Recension av Gunnar Odhner

Den mänskliga naturen är amerikansk?

16 augusti 2003

Shakespeare is much more true to "human nature" when he lets Hamlet hold out the flute to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (as a symbol of himself or mankind) asking them to play on it. They can't of course. Noone can. But Pinker and other "scientists" think they can.
It is very strange, in fact unbelievable, that evolution or whatever created us, has mainstream American politics as a goal. But that is what Pinker arrives at when he puts his own words in the mouth of evolution (who never talked to anyone, by the way).
In his view of gender, male behaviour, childrearing, art etc he sounds like a crossbreed of Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. And it seems he is not even aware of how utterly American his thoughts are! He sees a lot of traits and ideas that thrive only in the US as part of human nature!