Child A is raised with love and fun, empathy and humor, and that’s the view of life he learns automatically. Bad things happen, there are trials and ordeals, can even be tragedy, but deep down he will always have the expectation that things will turn out for the best, that goodness will prevail, that somewhere above him an authority of virtue and reason, learning and fulfillment, is in charge and will lead him to ultimate good. He will learn, so deeply that it’s part of him, an ethic of being good to others, of fairness and kindness and empathy. Even studying history and philosophy and science will not really tarnish this underlying belief. Cynicism and corruption encountered later in life, no matter how much they disturb him and even for a time disillusion him, cannot completely destroy his underlying faith in the good.
Child B doesn’t get the love and fun and empathy and humor. His infancy and childhood are instead full of uncertainty, need, often dread and disappointment. Even if he is cared for physically, an element of trust is missing. Whether he is ignored or blamed, he grows up with his own understanding of how things are. His attitude will be one of wariness, anger, and the conviction that he’d better grab whatever he can.
Both will grow up amid varying experiences, and both will continue to be influenced by what happens to them and also by how they react. They will in effect teach others how to treat them. Later, they will raise their own children in accordance with how their lives have been so far, depending on what events and associations have tempered that childhood beginning. But the two opposing beginnings remain.
How, Child A grows up to say, can we not feed the hungry, shelter everyone, legislate kindness? Who can begrudge sharing abundance with those who have nothing? But Child B grows up to say no, that’s foolish and deluded and naive. Both sides believe that they are right and that the other side is missing the point somehow. Each side makes caricatures of the other as they oppose each other in politics and life.
Learning is random. Birth environment is luck. All of us are taught how to be, by what happens to us and what we observe. All of us have an effect on those around us. As adults, Child A can make the world a better place and Child B can wreck it. Both are making new and far-reaching scientific discoveries, spreading ever-faster and wider influence.
Are we, moving toward something, or is this the way things will always be?