Joseph on Nostr: What Made You Who You Are? I am in my late sixties. My nature or personality from ...

What Made You Who You Are?

I am in my late sixties. My nature or personality from birth was surely a big contributing factor for me. I am quiet by nature, measuring my words before speaking, introverted, and not ambitious. My parents were not extremists in any way, reasonably progressive for their time, though with disapproving biases about sexual orientation and substance use. My mother was a Democrat and my father was a Republican. But I recall them both being understanding about the civil rights movement of the 1960s as broadcast on television. I never heard either of them speak negatively about those events or use a racist slur. But I tried one out at home one day while my mother was cooking at the stove, after hearing a school classmate use it. She spun around and slapped me across the face—the only time she ever did that. We had our disagreements on some issues, but nothing serious. We moved from Washington, D.C. to Texas during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I had a devout Catholic upbringing and, though I’m no longer religious, I think it contributed to but was not entirely responsible for my personal and professional values. Unethical behavior is more offensive to me than anything else, though I realize that what one considers unethical is an individual choice. I value diversity and don’t consider the things the religious right judges unethical to be so. I consider behaviors that deliberately harm others to be unethical, including primarily greed and bigotry.

I was radicalized some in college after being invited to join the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES). Social justice concerns in Central America aligned with my Catholic upbringing, especially since the U.S. was involved in training government soldiers who were subsequently involved in the murders of Catholic priests and nuns. That led me to join the U.S. Peace Corps where I was exposed to additional cultures and beliefs while working on reforestation in the Sahel region of Senegal after earning a degree in biology and a minor in statistics. I continued to study those subjects while earning a master’s degree in plant science.

To the extent that I was successful in a long career leading statistical policy studies, I attribute it to the luck of being a tall white male, being in the right place at the right time again by luck, and having a exaggerated need to please others including my superiors and colleagues by working outside of normal work hours and not complaining. I mostly attribute my critical thinking skills to higher education. I always tried to please in the workplace, unless I thought something unethical, which only happened a couple times in my career. I am now retired and doing a lot of reading I was often too tired to do while employed.

#Nature #Nurture #Ethics #Personality