“Much of what we do as adults is based on this imitative absorption during our childhood years. Frequently we imagine that we are behaving in a particular way because such behaviour accords with some abstract, lofty code of moral principles, when in reality all we are doing is obeying a deeply ingrained and long 'forgotten' set of purely imitative impressions (along with out carefully concealed instinctive urges) that makes it so hard for societies to change their customs and their 'beliefs'. Even when faced with exciting, brilliantly rational new ideas, based on the application of pure, objective intelligence, the community will still cling to its old home-based habits and prejudices. This is the cross we have to bear if we are going to sail through our vital juvenile 'blotting-paper' phase of rapidly mopping up the accumulated experiences of previous generations. We are forced to take the biased opinions along with the valuable facts.”

(2010), p. 86
The Naked Ape (1967)

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Desmond Morris14

English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter 1928

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Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

Concepts

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Section 33
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)

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Source: Human Nature and the Social Order, 1902, p. 182 (1922)

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Desmond Morris14

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