Granados Column: Who, or what, is pulling the strings?

For the most part, we assume that we are in control of our cultural destinies. We believe that our ideas and goals are our own and that, guided by those, we determine the direction in which our culture
travels.

But what if that is all illusion? What if it is our DNA that determines our culture, and, consequently, the ideas and goals we think originate from our own, supposedly independent minds?

If the findings of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory scientists are any indication, that may be the case.

The group isolated a Zebra Finch from the rest of its kind, thus preventing it from learning the songs traditionally sung by its forebearers.

However, though the isolated bird was not able to replicate the song of its parents, within four generations, the new finch family, which had never heard the original song, was now singing the same tune.
How is that possible?

It would be like taking a family of staunch, political liberals or conservatives, isolating them from the world, stealing their newborn, pairing it with another isolated newborn, and within four generations
finding the new family had somehow acquired the same political preferences as a family it had never met and without exposure to the culture from which the beliefs originated. Politics, in this sense,
would be the human equivalent of song.

The article I read on this subject suggested that genetics could be responsible for the song, since the original hypothesis that it was learned behavior didn’t quite pan out.

Of course, humans are far removed from finches and political beliefs are more complicated than a bird’s tune, but the study does make you wonder: How much of what we think we choose is actually
encoded in our DNA?

True, modern-day political ideas have not necessarily shown up naturally in our ancestors, but perhaps the inherent characteristics that form them have. After all, liberal and conservative describe
temperament as much as they do ideology. Would it really be surprising that we acquire these temperaments genetically, and logically formulate our political ideals around them?

Doesn’t seem that far-fetched to me.

Of course, these implications could be disturbing for the many of us that are considering for whom to vote in the upcoming elections.

One must ask him or herself: Do I really think that the positions of Republican Del. Bob Marshall, who is defending his seat this November, are the right ones? Have I really come to this conclusion
through analysis and thought? Or was I destined to believe thus because my DNA says so?

Someone considering Democrat Creigh Deeds for governor of Virginia (or anybody running for any office for that matter) could ponder the same things.

The most basic and disturbing question raised by this study — do I choose my beliefs or does genetics? — is an offshoot of another question: Are my beliefs created, formed and thrust upon me by
society?

In this last question, rather than genetics determining one’s point of view, society does; a combination of peer influence, family influence, school influence, media influence, etc, conspires to form within us
beliefs that we think we own, but which really own us.

Because we don’t like to believe that we are not making choices of our own free will, we fool ourselves into thinking that it was our own bright thoughts that brought us to our conclusions, when the truth is
that they were picked out for us by people and institutions we met along they way.

That is even more disturbing than the problem raised by genetics, because in this case outsiders are controlling our minds . . . so to speak.

Of course, in the original hypothesis for how the Zebra Finch learns it song, something very much like this is what happens. Is the bird capable of its own songs, or must it sing those it learns from its
ancestors? If the latter, is that somehow more natural or better than simple biological determination?

The question of which dominates — nature or nurture — has long been an unanswered one, but what does seem clear is that whatever the answer, we are not as in control of ourselves as we think.

That’s something to consider the next time any of us finds ourselves certain that we have the right answer. We should reflect and consider whether the answer is ours at all.

Alex Granados is the editorial page editor and reader representative for the News & Messenger. He is not sure if he wrote this column, his DNA wrote this column or if you did. Have an opinion? E-mail
him at agranados@insidenova.com or call him at 703-878-8069.