The Human Race

Reflections on Being Human
Nicholas Johnson
The Gazette, October 26, 2022, p. 6A
Homo sapiens are the only animal species able to talk themselves into difficulties that would not otherwise exist, from divorce to war.

“Is” enables the generalizations of prejudice: “she ‘is’ Black,” “he ‘is’ a Jew” – when they are both so much more.

Although some list three to nine human groupings, there is only one race. The human race. One species. Homo sapiens. Individuals whose DNA is 99.9 percent identical.

“Race,” or species, relations would be how we get along with cats and dogs, wildcats and bears.

An American astronaut and Russian cosmonaut come from different cultures and speak different languages. But they have more in common with each other than either does with their countries’ farmers, or brain surgeons. The same can be said of different countries’ trades workers, hobbyists and athletes.

Like other species, humans vary in height, weight, bone density, eye and skin color -- including comparing “whites” who spend the summer building the perfect tan and those who stay indoors.

But the significant differences between us are matters of culture: customs and norms, language and arts, religion and celebrations, history and mythology.

We trivialize the cognitive ability of plants and other animal species because we believe ourselves to be so much smarter. But the only two cognitive abilities any species requires are survivability and reproduction.

Molly Ivins once said of a Texas legislator, “If his IQ slips any lower we'll have to water him twice a day.” Given what Homo sapiens have been up to recently there are plant species demonstrating more cognitive ability than we have.

There are many advantages of a liberal arts education, however obtained. It’s like going from black and white TV to color TV, or well-seasoned rather than bland stew. Everything you see, hear, read about or do explodes with multifaceted meaning.

Even if one’s goal is great wealth from business, take note: Over one third of Fortune 500 corporate CEOs have liberal arts degrees.

Similarly, the more one values and knows of others’ cultures the more one can borrow and use in their own. Why are Denmark’s citizens so happy? How do matriarchal societies work? Cultural anthropology should be a required course.

When walking my Fitbit steps I greet those I meet. I’ve followed up with some I’ve talked to from India, Kurdistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Vietnam in a neighborhood park. For example, our Turkish friend attended our family gatherings. He informed us about, among other things in Turkey, family relationships, history, politics, his military experiences – and the game of reading fortunes from Turkish coffee grounds.

In fact, throughout my life I’ve found everyone I’ve met and talked with, no matter where they’re from or what they do, has had something to tell me I didn’t know. From millionaires to the homeless, they all have their story.

But that can only happen when I see an individual rather than a member of a group; when I approach the conversation with questions rather than assumptions and labels.

Nicholas Johnson is the author of "Test Pattern for Living." Contact mailbox@nicholasjohnson.org

SOURCES
The “is” of identity. See generally, S.I. Hayakawa, ed., Language Meaning and Maturity,” p. 29 (1954) (“4. The ‘is’ of identity. … To be wary of the ‘is’ of identity is to guard against confusing words and things ….”), and Wendell Johnson, People in Quandaries (1946), (“Unconscious projection shows itself rather conspicuously in our use of the verb to be in its various forms is, are, am, etc.”)

Human groupings. Paul Rincon, “Three human-like species lived side-by-side in ancient Africa,” News, BBC, April 2, 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52133534 (“Two million years ago, three different human-like species were living side-by-side in South Africa, a study shows. The findings underline a growing understanding that the present-day situation, where one human species dominates the globe, may be unusual compared with the evolutionary past.”)

Jasna Hodzic, “Homo sapiens is #9. Who were the eight other human species?” Big Think, April 12, 2022, https://bigthink.com/the-past/other-human-species/ (“Have you ever wondered why there is not another species like us? One line of reasoning suggests that we would not be so unique had we not killed off some of our relatives.”)

One race. “Ruth Benedict,” Heroes for a Better World, https://www.betterworld.net/heroes/pages-b/benedict-quotes.htm (“The peoples of the earth are one family.” “Culture is not a biologically transmitted complex.”)

DNA 99.9%. “Genetics vs. Genomics Fact Sheet,” National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, undated, https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Genetics-vs-Genomics (“All human beings are 99.9 percent identical in their genetic makeup. Differences in the remaining 0.1 percent hold important clues about the causes of diseases.”)

Culture. “Ruth Benedict,” Heroes for a Better World, https://www.betterworld.net/heroes/pages-b/benedict-quotes.htm (“The life history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community.” “No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking.” “We do not see the lens through which we look.”)

Molly Ivins. “Quotations,” Molly Ivins, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Ivins (“On James M. Collins, U.S. Representative, R-Dallas: "If his IQ slips any lower we'll have to water him twice a day.")

Cognitive ability. Paco Calvo, et al, “Plants are Intelligent, Here’s How,” National Library of Medicine, Oct. 20, 2019, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6948212/ (“Intelligent behaviour is usually recognized when individual organisms including plants … change their behaviour to improve their probability of survival. … Intelligent behaviour in single cells and microbes is frequently reported. … There is real biological benefit to regarding plants as intelligent …. The inbuilt driving forces of individual survival and thence to reproduction are fundamental to life of all kinds. In these unpredictable and varying circumstances the aim of intelligence in all individuals is to modify behaviour to improve the probability of survival.”)

Alison N. P. Stevens, et al, “Animal Cognition,” the nature education Knowledge Project, 2021, https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/animal-cognition-96639212/ (“The physical world poses a number of problems for animals to solve. On a daily basis, animals must find food, avoid predators, and seek shelter. Solving these problems requires cognitive capacities. Cognition involves processing information, from sensing the environment to making decisions based on available information. Such cognitive capacities include, among others, the ability to navigate through space, account for the passage of time, determine quantity, and remember events and locations.”)

Homo sapiens have been around for about 300,000 years. “What does it mean to be human? Homo sapiens,” National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-sapiens But ferns have been around for 300 million years! Will we be? I doubt it. Jerald Pinson, “About Ferns,” Resources, American Fern Society, https://www.amerfernsoc.org/about-ferns.

Liberal arts. “Ruth Benedict,” Heroes for a Better World, https://www.betterworld.net/heroes/pages-b/benedict-quotes.htm (“The adequate study of culture, our own and those on the opposite side of the globe, can press on to fulfillment only as we learn today from the humanities as well as from the scientists.”)

“Liberal Arts Education,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_arts_education (“Liberal arts education can refer to studies in a liberal arts degree course or to a university education more generally. Such a course of study contrasts with those that are principally vocational, professional, or technical.”)

CEOs. Tim Askew, “Why The Liberal Arts are Necessary for Long-Term Success; The Short-Sightedness of STEM,” Inc., https://www.inc.com/tim-askew/why-liberal-arts-are-necessary-for-long-term-success.html (“In fact, over a third of Fortune 500 CEOs have liberal arts degrees.”)

Elizabeth Segran, “Why Top Tech CEOs Want Employees With Liberal Arts Degrees,” Fast Company, Aug. 28, 2014, https://www.fastcompany.com/3034947/why-top-tech-ceos-want-employees-with-liberal-arts-degrees (“Other tech CEOs across the country agree that liberal arts training–with its emphasis on creativity and critical thinking–is vital to the success of their business.”)

Happy Danes. “Why Finland And Denmark Are Happier Than The U.S.,” World Happiness Report,” Jan. 9, 2020, https://worldhappiness.report/news/why-finland-and-denmark-are-happier-than-the-us/ (“Finland and Denmark have consistently topped the World Happiness Report in all six areas of life satisfaction: income, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, trust and generosity.”)

Matriarchal societies. Matriarchy, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matriarchy (“Matriarchy is a social system in which women hold the primary power positions in roles of authority.”)

Anthropology. “Cultural anthropology,” Oxford Languages, https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/ (“the branch of anthropology concerned with the study of human societies and cultures and their development.”)

Note: Two books by Ruth Benedict had a very early impact on my thinking about cultural anthropology that continues in this column: The Races of Mankind (1943) and Patterns of Culture (1934).

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A Millionaire by Age 30? Here's How

A fellow named Grant Sabatier has revealed his technique for turning millennials into millionaires by the time they reach 30.

There's a lot of wisdom in his story. But it reminds me of another story.

A concert audience member, blown away by the pianist's skill, walked up to the stage as the other audience members were leaving. She told the performer how much she'd enjoyed the concert, and then added, "I'd give anything to be able to play the piano like you do." Expecting a reply of "thank you," or "ah, shucks, ma'am," what she got was, "Oh, no you wouldn't." Startled, she protested, "Oh, yes I would. Why do you say that?" "Because," he replied, "you wouldn't be willing to practice six hours a day for ten years."

In other words, while our young millionaire has his math right -- any teenager willing to do what he says will have a shot at $1,000,000 by his or her 30th birthday -- few if any would be willing to follow the steps and live the life required to achieve that wealth.

Mr. Sabatier's recommended life, a kind of ultimate deferred gratification, reminds me of another story by way of explanation.

A farmer was leaning on his fence, looking out over his pasture, when his neighbor came over to chat. Noticing a mule lying on his side in the middle of the pasture, the neighbor asked,"How's your mule doing?" "Not so good," replied the farmer. "I was training him to live on dew; almost succeeded when he uped and died."

Sabatier doesn't require that his followers live on dew, but his requirements are only marginally more generous. He would probably agree with the thrust of the Saturday Night Live sketch in which a young couple with financial problems (played by Steve Martin and Amy Poehler) are urged, "Don't buy stuff."

The basic formula is that you hold more than one job, one of which you grow into a business, cut expenses to the bone, and invest a far larger share of your income than most would choose to do.

His investment strategies seem sound enough, and similar to what many investment advisers have to say: Buy index funds with the lowest percentage fees (rather than individual stocks or managed funds); on a regular schedule ("dollar cost averaging"); diversifying among max cap equities, small cap growth, foreign firms, real estate, and bonds (taxable and tax-free). Of course, that's the easy part -- once you have the money to invest.

I've given teenagers similar advice with a couple illustrations, both leading to the million dollars (in my illustrations, by age 65). One involves a 15-year-old smoker who gives up the habit and invests what would otherwise have been burned up. As I put it to a one-or-two-pack-a-day teen, "Smoking is not a $10-to-$15-a-day habit, it's a $1-to-$2-million-dollar habit."

The other illustrates the contrast between paying cash and buying on credit. Two teens want cars. One buys on credit and makes monthly payments for cars all his life. The other saves first, pays cash, drives the car while putting aside and investing monthly payments for the next one, repeating the process for all of his life. When then reach 65 they both still have cars, but the one who pays cash will also have $1-million in investments.

Or, as I used to tell law students (albeit before graduation carried with it $100,000 or more in debt), "If instead of buying a Mercedes or BMW you continue to live during the next ten years (as a lawyer) the way you did during the last ten years (as a student) you could retire at 35. You'll find your 'lifestyle' living on 90% of what you earn not noticeably different from living on 110% of what you earn."

It's all about the capacity for deferred gratification, illustrated by the marshmallow experiment. Jacoba Urist, "What the Marshmallow Test Really Teaches About Self-Control," The Atlantic, September 24, 2014. I was born during the Great Depression. Deferred gratification was not a goal, it was a reality born of lack of money. There was no alternative, if I really wanted a bicycle, to getting a paper route first, saving my money, and then paying cash for it. One saying of the time was, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."

But there is an alternative to poverty as the driving force.

If one thinks of doing without as painful deprivation, it is unlikely any teen who uses all their money to "buy stuff," one whose very identity is dependent upon physical possessions, will have any significant investments by the time they are 30, let alone $1-million dollars.

Yes, it's hard to alter one's behavior if one cannot alter one's thinking. But it's possible to alter one's thinking. I've written a book about it: Test Pattern for Living (available from Amazon).

Interested? Start by learning a little more about Grant Sabatier's journey, accomplishment, and program. Grant Sabatier's Millennial Money Blog; "Millionaire By Age 30? One Blogger Offers a Few Not-So-Easy Steps," Here & Now, WBUR, April 25, 2017.

The financial rewards can be enormous. But, like the lady who wished she could play the piano like that virtuoso, whether you are willing "to give anything" to achieve them is up to you.

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