Was the Fairy-Tale Transformation of Cinderella’s Footmen so Far-Fetched?

Cells provide structure and function for all living things, from microorganisms to humans. Scientists consider them the smallest form of life. Cells house the biological machinery that makes proteins, chemicals, and signals responsible for everything that happens inside our bodies. Knowing that all living things are made up of cells allows us to understand how organisms are created, grow, and die. By understanding how cells work in healthy and diseased states, cell biologists working in animal, plant, and medical science will be able to develop new vaccines, more effective medicines, plants with improved qualities. We must now attempt to bridge the gap between single-celled and multicellular organisms. Indeed, we must extend our considerations all the way up the scale of complexity to humans themselves. This may seem like a disproportionately small assignment of attention to the higher plants and animals. However, it has frequently been pointed out that practically all metabolic processes important to humans are found in single-celled organisms and that, it terms of a really balanced appraisal of evolutionary accomplishments, humans are much closer to amoeba than is amoeba to the nonliving materials from which it originated. Thus, we have been seeking to trace the development of life from nonlife, the space assigned here to the amoeba-to-man period many in fact be disproportionately large. However, the close evolutionary kinship between the lower and the higher forms of life must not blind us to some important problems that arise in attempting to apply to plants and animals the lessons learned from a study of single-celled organisms. How, for example, do we reconcile what we have learned about the genetic mechanisms with the variety of cell types in a single plant or animals? Are the DNA molecules and the chromosomes different for heart cells, liver cells, and never cells? Or do all cells in the body carry the same genetic instructions? However, if so, how can we account for the widely different chemical processes that must occur in the different kinds of body cells to give them such diversity in structure and metabolism? #RandolphHarris 1 of 21

For many years, evidence has been available to suggest that each cell in a complex organism must contain all the genetic information needed to specify the entire organism. As early as 1891 Hans Driesch obtained experimental results that seemed to require such a conclusion. He employed the common sea urchin in his experiment. Like all other animals, the sea urchin begins its development with a series of cell divisions. First the original fertilized egg divides into 2 cells; then each of the 2 cells divides, to make a total of 4 cells; then 8; then 16; and so on. Dr. Driesch discovered that is, in the 4-cell stage, the individual cells are sepaseparated cells will go on to develop into a complete sea urchin. Later experiments demonstrated the same principle with other animals, including vertebrates. In fact, the occurrence of identical human twins is ascribed to some form of intrauterine event that separates into two embryos the two cells that develop from the original fertilized egg. Recent work by J.B. Gurdon, zoologist at Oxford University, has provided unusually convincing evidence for the thesis that the nucleus of every cell carries a complete book of instructions for the entire organism. Working with a species of African aquatic frog, he has shown that the original egg cell will develop into a complete and normal animal, even after its nucleus has been replaced by one removed from a specialized intestinal cell of a relatively mature embryo of the same animal. Other experimental evidence is consistent with the implications of the work on embryos. Thus, the amount of DNA is found to be the same in liver cells, heart cells, skin cells, never cells, and so one. (Insect cells containing giant chromosomes obviously constitute an exception to the general rule that all cells contain the same amount of DNA.) Furthermore, the chromosomes, which can be seen with the optical microscope, have the same number and shape in all these cells. (The chromosomes are of different lengths, and they are not perfectly straight; their characteristic shapes make the matching of chromosomes from different types of cells more convincing than the mere obtaining of similar chromosomal counts would be.) #RandolphHarris 2 of 21

In higher animals, the single exception to chromosomal uniformity among different cell types is provided by the sex cells—the spermatozoa and ova of make and female. They have only half the number of chromosomes of all the other cells of the body—human sex cells possess only 23 chromosomes instead of 46, for example. However, this fact has a compelling logic of its own. For the chromosomes in all the other cells of the body are arranged in pairs, and it has been established that one member of each pair owes its origin to the male parent, the other to the female parent. With the initial fertilization of the female ovum by the male sperm cell such a pairing of the chromosomes of the two parents is made, with the result that all further cells possess a genetic endowment contributed equally by father and mother. This provides a certain degree of redundancy for the DNA content of the nucleus: two genes instead of one are available to provide architectural control for the assembly of each enzyme required by the body, one in the chromosome supplied by the male parent and the other in that supplied by the female parent. These two DNA molecules may be identical, or they may be slightly different and therefore call for the construction of protein products of slightly different properties. If the two are different and one is markedly more effective than the other in enzyme production, we say that the gene from the corresponding parent is “dominant” and that the other is “recessive.” Thus an individual with a gene from one parent calling for brown eyes and a gene from the other calling for blue eyes, there is an equal chance of the baby having brown eyes or blue eyes. However, if one of the grandparents has blue eyes, the odds of having a baby with blue eyes increases. And by the later separation of the paired chromosomes and allocation of single members of each pair to newly formed sex cells the adult individual passes on to its progeny the genetic endowment of its own forbears. It is, of course, the statistics associated with the successive pairing of the chromosomes from different individuals from generation to generation that gives rise to the long-known and once mysterious facts of Mendelian genetics. #RandolphHarris 3 of 21

All this has a short of simplicity and internal consistency that is convincing with respect to our confidence in the correctness of our understanding. There seems today little doubt that every cell except the sex cells in the body of a plant or animal contains exactly the same aggregation of DNA molecules, combined in exactly the same chromosomal packages, as every other cell. (There is, of course, the previously mentioned exception of the giant chromosomes. However, even in such chromosomes the sequence of specific DNA molecules in each strand of nucleic acid appears to be the same as in all other cells of the body; there are just more parallel strands of identical giant giant molecules.) Thus, if we ever succeed in really translating all aspects of the genetic code, we should be able to deduce all the genetically determined characteristics of an individual—colour of the eyes, shape of the nose, contours of the face, pattern of the hairline—from analysis of the nucleic acid from a heart cell, a nerve cell, a skin cell, or a liver cell! However, retuning now to our objective reconciling the properties of single cells with the characteristic of higher organisms, we seem to have solved one problem only at the expense of rendering another one insoluble. For if, from the original fertilized egg on, every cell division results in the transmission to the new cell of exactly the same genetic specifications as those possessed by the generating cell, how can we account for the remarkable differences in the properties of the different types of ell that appear in a single plant or animal? After all, we have attributed to the genetic mechanisms overriding control of the chemical processes that make of any cell what it is. Therefore, if a heart cell and a liver cell have the same set of nuclear DNA molecules, how can they themselves by different? What we are about to do is modify somewhat the picture we have drawn of the rigid control of cell chemistry by the DNA of the nucleus. We shall do this, not by denying anything we have learned as to the key architectural responsibilities of the nucleic acid/enzyme mechanism, but by adding to our picture the structural modulating effects of other chemical agents. #RandolphHarris 4 of 21

We shall learn that in living organisms as in human-made buildings, it is sometimes the workmen on the job who really determine the details of the construction; the architect may be the designated designer, but the carpenters, plumbers, and electricians are also to be reckoned with. For example, while the particular set of enzymes generated in the cytoplasm of the cell is determined by the genes in the genes in the nucleus, the effectiveness of the enzymes in performing their catalytic functions can be markedly influenced by a chemical ingredients in the cytoplasmic fluid. Certain molecules can apparently wrap themselves around enzymes and inactive them. (The inverse also occurs. Sometimes attached molecules are able to increase the activity of enzymes.) This phenomenon, in fact, frequently plays an important role in regulating cell chemistry, for evolution has worked in such a way that the end product of a chain of enzymatically catalyzed chemical reactions is often an inhibitor of one or more of the enzymes in the chain. This provides a kind of “negative feedback” around the reaction system, which slows or stops the generation of more end product if for any reason it begins to pile up in the cell. Useful though the sensitivity of enzyme effectiveness to other chemical agents may be in the normal metabolism of the cell, however, it also has the general result of making the cellular chemistry dependent to a degree on the cellular environment. If cells in different regions of a multicellular organism are washed by fluids of differing chemical content, the result can be different relative rates among the various enzymatically catalyzed reactions and, therefore, differences in the structure and chemistry of the cells. And even more striking kinds of influence of the environment on the cellular chemistry have been demonstrated. In one of the pioneering experiments, the lowly intestinal bacteria—Escherichia coli bacilli—again came to the aid of biological science. The scientists in this case were French, F. Jacob and J. Monod, of the Pasteur Institute in Paris. In 1959 they arrived at the explanation of a curious form of adaptability of the E. coli bacilli. These organisms thrive in a culture based on the sugar glucose. If then transferred to a solution of the sugar lactose, the bacteria colonies become dormant. #RandolphHarris 5 of 21

After a while, however, they resume their growth, and they thenceforth appear as able to employ lactose as food as they were previously able to employ glucose. The obvious question is: “What happened to the transplanted bacteria to overcome their initial inability to digest lactose?” A part of the answer was obtained through the discovery that the new ability to employ lactose resulted from the eventual appearance in the cytoplasm of the bacilli of two new enzymes that do not appear when a glucose culture medium is used. One of these enzymes, it was found, modified the permeability of the outer cell membrane so as to permit molecules of lactose to enter the bacteria and thereby be exposed to the cytoplasmic chemistry. The other enzyme then acted on the lactose to break it down into the simpler molecular fragments that the E. coli metabolic mechanisms were equipped to use as food. This, of course, answered one question, but it posed another. Why did the presence of lactose in the surrounding fluid happen to result in the appearance of just the kinds of enzymes required by the bacilli in order to profit by the new environmental conditions? By a series of very careful experiments, Jacob and Monod one step further into the fundamentals of the cellular mechanisms. For they showed that the lactose of the environmental fluid, on seeping through the cellular membrane (some penetration occurs even before the new permeability-increasing enzyme is formed), acted as a sort of inhibitor to deactivate the product of one of the chromosomal genes. This gene, dubbed a “regulator” gene, through the usual nucleic acid/enzyme mechanisms, normally causes the production of a substance that suppresses the activity of two other genes in the nucleus—those capable of directing the manufacture of the two enzymes referred to. When the lactose “turned off” the inhibition normally caused by the regulator gene, the effect was to “turn on” the structural genes that permitted the cell to deal effectively with the new nutrient. The work of Jacob and Monod has led to the discovery of many examples of the switching on or off of genes by chemicals supplied to the cells. The experiments have been extended to tissues of rodents and humans, and the generality of the phenomenon of “gene switching” has been confirmed. #RandolphHarris 6 of 21

Indeed, it is now believed that hormones achieve their powerful effects primarily by such means. Insulin activates certain genes in the body cells to the manufacture the messenger RNA that goes to the cytoplasm and assembles the kinds of enzymes that take care of fatty substance; thyroxine acts as a switch to turn on previously inactivated genes to make enzymes to control growth and metabolism; and so on. Interesting visual evidence of the correctness of these theories has been obtained by means of microscopic observations. In the giant chromosomes of various species of files a swelling or puffing has been observed at spots corresponding to the loci of particular genes, presumably when these genes are stimulated to activity by the chemical conditions in the cell. This puffing phenomenon seems to be related to the developmental stage of the tissue; for cells in different types of tissue, different gene loci show such signs of activity and at different developmental phases. Especially intense puffing of gene loci occurs at the time when the larvae start to pupate; this, of course, seems consistent with the very large changes in body chemistry that accompany metamorphosis. One of the most intensive fields of biochemical research today consistent of attempts to determine the detailed mechanisms involved in the phenomenon of gene switching. Clues have come from the laboratory of James Bonner at the California Institute of Technology. He and his coworkers have directed their attention to the protein material that, as we learned recently, is always associated with the DNA of the chromosomes. An important ingredient of this material is a protein called histone, or, when it appears as in this instance, nucleohistone. Working on the nuclei of cells from pea embryos, Bonner and his associated were able to show that 80 percent or more of the nuclear DNA is ordinarily bound to histone and that, furthermore, this histone-bound nucleic acid is inactive in the sense that it does not manufacture RNA. However, it was found possible to devise means for freeing the DNA molecules from histone, and they then became efficient RNA generators. Evidently, in natural cells, only one-fifth or fewer of the DNA molecules engage in constructive architectural activities at any time. #RandolphHarris 7 of 21

When a chemical ingredient invades a cell nucleus and switches on a previously inactive gene, apparently it does so by stripping away the histone that, by binding itself to the gene in question, has been keeping it inactive. This, of course, implies that there are many different varieties of histone molecules, each one specific to a particular DNA molecule, and that the hormones or other gene-switching chemicals are likewise specific in their histone-stripping properties. Whether these inferences are correct and, if so, just how these tailored chemical operations are brought about constitute important and unresolved problems of current biochemical research. Whatever the detailed gene-switching mechanism may be, it has been established that they are sometimes able to produce spectacular effects. For example, one investigator cultured cells from the nervous system of an amphibian until they developed properties identifying them as early pigment cells with a characteristic content of pigment granules and a star-shaped contour. He then removed the cells from the culture medium, washed them, and placed them in a different medium. As a result some of the cells, without undergoing division, appeared to change their properties entirely, even going so far as to develop muscle fibrils with a recognizable cross striation, as though the cells had changed their type from never to muscle cells. There is also the curious adaptability of certain unicellular organisms such as various Naegleria species. They move around in an amoeboid from when they are on a relatively dry substratum in the presence of bacteria; but when they are surrounded by more or less pure water, they changed their structure entirely and developed flagellae at one, with the whole body elongated into a characteristic flagellate type. And a much more complex organism—the Mexican axolotl—which normally lives all its life and reproduced itself as a gilled newt in the water, can be turned into a land salamander at will by a single dose of thyroid. Despite the fact that the axolotl has lived out its life aquatically for thousands of generations, a fraction of a milligram of thyroxin, even from a sheep or fish, will bring out the latent salamander in a couple of weeks. #RandolphHarris 8 of 21

Indeed, the induction of major changes in an entire plant or animal by the influx into the cells of gene-switching chemicals is so common that it has been observed by all of us—in the metamorphosis of a tadpole into a frog or the pupation of an insect, for example. These changes can be induced at any time by dosing the young tadpole or larva with suitable hormones. Familiarity may blind us to the truly spectacular nature of such metamorphoses. The frog differs so much from the tadpole, and the butterfly from the larva, as to require that the nuclear DNA of each cell carry specifications for essentially two different species of organism, with switching arrangements to turn off one set of controlling genes and turn on the other upon receipt of the proper hormonal signal. In the face of such natural phenomena, one wonders whether the fairy-tale transformation of Cinderella’s white mice into footmen was so far-fetched after all! The modulating effects of externally supplied chemicals on the catalytic effectiveness of the enzymes and the even more powerful gene-switching capabilities of hormonal and other ingredients can cause different groups of cells in the same organism, despite a common genetic heritage, to develop widely different structural and metabolic properties. In principle, therefore, all that is necessary to account for cell diversity in complex organisms is a convincing explanation of how natural causes result in the imposition of different chemical environments of the different types of cells. The embryologist have been struggling with the problem for nearly two hundred years. In our next discussion, we shall complete our case for the purely physical basis of the structure and metabolism of higher plants, and animals by invoking some of the evidence from embryology for the physical basis of the structure and metabolism of higher plants and animals by invoking some of the evidence from embryology for the physical origins of differences in the environments to which different groups of cells are exposed. #RandolphHarris 9 of 21

Before the discovery of antipsychotic drugs, psychotherapy was not really an option for people with schizophrenia. Most were simply too far removed from reality to profit from it. Only a handful of therapists, apparently blessed with extraordinary patience and skill, specialized in the psychotherapeutic treatment of this disorder and reported a measure of success. These therapists believed that the first task of such therapy was to win the trust of patients with schizophrenia and build a close relationship with them. The well-known clinical theorist and therapist Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, for example, would initially tell her patients that they could continue to exclude her from their private World and hold onto their disorder as long as they wished. She reported that eventually, after much testing and acting out, the patients would accept, trust, and grow attached to her, and begin to talk to her about their problems. Case studies seemed to attest to the effectiveness of such approached and to the importance of trust and emotional bonding in treatment. Here a recovered woman tells her therapist how she had felt during their early interactions: “At the start, I didn’t listen to what you said most of the time but I watched like a hawk for your expression and the sound of your voice. After the interview, I would add all this up to see if it seemed to show love. The words were nothing compared to the feelings you showed. I sense that you felt confident I could be helped and that there was hope for the future. The problem with schizophrenics is that they can’t trust anyone. They can’t put their eggs in one basket. The doctor will usually have to fight to get in no matter how much the patient objects. Loving is impossible at first because it turns you into a helpless little baby. The patient can’t feel safe to do this until one is absolutely sure the doctor understands what is needed and will provide it.” Today psychotherapy is successful in many more cases of schizophrenia. By helping to relieve thought and perceptual disturbances, antipsychotic drugs allow people with schizophrenia to learn about their disorder, participate actively in therapy, think more clearly about themselves and their relationships, and make changes in their behaviour. #RandolphHarris 10 of 21

The most helpful forms of psychotherapy include insight therapy and two broader sociocultural therapies—family therapy and social therapy. Often these approaches are combined and tailored to a patient’s particular needs. Now, consider the behaviour of our professors and universities during the Dies, McCarthy and Feinberg Law investigations. It is hard to say which set the worse example to the students during those hearings: the Communist professors fearful for their jobs, or the colleges that—with magnificent exceptions, like Harvard—supinely received the investigators. A monumental blunder was being made—which did us desperate damage among thoughtful Europeans—and our professors shivered in their boots and our “radicals” hid like roaches. The important thing is not which group betrays the ideal in any particular case, but that young people become cynical about political action and resigned about the possibility of making a change. Following a party line, Communist teachers, at New York’s City College, denied their membership. This was a disastrous betrayal of the students. Not that it is wrong to avoid insolent force with fraud, but that the young students can grow only by politically affirming themselves. With the young, honour is more important than tactics or even than prudence. Leaders of youth must be knightly—grisly identity, but there it is. We have now passed through several decades in which the students in our colleges showed a political apathy probably unexampled in student history. Several causes have conspired to it. First, simple shell shock: the war and the atom bomb aroused such deep anxiety that the only defense against it was conventionality. (I remember lecturing on Kafka in 1948 to a hall of collegians consisting largely of veterans on the G.I. bill, and they frantically protested that Kafka was psychotic and should be paid no attention, he had no relation to reality—they who had lived through some of the Trial and were even then roaming under the Castle!) #RandolphHarris 11 of 21

Secondly, the students have been seduced by business firms, which tempt and reward them for conformity; but as W. H. Whyte, Jr. points out, they are eager to conform even before they are paid. Correspondingly, in its appeal to less affluent body, the Army has found it wise to accept the stirring slogan, “Retire at 37.” If you question a boy draftee who has re-enlisted, he will explain that it is a “good deal.” That is, the Army has become the IMB of the less affluent boy who loves his country.” However, finally, is there any doubt that an important cause of the present political apathy of the young is the dishonorable radical leadership that they had in the Thirties and Forties? They now believe that all political thinking is a sell—just as those bright Catholic lads who stop believing the superstitions of scholasticism now believe that all philosophy is an intricate fraud, including the truths of scholasticism. This hipster skepticism is pervasive. It is partly, of course, resignation that a revolution has failed and the way is too thorny; but students are usually more resilient. I think that a more important factor is disgust that the radicals were not bona fide; the students were had. However, also, I fear, it is cynical superiority, an identification with either the fraudulent or the powerful. I referred above to the similarity between some of the Communists and young Organization Men today, in their lust for control apart from any objective good and, more deeply, in their use of an organized power-system in order to make the ingenuous and worthy not exist. In the Thirties and in 2020, it came about that Communists had/have high status in Hollywood and somewhat in publishing, and in the TV news media, so the three kinds of organized systems worked/work in the same offices—nor do I doubt that many of the refinements of present-day organization life were learned during this cohabitation. However, it has remained for our own decade to enjoy the brutal comedy of McCarthy and the FBI investigating the Communist in Hollywood, TV news media and publishing, so we have one stage three of the most “sinister” tribes in the country, who may seem “sarcastic” to the Communist party, when in fact, they are very serious. This leaves many wishing for a more simple ignobility. #RandolphHarris 12 of 21

The symptoms of neuroticism have been well analyzed by psychiatrists. They all sum up to a single thing: intensity of egoistic emotion. This is disturbing to the mental balance of the neurotic person and trying to those who have contact with one. The negative thoughts and feelings include: excessive or constant criticism, pride, and conceit. Pride may present the self-confessions of a shortcoming or a blunder. Thus it does the ego’s dark work. The inhuman and destructive attitudes, unsympathetic and unpitying, are a sign of the evil presence a work in our midst. While humans seem permanently estranged from their spiritual selves, we need not wonder at the despair and hopelessness, the cynicism and selfishness, which enter into the moods of so many people today. Ignorance breeds violence and violence in its turn breeds further violence. If our desires choke the inner peace which might be ours during times of prosperity, our fears choke it during times of adversity. There are humans who are in a cycle of going down deeper into selfishness, illusion, spiritual ignorance, and extroversion. They have yet to touch the bottom of this descent, a contact which many older egos have also made before, but long ago left for the upward climb. Although the redemptive return of these unseeing entities is assured, for they cannot eternally and ultimately deny their own inmost nature, nevertheless, they will respond to the most morbid evil during the present phase of their descent. They are called “the Asuras” in the Bhagavad Gita, “the men of hatred, reed, and lust.” Lost religious faith is one link in a chain of which degraded morals is the next. The hopelessness which humankind’s situation naturally leads to is not less divinely-intended than any other effect of destiny’s turn. Many people in Europe must feel they have no future to live for and only an apathetic present in which just to exist, not live. Since God permits this, evidently God perceives its value in the evolutionary scheme. Yes, there is odious evil in the World—much of it petty but some of it quite monstrous. It takes its genesis in the thoughts of humans Mentalism says that most of one’s misery is inflicted on oneself by accepting and holding negative thoughts. They cover and hide the still center of one’s being, which is infinite happiness. Whereas all the great prophets like Jesus Christ and Krishna make a religion out of love, the demonists make a religion out of hatred. Those who constantly indulge in savage criticism of persons or principles, who are saturated with negative thoughts and feelings, have never seen the Light nor felt its peace. #RandolphHarris 13 of 21

Throughout the ages and the World, virginity is essential in as-yet-unmarried women. Culture, religion, and societal values demand it; the law enforces it. However, how, precisely, does one go about proving virginity? They are verified by an Obstetrician-Gynecologists. Nonetheless, this elusive and irritatingly variable membrane that they investigate has been and still is the object of intense scrutiny, though it is likely that only highly trained physicians can correctly interpret what they see or feel. For every test there is an anti-test, and as many people specialize in concealing or repair these membranes as in recognizing them. In the contest between the two groups of “experts,” the great moral issues of virginity is reduced to true absurdity. Some mothers have their own way of investigating and often do until the daughter is married. It is her responsibility to keep pure. The Apocryphal Gospels describe how a skeptical Salome, who had witnessed Jesus’ birth, tested Mary just as other mothers do. However, Mary’s mother felt a searing burn and had to terminate her examination. The divine significance of the incident was not lost on Salome. Postpartum Mary had passed her test. Zulus and other South African peoples are currently reviving a similar testing ritual that has all but died out decades ago. Recently, this value of virginity has appreciated. Virginity testers are often traditional healers who, for a small fee, examine each young client, then issue certificates of virginity to all the girls who are pure. In the past, virginity testing determined the bride price—a virgin was worth an additional cow, for example. Today, virginity has profound health implications, though some South Africans worry that instead of setting new standards of morality, the certified virgins may be at risk of assault because people think they can sure deadly illnesses. That is why medical records are kept private, for the safety of the patient and possibly others. On wedding nights throughout the World, proof of virginity is almost universally required. However, some of these tests are easy to cheat on. Tin Greece, there are also some brutal ways people use to test to see if others are virgins. Much like in the witch hunts, if one of the participates in a dangerous sport dies of their wounds, they are called “false virgins.” #RandolphHarris 14 of 21

In Algeria, the older women say they can spot unchastity in how a woman carries herself and uses the restroom. Certain Algerian midwives boast they can tell from inspecting the colour of the membrane. Medical doctors, too, are consulted, so worried parents can produce a qamija, a medical certificate. The doctor’s examination, however, is easy to circumvent. A real virgin is presented to him or he and the certificate obtained in the false virgin’s name. Physicians sometimes collude in hiding the evidence. In Sudan, for example, wealthy nonvirgins have gynecologists surgically reconstruct the missing membrane. In ancient Greece, perfumed pessaries were used to rejuvenate some of these private areas. Repaired, disguised, and substituted membranes, rejuvenated private areas, false virginity—the forces of deception are powerful. They have to be. The stakes are immense, the consequences of failure unthinkable. Preventive measures, therefore, have been correspondingly harsh: seclusion, genital mutilation, foot-binding, child marriage, terrorization. The paradox is that all this heavy-handedness and torture are orchestrated to ensure nubile, hormonally driven young women resist every carnal instinct and remain celibate until a suitable man becomes available. If this does not happen—for instance, because a society has a skewed gender riot or a young women must wait until a homely older sister finds a mate—the forced virginity is lifelong. The virgins, alas, are often coerced rather than converted. They understand the gravity of violating the celibacy commandment, if only by witnessing what happens to other women whose unchastity is revealed, but the message is a mechanical one: getting caught brings terrible retribution. The issue is couched in rhetoric about family honour and shame, mianzi in almost every language known to humans. It is seldom if ever approached from the perspective of the young woman who must bear the burden of abiding by it. Again, that familiar irony: the least-valued member of society is the one whose virtue is crucial to the honour and prosperity of her entire family. Even to herself, she is considered inferior, weaker in all ways than males, less deserving of food, education, leisure, personal choice. Temptations about. Her heart is treacherous and she desires intimacy. Importuning, testosterone-ridden males make many promises. However, if she is caught surrendering her virginity, she becomes society’s pariah, scorned, cast out, sold away, stoned by her brother’s hand, fed to hungry horses. #RandolphHarris 15 of 21

This scenario is timeless and international. It both reflects and results from the moral and cultural conundrum on which most societies are constructed. Western nations have only recently slackened their rules and evaluation of unmarried women who are no longer virginal. Elsewhere, the old ways often still reign supreme. Nonetheless, pragmatism and vitalistic philosophy also belong to the same typical ethical dynamism. When pragmatism speaks of experience, it surrenders the criteria of truth and the good no less than does vitalistic philosophy. There are for it no norms above the dynamic processes of experience, that is, of experienced life. The question of what kind of life creates ethical experience and what the standards of a true ethical experience are is not answered and cannot be answered within the context of pragmatic thought. Therefore, the pragmatists and the positivists take their refuge in an ethical instinct, that is supposed to lead to an ethical common sense. This refuge is secure so long as there is a society with a strong common belief and conventional morals maintained by the leading groups of society. Such a situation in the acme of the bourgeois development, for instance, in the Victorian era. However, it was no longer effective when the harmony of a satisfied society slowly dissolved, and dissatisfied groups, masses, and nation asked for a new order of life. The ethical instincts of the ascendant Victorian bourgeoisie, and the refuge in ethical instinct and common sense became ineffective. Pragmatism and positivism were unable to face this threat, because, in their basic ideas, they agree with the philosophy of life. The intellectual defense of Anglo-Saxon civilization against fascist ideologies is extremely weak. Common-sense philosophy and pragmatism are not able to provide criteria against the dynamic irrationalism of the new movements; and they are not able to awaken the moral power of resistance necessary for the maintenance of the humanistic values embodied in Western and Anglo-Saxon civilization. It is not positivism and pragmatism, but the remnants of the rationalistic-progressive solution of the ethical problem on which the future of that civilization is based. This solution is the most natural one for undisturbed bourgeois thought and is still deeply rooted in the subconscious of contemporary philosophers as well as of laymen. #RandolphHarris 16 of 21

There are, according to this point of view, some eternal principles, the natural law of morals, but without the supranatural sanction claimed for it in the Catholic system. These principles, as embodied in the Bill of Rights, are like starts that always remain remote from every human realization but that, like stars, how the direction in which humankind must go. Once discovered, they cannot disappear again, although their theoretical and practical realization is always in process toward a higher perfection. In this way they are adaptable to every human situations. Is this the solution of the problem of ethics in a changing World? In some ways it is, in some ways not. It indicates the direction in which the solution must be sought. There must be something immovable in the ethical principle, the criterion and standard of all ethical change. There must be a power of change within the ethical principle itself. And both must be united. However, the rationalistic-progressive solution is far from reaching this unity. It establishes some principles, such as freedom and equality, in the name of the absolute natural law to be found in nature and human reason at any time and in any place. Humankind is supposed to realize these principles, theoretically and practically, in a process of approximation. It is the same natural law, the same principles that always have been more of less known, more or less received in reality. “More or less” points t a quantitative difference, not to a qualitative change, not to new creations in the ethical realm. Ethics in a changing World changes only quantitatively, that is, as far as progress or regression with respect to their realization is more concerned. More or less freedom and more or less equality are admitted, but not a new freedom or a new equality. However, the principles on which the progressive-rationalistic solution is based represents a special pattern, a special type of freedom and equality, that of the later ancient and that of the modern bourgeois period. They do not represent principles comprehensive enough to embrace all periods and creative enough to bring new embodiments of themselves. They are not eternal enough to be ultimate principles and not temporal enough to fit a changing World. Therefore, as the Catholic system was not able to adapt itself seriously to the modern period of bourgeois growth, so the bourgeois-progressive rationalism was not able to face the breakdown of the bourgeois World. Supranatural and rational absolutism in ethics both proved to be unable to adapt themselves to a fundamental change in the historical situation. #RandolphHarris 17 of 21

Now back to rates of change. Remember we discussed starting with the mind’s eye image of a freeway. And at its side a police officer sat on a motorcycle, pointing radar gun at the road. And on this highway were nine cars, each representing a major institution in America. Each car traveling at a speed that matched the institution’s actual rate of change. Well, now we will start with the fastest car on the road. One hundred miles per hour: Zooming along at a hundred miles per hour on our figurative freeway is a car representing the fastest-changing major institution in America today—the company, or business. It is in fact, the driver of many transformations in the rest of society. Companies are not only moving rapidly, they force suppliers and distributors to change in parallel, all driven by intense competition. As a result, we find firms speeding to alter their mission, functions, assets, products, size, technology, workforce, customer relations, internal culture and just about everything else. Each of these spheres changes at different rate. In the business World, technology blasts ahead—at a pace very often faster than managers and employees can handle. Finance, too, is transforming itself at eye-popping speeds in response not just to technology but to new scandals, new regulations, diversifying markets and financial volatility. Meanwhile, accounting and other systems scramble to keep up. Ninety miles per hour: There is a car speeding right behind business, and its occupants may surprise you, as they did us. Institutions number two, we have concluded, is civil society considered collectively, and packed like circus clowns into that second speeding car. The civil society is a burgeoning hothouse sector made up of thousands of churning and changing nongovernmental grassroots organizations (NGOs)—pro-business and anti-business coalitions, professional groups, sports federations, Catholic orders and Buddhist nunneries, plastics-manufacturing associations, anti-plastic activists, cults, tax haters, whale lovers and everyone in between. Most such groups are in the business of demanding change—in the environment, government regulations, defense spending, local zoning, disease-research funding, food standards, human rights and thousands of other causes. However, other are dead set against certain changes and do everything they can to prevent or at least slow such change. #RandolphHarris 18 of 21

Using lawsuits, pickets, and other means, environmentalists have slowed the building of nuclear plants in the United States of America by delaying their construction and driving legal costs up to the point at which they are potentially unprofitable. Whether one agrees with the anti-nuke movement’s position or not, it illustrates the use of time and timing as an economic weapon. Because NGO-led movements tend to be made up of small, fast, flexible units, organized in networks, they can run rings around huge corporate and government institutions. Overall, a case can be made that none of the other key institutions in American society comes close to the rates of change we see in these two sectors: business and the civil society. Sixty miles per hour: The third car, too, has surprising occupants. In it, we find the American family. For thousands of years, the typical household in most parts of the World was large and multigenerational. Significant change began only when countries industrialized and urbanized, at which point family size shrank. The nuclear-family model, more suitable to industrial and urban conditions, became dominant. As late as the mid-1960s, experts insisted that the nuclear family—officially defined as a working father, a stay-at-home-mom, and two children under the age of eighteen—would never lose any dominance. Today fewer than 25 percent of American homes fit this designation. Single parents, unmarried couples, once-, twice- (or more) remarried couples with children from previous alliances geriatric marriages, and recently, legalized marriages of alternative couples, have all sprung up or gone public. In a few short decades, therefore, the family system—once among the slowest of all social institution to change—has been transformed. And another rapid change is on the way. During the long agrarian millennia, the family unit has many important functions. It worked as a production team in the fields or cottage. It educated its children, tended the sick and took care of the elderly. As one country after another industrialized, however, work shifted from home to factory. Education was outsourced to the schools. Health care moved to the doctor or the hospital. Care of the elderly became a state of obligation. #RandolphHarris 19 of 21

Today, while corporations are outsourcing functions, the American family is insourcing them. For tens of millions of American families, work has already moved back into the home part- or full time, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. The same digital revolution that facilitates work-at=home also moves shopping, investigating, trading stocks and many other functions into the house. Education remains locked in the schoolroom but, the pandemic has forced many kids, teens and adults to take accredited course online. Paralleling work, is likely to migrate at least partially back into the home and to other locations permanently as Internet access, WiFi and mobile phone communications spread through society. More and more elder care, too, will likely return to the home, spurred by government and private insurance plans that seek to reduce the high costs of nursing homes and hospitalization. Family formats, frequency of divorce, pleasure of the flesh, intergenerational relations, dating patterns, child rearing and other dimensions of family life are all changing rapidly. Thirty miles per hour: If companies, NGOs and family arrangements are changing at high speed, what about labour unions. For half a century, as we have seen, the United States of America has been shifting from muscle work to mind work, from interchangeable to non-interchangeable skills, and from blindly repetitive to innovational tasks. Work is increasingly mobile, taking place on airplanes, in cars, at hotels, and restaurants. Instead of staying in one organization with the same co-worker for years, individuals are moving from project team to task force and work, continuingly losing and gaining teammates. Manu are “free agents” on contract, rather than employees as such. Yet while corporations are changing at a hundred miles per hour. American unions remain frozen in amber, saddled with legacy organizations, methods, and models left over from the 1930s, and the mass production era. In 1955 U.S. labour unions represented 33 percent of the today workforce, today that number is 13 percent. The proliferation of NGOs reflects the rapid de-massification on interests and lifeways in a largely Third Wave America. The parallel decline of unions reflects the decay of Second Wave mass society. Unions have a residual role to play, but to survive they will need a new road map and a faster vehicle. We will continue this discussion tomorrow. #RandolphHarris 20 of 21

Here they are. The soft eyes open. If they have lived in a wood, it is a wood. If they have lived on plains, it is grass rolling under their feet forever. Having no souls, they have come, anyway, beyond their knowing. Their instincts wholly bloom and they rise. The softs eyes open. To match them, the landscape flowers, outdoing, desperately, outdoing what is required: the riches wood, the deepest field. For some of these, it could not be the place it is, without blood. These hunt, as they have done, but with claws and teeth grown perfect. More deadly than they can believe. They stalk more silently, and crouch on the limbs of trees, and their descent upon the bright backs of their prey. May take years in a sovereign floating of joy. And those that are hunted know this as their life, their reward: to walk. Under such trees in full knowledge of what is in glory above them, and to feel no fear, but acceptance, compliance. Fulfilling themselves without pain. At the cycle’s center, they tremble, they walk under the tree. They fall, they are torn, they rise, they walk again. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? You have been told, O man, what is god, and what the Lord requires of you; only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to talk humbly with your God. The sacrifice of a wicked man is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight. Thus saith the Lord: Will you still, murder and commit adultery, swear falsely, and walk after other gods, and then come and stand before Me in My house, whereupon My name is called, and think tht merely by uttering words you will be saved, saved to continue all these abominations? When you offer such prayers, I will not hear. I cannot endure iniquity along with solemn worship. Hear the word of the Lord, all who enter these gates to worship. If you thoroughly mend your ways and your doings; if you see that justice is done between man and man, if you oppose not the stranger, the orphan and the widow, and shed not innocent blood, neither walk after the gods, then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your healing shall spring forth speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your protection. #RandolphHarris 21 of 21