Second Nature

Here's a pop quiz.ⁱ It should be easy. Only one question and it's multiple-choice. And there's no correct response. You don't even have to mark your paper.ⁱⁱ Just pick the first thought that pops into your mind. You'll probably find it in the list below. One question and just one answer.

Here's the situation: You notice a small piece of litter on the floor.

And here's the question: What do you do?

Choices:

1. You pick it up. That's what G-d wants you to do.
2. You pick it up. You'll be rewarded in the afterlife. If there is one. Anyway, it's good insurance.
3. You pick it up. That's the right thing to do.
4. You pick it up. That's what all people with OCD do.
5. You pick it up. You just feel like doing that.
6. You pick it up. That will make it easier for someone else.
7. You pick it up. It's a matter of habit.
8. You leave it. It's a matter of habit.
9. You leave it. It's not your responsibility.
10. You leave it. It's not something you notice anyway.
11. You leave it. You don't care and it doesn't bother you.
12. You leave it. Your back hurts.
13. It depends on where it is – inside or outside.
14. It depends on where it is – will it be associated with your home or office or is it in some public area?
15. It depends on whether it's a single bit of litter or if there are others.
16. Is anyone watching?
17. You'll do whatever you feel like at the moment.

OK. It's not so easy. But you do make a choice.

And that's the way it is with most of the things we do. Even the simple decisions we make areⁱⁱⁱ based on a lot of considerations, and we're often unaware of why we wind up taking a particular course of action. Most of the time we don't even think about it. We don't debate the possibilities. We don't attribute our choice to a specific consideration. We're only thinking about it now because of the format of this piece. Which you picked up, or you wouldn't be considering the question.

The parameters for understanding our actions used to be those of Freud: id, superego, and jargon like that. Freud, though, has been less and less of a factor in psychology in recent years than in the mid-twentieth century. And it's hard to understand the relationship of a piece of litter on the floor to sex, which is what all of his theories seemed to boil down to. But a good Freudian analyst can probably connect the dots. Even if there aren't any dots.

I tend to deal with questions in terms of right and wrong, realizing that different cultures have different criteria for right and wrong. But they're wrong and I'm right.^iv,v And I think in terms of responsibility, both to those around me, and to people I don't even know. It's surprising to think that the decision to pick up a piece of litter or to leave it may be based on such considerations as these, but it is. Philosophy may play a large part. And secular and religious law as well.

Fortunately, we give little thought to what we do. But unfortunately, we give little thought to what we do. Most of our actions, though we may have initially evaluated them, have become the results of habit. What's our pattern of action when we get into our car? How fast should we drive? What's involved in washing the dishes? And in shoveling the snow? What about our income taxes? We probably spent a few moments the first time we did them before deciding to give ourselves “the benefit of the doubt,”^vi but we don't think about it any more. We've established our patterns and, unless there's some major change in our outlook, our actions are automatic. And, if we think about them at all, we don't always understand why they led us to do things in particular way. But the habit has helped us to deal with a potentially time-consuming decision. So we can avoid “the paralysis of [never ending] analysis.”

Clearly the good part of a habit is that it saves us from wasting time debating the pros and cons of every situation we face, which would surely immobilize us. The down side is that we may have established that habit based on ideas that no longer apply. For example, we may have gone home by a certain route for years and find ourself doing so even though there is now an obstruction on one of the streets we use. We'll probably change our routine after spending extra time on the blocked street once or twice – because we went that way without thinking. We'll establish a new r(o)ut(e) – a new habit – and follow it until there's a reason not to. And, after redecorating, we'll have to stop looking for something we've always put in a particular spot in that place. Now we'd better put it somewhere else where we'll be able to find it.

Individually our habits are small things, however all of them together dominate our day. And it's so easy to ignore them and let auto-pilot take over. But from time to time it's worthwhile giving each of them a little thought. You probably won't want to make many changes, but some will be in order^vii in addition to the ones forced on your attention like the blocked street. And for some you probably won't even be able to recall how you formed that habit because any possible reasons for doing so don't seem to make sense.

As for the piece of litter on the floor: I'd probably be somewhere between 4 and 5.^viii But now that I think about some of those other choices, I'm not really sure.

Next episode: “Introspection” – Where I've been and where I'm going.

i     The more I mull it over, the more I suspect that mom may be more interested in the results than pop.

ii     You don't even need to have a paper.

iii    Or were at one time.

iv    I don't subscribe to ideas of cultural relativism and morality. As far as I'm concerned there are some things that are always wrong (like murder, but not “killing”) even though I know that it mights be difficult to define them to everyone's satisfaction. I now await the inevitable description from a reader (if I have any readers) of a murder that is justified, or a defense of the position that all killing is wrong. I'm not in full agreement on that point, though I do know that “honor killing” is. But, then, it's murder.

v     I'll discuss the slippery slope at some time in the future.

vi     Whether there's really a doubt or not.

vii    Like stopping smoking.

viii   Actually, they may be related. At least in me.