i Jit SCIENCE FEATURE Human nature changes and can be _ HOW OFTEN in a discus- sion do we hear—“Ah, well, it’s human nature. You can’t ‘change human nature.” Well you may ask, what is human nature? A number of psychologists in Britain and the United States are studying this question. There is no doubt such a thing as human nature that can be observed and investi- gated. Man behaves in vari- ous ways according to the dif- ferent circumstances in which he finds ‘himself. The dif- ¥Yerences in human nature de- “pend on the kind of society man lives in, It changes according to the different activities he undertakes in ‘his social sur- roundings, and according to how he himself changes his social ‘surroundings. i Compare the tight-corset- ed middle and upper-class women of Victorian days legally and economically de- pendent on man, with ‘their ‘counterparts of today. Today women are at least theoretically, if not always practically, admitted. to all spheres of work and walks of life. which they take part our Vic- torian forefathers would have _ considered strictly against ‘the “human nature of woman.” Some of the Siete ex- amples of the changes in - “human nature” are found in the study. of primitive tribes. “Thus Dr.. M. Mead de- Scribes how life among the ~Arapesh. of New Guinea de- velops in men characteristics ‘we would consider feminine. They display “maternal in- stinets” which make them soothe and rock (babies for ‘hours. But in a neighboring tribe, the Mundugumor, even the women deport them- * Selves as ferociously as hardly the most aggressive males would dare in our so- ciety. Dr. R. Benedict describes in detail how the Dobu (of New Guinea), who inhabit a very poor stretch of country- side, have become so deceit- ful and secretive that they smuggle théir own harvest home in the dead of night for fear of _ being ‘branded as ‘Many activities in ‘taken place even since 1917. - nature.—V. STER. ‘ changed © thieves should this harvest have been a good one. ee Tak FIGHTING ‘AND _aggres- siveness as “basic ‘human instincts” are frequently be- ing made into an excuse for the inevitability of wars. How often do you hear the words “Men will always fight’? : But Dr. Benedict tried to talk ‘to the Mission Indians of California ‘on warfare, and found that the idea was so foreign to them that they could simply not understand it. A similar account is given by Rasmussen albout the Es- ‘kimos who could make no distinction ‘between the kill- ing of an individual, in our sense of a capital offence, and the mass killing which takes place in modern war. Many: of these anthropol- ogical studies are just col- - lections of more or less faith- ful observations. But they bear out the Marxist view ‘that human nature depends ‘on man’s economic and social ‘organisation. — Man in changing his social conditions is changing him- self. There is no such thing as a “stable unchanging, eternal, basic human nature.” se ee 2 THERE IS PLENTY of current evidence as well. The reports from the delegations that ‘jhave visited the Soviet Union tell clearly of the enormous changes that have Not only are Soviet people changing ‘the face of nature with their enormous con- struction schemes. They are also Sees ‘the nature of man: ‘Perhaps the most striking thing’ is ‘the change arising from the development of . equality between men and women: A psychologist in cabttaliat society may ‘find instincts of aggressiveness and instincts of acquisitiveness and claim them as ‘basic human nature. It may well be human or, more correctly, inhuman, na- ture of the capitalist to be acquisitive and aggressive. The struggle for socialism is also a struggle for human A Book Publishers Dared Not Print Now 5th Printing (Total 30,000 ‘Copies) “SPARTACUS” By Howard Fast $2.75, plus 3% ‘sales tax - post free Available at People’s Co-op Bookstore 337 W. PENDER MA, 5836 ALL THE BEST IN PROGRESSIVE BOOKS Subscriptions taken for all magazines.. Union, Labour Monthly, Soviet Send for list. For Lasting Peace, Soviet Literature, Pacific Tribune, Canadian Tribune, Czechoslovak Life, News Facts, ete. Photographers exchange compliments Scores of correspondents and photographers representing the world major newspapers ng press agencies are covering the Korean war trice talks at Panmunjom. from Chinese, Soviet and other newspapers exchange friendly camera “shots” covering the talks for American and British publication. Here photographers Capsule Reviews DEATH OF A SALESMAN Arthur Miller’s play of des- pair and despondency comes off the screen with even less ex- . planation of the social causes. . behind the failure of salesman Willy Loman. Within those limits, accomplished perform- ance by cast. DECISION BEFORE DAWN’ Realistic but shallow U.S. . film (made in Germany) about German POW’s who volunteer- ed for spy missions behind the German lines during the Second World War. A PLACE IN THE SUN Misses the ‘social implications of Dreiser’s great novel, An American Tragedy, from which it is taken, but still worth see- ing for general excellence in acting, photography and direct- Ing. THE BROWNING. VERSION Sensitive direction and superb acting combine to make this one of the best British pictures of some time. In every sense an adult picture. as compared to the Hollywood tripe. THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE Stephen Crane’s realistic novel, intended to debunk the romantic approach to war, emerges on the screen at this moment in world history al- most as a well-done recruiting ‘film, ANGELO Poorly acted Italian film that stumbles on the “Negro ques- tion” and falls flat on its face. Despite a plea for “tolerance” it manages, with the blessing of the Catholic church to express a mountain of chauvinism. GUIDE TO GOOD READING Sunday face poetry wears. Several years before the First World War, T. S. Eliot (then at Harvard) read some verses of Baudelaire and Laforgue, and set on paper his own incipient disgust with the petty aims of bourgeois respectability. Sunday: this satisfied proces- -Sion - . or definite Sunday faces ae tis And Life, a little bald and grey, Languid, fastidious and bland, Waits, hat and gloves in hand, Punctilious of tie and suit (Somewhat impatient of delay) On the doorstep of the Abso- lute. He was intelligent enough to perceive what William Morris had already \described as the “sordid, aimless, ugly confu- sion” of capitalist society, its indifference to life asd hostility to art. In his best poem, ‘‘Prel- udes,” he trembled for an in- stant upon the edge of real pro- test. But from this time his out- look has become increasingly negative. Scholarly, pedantic, contemptuous of ‘the people, he has lost all positive responses to the life about him, and hawks for nostalgic scraps from the — culture of the past. But Eliot conquered. Today “distinguished” reticence, schol- arly allusion and _ theological dogma reign over most of the - poetry and criticism published in Britain, in Canada and the United States. x * * PROF, J. ISAACS’ book, The Background of Modern Poetry, published in England, is mainly of interest in this context. Modern poetry, for Prof. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MARCH 7, 1952 — PAGE 8 _ ’ of modern a sneer Isaacs, is T. S. Eliot. Conse- quently, the literary influences upon Eliot are the only ones _ to receive aittention. Two of the Isaacs’ reprinted radio talks are devoted to the French Symbolists and _ the “Imaginists,” while important influences upon the movement of the thirties (for example, Hopkins, Yeats and Wilfred Owen) receive no treatment at all: a Among all the scholarly an- ecdotes,, Isaacs makes no at- tempt to assess what Eliot was _ revolting against, finds no time t@ consider the background of social experience or ideas of our time and fails to mention ‘the existence of the second revolt of the thirties. ; For this reason ‘this book gives vise only to confusion asd com- "Placeney.— —E. P. THOMPSON. 2 RENDER F AUDITORIUM (Marine Workers) 339 West Pender — LARGE & SMALL HALLS FOR RENTALS Phone PA. 9481 nn with. photographers