Nick Rossi

PSC 213
Political Socialization, Final Paper
The universal definition of human nature is commonly referred to as a set of
characteristics that all human beings contain naturallythe behavioral aspects of life
such as feeling, acting, and thinking. Ruth Hubbard, author of Political Nature of
Human Nature, may have said it more efficiently when she rejected the notion of
human nature being a tool of describing people, but rather it is a concept based on
historical events that measure how humans are to behave and act (Hubbard 140). What
happens when human nature comes in contact with the United States of America and
the top one percent that drives this nation? America has always strived to live by its
anthem, namely, the land of the free and home of the brave, but do Americas people
really have true freedom when our human nature is challenged by what we see on
television, read in books or online, or when we delve into military establishments? In this
paper, I argue that human nature is much more complex than just acquiring these
behavioral aspects naturally. Large corporations, largely through the use of media, are
challenging Americans, and furthermore they are being told how to act, think, and feel
opposing this perception of naturally gaining these characteristics.
Ultimately, then, how is it that these characteristics are being challenged?
Hubbard explicitly states that behavior strongly depends on both environment and
genes (Hubbard 141). In this argument, I will debunk the latter and focus how
environment is more of a predominant factor in determining behavior in humans,
therefore trumping the notion of genes. I will use examples of how individual agency is
being tested through large corporations, namely Disney and its effects on young people,
the psychological approaches and demands one must endure to learn how to kill in
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combat situations, and several conspiracy theories. Lastly, I will present Mole People by
Jennifer Toth as a counterargument, framing this book around the practice of strong
willed agency, but at the same time still linking the motives of these mole people to the
environmental concept of behavioral status.
The Wonderful World of Disney is a monumental conglomerate that strongly
affects our society, namely the countless amounts of young people that watch Disney
movie after Disney movie. They achieve this effectiveness of shaping the public by
explicitly realizing the massive influence they have on the general public. Henry Giroux,
the author of The Mouse that Roared, accepts the argument of environment shaping the
behavior of individuals and provides his explanation through the terms of public
pedagogy. Young people more than adults are constantly engaged in learning, and,
they are one of the primary targets of the corporate-mediated teaching apparatus
(Giroux 5). Disney also spent a whopping $27 million dollars to lobbying firms in 2000
and more millions in government lobbying programs in hopes of easing federal
regulations on mass media companies and making legislation more favorable (Giroux
26).
It is from these figures alone that prove how much Disney, and other major
media corporations, knows in terms of impacting our everyday lives. Giroux suggests
that Disney is one big fantasy world in a society that is operated by big businesses to
look out for their own welfare. At the same time, however, it is being bought at the
expense of citizens agency as the past is purged off of its subversive elements and
translated into a nostalgic celebration of entrepreneurship (Giroux 55). Older and
younger people alike can relate to Disney because of its rich past, heartwarming
present, and promising future while giving up their agency simply because of the Disney
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name and the messages it carries. It is hard to believe that human nature still exists
even after major conglomerates like Disney dish out money in the six-digit range and
above to ensure and protect their own interests, eventually leading to the planting of
their seeds in our heads.
However, it is extremely easy to plant seeds in the minds of our societys youth
especially when their minds are ripe with curiosity, and super absorbent like a sponge.
When considering Disney, for example, every young girl would do anything to be like
the princess they see in Disney movies because that is the pinnacle of beauty. Disney
makes it all very clear and feasible to attain this ultimate beautyjust do what they do,
dress as they dress, speak as they speak. Disneys power lies in its ability to tap into
the lost hopes, abortive dreams, and utopian potential of popular culture (Giroux 8).
Disneys power also predominately lies in its teaching machines, namely Disney
animated movies. Additionally, when referring back to human nature, what does the
following quote suggest about this concept: Disneys teaching machine now shapes the
identities of youth from infancy to teenage years (Giroux 92). These identities are
shaped through Disneys goods, messages, values, and ideas. Disney has totally
omitted the nature aspect in human nature because now, these behavioral
characteristics are no longer coming naturallythey are coming through the images,
voices, and actions of Disney characters. Walt Disney said it himself that childrens
minds are blank pages in a book in which what is written on those first pages will impact
his or her life tremendously.
Moreover, Walt knew that education was not limited to the classroom only but
embedded in the broader realm of popular culture and its mechanisms for the
production of knowledge and values (Giroux 18). For example, critics of Disney claim
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that racism and bigotry against African Americans is being taught through The Jungle
Book and against Arabs in Aladdin. More so, gender roles are being depicted through
Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast telling young girls and boys how they must
interact with each other. Disney is telling them how to behave, not the laws of nature
because Disney is The Place Where Dreams Come True.
Similarly, the same principles of brainwashing and manipulation that thoroughly
disregards human nature can be seen in military establishments. Lets first start by
examining military ads in the media and video game developments. Almost every
military ad on television is carefully made to portray the glorious and celebrated works
of being in the military. Why? Because it is supposed to want us to join the military,
therefore thinking the way military establishments want us to think. Most ads are filled
with motivational speeches by a narrator, and depict the fun aspects of being a soldier.
However, nowhere in the ad does it show the brutality, the gruesomeness, and violence
that are strongly and inevitably associated with being in the military. Ads like these set
the norm of how we are to think about the military.
Likewise, the military spends millions of dollars in the video game industry in
games like Call of Duty, that expose the realism of military equipment and the violence it
reflects. There is a direct relationship between realism and degree of violence
enabling, and the most realistic of these games in which great bloody chunks fly off as
you fire at the enemy (Grossman 317). Video games like these are prompting its
players to realize how the military supposedly looks, from guns to battlefield situations,
and condition the mind to fire at an enemy without hesitations.

It is no surprise when

avid players of military games are familiar with the names of every single weapon, and
the operation of every single type of machinery used in warfare. This manipulation of
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reality will make it possible to replicate all the gore and violence of popular violent
movies, except now you are the one who is the star, the killer (Grossman 320).
These are perhaps the first steps in conditioning an individual to learn how to kill,
thus breaking us away from what we naturally know is right and wrong. Lt. Col. Dave
Grossman, the author of On Killing, provides a survey of what the process of training is
to get people to kill and what the killing does to those who do it. The book begins with a
surprising and pleasing description of how difficult it is to get humans to kill their fellow
man. Moreover, he illustrates that nobody wants to murder another human being.
Perhaps this is human nature contributing to the way we think about taking the life of
another. However, being in a military institution, this notion of human nature is
challenged and most times defeated at the hands of the manipulative authority within
the military.
In a military institution, there are many factors in the relationship between the
potential killer and the authority figure giving the order to kill. This process can be
generalized to combat circumstances and operationalized into a number of subfactors:
proximity of the authority figure, respect for the authority figure, intensity of the authority
figures demands, and the authority figures legitimacy (Grossman 144). Major
transformation in the percentage of soldiers firing their weapons is due to the
desensitization and conditioning training methods used by the military. These training
methods that condition the mind for combat reflect how behavioral status of human
nature might be natural at first, but can undoubtedly be transformed and manipulated in
terms of how soldiers must act, think, and feel under certain situations.
Human nature is also challenged at the hands of conspiracy theorists. Countless
Americans felt immeasurable amounts of anger and hatred toward Osama bin Laden
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and the rest of Al Qaeda when they turned a bright, sunny day in America into one of
the darkest and gloomiest days in American history. The feelings we felt that day, the
thought processes we had, and our actions that rose from this event were almost
universal, grounded in the concept of human nature. Then how does conspiracy
theories alter these universal characteristics of human nature? Many think that 9/11
was an inside job created by our own government. The answer is yet to be known, but
conspiracy theories like these capture our minds and drive us away from the fact that it
might have been Al Qaeda, and focus rather that it was the head of state.
Conspiracy theories tell us what to think about certain issues, feel about certain
groups of people, and sometimes even enacts us to act irrationally. Webster G.
Tarpley, an American described in David Aaronovitchs book, Voodoo Histories,
described 9/11 was a state-sponsored false-flag terrorism which is the true threat to
democracy and liberty, whereas the Islamist threat is the purest of confections
(Aaronovitch 241). Conspiracy theories not only grab the attention of innumerable
amounts of people, but also grab their way of thinking, feeling, and acting. Some
theories are valid because no matter how far-fetched they are, might be found to be
quite believable if properly tested (Aaronovitch 276).
On the other hand, one can argue that Mole People by Jennifer Toth provides an
example of how human nature is still prominent in these huge communities that live
beneath heavily populated cities, and they do retain individual agency. These mole
people share a common belief that they are betrayers by nature (Toth 32). This
provides us with the notion that the underground communities rely heavily on the gene
aspect of human nature. Even though they are seen as a sub-community, they believe

that have their own culture and individual agency. They strongly look deep within to find
their strength needed to survive that human nature allegedly provides us with.
However, the fact that these mole people do not want to live in regular society
just proves that environment plays a role in terms of human nature. Brenda, a mole
person, explicitly stated, I dont want that life, I dont want that pressure, I dont want to
be fighting all the time, struggling to be someone. It even becomes comforting. Its like
thats the real me. Im not afraid of anything not even fear. Im not afraid to be afraid
(Toth 217). Because of the reasoning behind why she rejects regular society, just
proves my argument that human nature and its respective characteristics are profoundly
impacted by environment.
Individual agency and human nature is severely challenged in the United States
especially when we are told what to think, what to feel, and how to act. Large
corporations and institutions, like Disney and the military, set our agendas for us in
terms of behavioral statuses. Mole people claim to have individual agency in their
underground communities, but it is, in fact, the environment that shapes them. Living in
the United States of America, it is safe to assume that individual agency is non-existent,
because the way we feel, act, and think strongly depends on what is going on in our
surroundings. So when somebody says, Its just human nature to behave and feel this
way, tell them human nature has little room for existence anymore in this day and age.