choice.  Once she got into high school, though, she changed.  She got into a lot of questionable situations, had her first daughter, started attending (and then immediately dropped out of) college, and it's been kind of a downhill slide ever since.  These days, despite still being reasonably intelligent (with no common sense whatsoever), she's living in a bad situation with no positive prospect that doesn't involve some sort of extreme, stressful change.  Was her genetic disposition flawed from the beginning, to have her life turn a 180 like that?  Or did the environment she was in during her teenage years influence her so strongly that she led herself down a different path than the one she would have chosen otherwise?  Obviously, it's impossible for me to say for sure, but I'm leaning toward the latter.

I could probably come up with more examples, but I don't think that doing so would truly be worthwhile.  At this point, as ideas, I don't really think that either nature or nurture can be considered stronger than the other.  I think it just depends on a multitude of factors... or, sometimes, maybe even on one seemingly insignificant detail.  Who can really say for sure?