Our bizarre behaviour, killing our own kind and other unmentionable ruthless acts, has its roots in our sociobiology, a term coined by Professor Wilson of Harvard, who published his theory in 1975. The theory set off alarms all over the scientific world for what he had said amounted to giving credibility to the nature versus nurture theory; sort of a genetic design dictating our behaviour. "To be anthropocentric is to remain unaware of the limits of human nature, the significance of biological processes underlying human behavior, and the deeper meaning of long-term genetic evolution," retorts Wilson but concludes it with "the truth appears to lie somewhere in between, closer to the environmentalist than to the genetic pole." The concept that human and animal behaviour can be shaped almost exclusively by the effects of stimulus and positive and negative reinforcements was pioneered by Professor Skinner of Cambridge, who recently died at age 86. Dr. Skinner calls for restricting many individual liberties so that a Utopian society based on his principles of social engineering could be created.

Today, in Pakistan, we are living an experiment in sociobiology. With our three percent plus growth rate we are producing genetic aberrations highly prone to violence. The population growth also creates crowding that inevitably reduces the threshold at which most people react abnormally also. It should not therefore be surprising that we find facing sudden bizarre behaviour-such as killing our own kind. The killing instincts are also part of the survival game species play. But, for most part in a homogenous genetic species, members may give their lives to save others also. From the ant colonies programmed to sacrifice themselves for the good of the colony to the Kamakazi pilots of Japan to the Pakistanis who have earned the right to receive Nishane Haider, we find ample examples of these types. But in an environment which does not challenge the instincts to sacrifice, the members of the society who wield destructive behaviour appear dominating. The effect of genetic transmutations can be seen in relatively short turn over of species in behaviour than necessary for morphologic changes.

The prognosis is not very encouraging for in a society inching into domination by genetically violent species, the future can not be peaceful. You see positive proofs of this thesis throughout the world from ruling tyrants to ruthless feudal lords all as perpetual exploiters of the human race by the stronger members.

The bizarre show in Pakistan shall, alas, go on for a very long time, until a revolutionary measure is taken to change the roulette of genes. With the highest population growth rate in the world, it seems impossible that we will stop bleeding our brethren. It seems, in Pakistan, Skinner is losing and Wilson is winning.

[29 September 1990 The Daily Dawn]