I find myself evaluating all the available evidence, and reluctantly concluding that man is nothing but a sophisticated animal, responding systematically and predictably to the contingencies of reinforcement in his environment – with the sad circumstance of being possessed of an intellect that is sufficiently evolved to allow us each to fancy that we, individually, are somehow exempt from behaving in accord with the systems of reward and punishment that surround us.
Though we may speak of higher laws and powers – none is more high, or more powerful, or more universally true than the lowest common denominator of humanity – our susceptibility to reinforcement.
….and thus, I’m left observing my own behaviour, wondering what it is about my environment that is rewarding and punishing me, shaping up the way I behave at this point in my life?
