Am I An Investment?

Battle of the Generations reminded me of the stand up comedy of Andres Lopez that was so popular in Colombia about the different generations, La Pelota De Letras. Andres Lopez talks about a similar concept, obviously not in scientific matters but more of life facts. He says that the generations of below are one social class higher than the previous generation, for example, the children think of themselves of a better family than their own parents. It is a difficult issue to understand because it is related to Colombian culture, yet, Dawkins states that, “It us too small and weak to bully its parents physically, but it uses every psychological weapon at its disposal: lying, cheating, deceiving, exploiting […]” (pg.131) it is a little harsh and very disappointing to think of a child being so cruel to its parents, but it is absolutely true. I have done it, and my brother has done it. Whether it has to do with the gene pool and the genes trying to survive over the other, or if it has to do that the mother has half her genes in her child and not vice versa, I don’t know. I am learning about it while I read, but it does not matter to me. It is sad that, “we must expect that individuals will cheat, will tell lies about how hungry they are.” (pg.130) according to Dawkins, our genes are responsible to such behavior, it is “expected” if we know that we are going to cheat, how could there be trust, or as Dawkins said, how can a parent be able to avoid “getting fooled”.

I have not liked the way Dawkins talks about having a child, I don’t see a son or a daughter as an investment, I don’t think that my parents were thinking on how much I will pay of when they found out that they were going to have a baby. Dawkins says that, “Nevertheless, she should weigh up whether it would not pay her more to invest in grandchildren, nephews […]since although they are half as closely related to her as her own children […]”(pg. 126) He means that according on how related someone is to us how much they pay off will be? Or how good the investment will be? The whole chapter Dawkins is talking about favoritism between the children and what are the best investments for children and the unit to measure it for the mothers. I find it a little materialistic, I know I should not be seeing it that way and that it is a science book, a biology book and it is not supposed to talk about family as a novel, but it annoys me. I hate to think of me as an investment for my mom.