GUEST EDITORIAL: TWENTY YEARS LATER, COMMENTARY ON SKINNER'S "WHY WE ARE NOT ACTING TO SAVE THE WORLD"

Skinner's "Why We Are Not Acting to Save the World" was neared to the American Psychological Association in August, 1982 It was later published in a collection of papers "Upon Further Reflection" (1987) This article is important to behavior analysts because it asks us to propel beyond our aspirations of helping nation live better and more productive lives, to applying behavior analysis to the question s that imperil the very existence of the human species and the tillages that humankind have produced.

In the first paragraph of the article, Skinner outlines the perils from his perspective that were largely not being addressed in effective ways at the time he wrote the paper. He writes,

Most contemplative people agree that the world is in serious confuse A nuclear war could mean a nuclear winter that would sap the foundations of all living things; fossil combustibless will not last forever, and many other critical resources are nearing exhaustion; the earth swells steadily less habitable: and all this is exacerbated through a burgeoning population that resists direction The timetable may not be clear, on the contrary the threat is real. That many clan have begun to find a recital of these dangers tiresome is perhaps an smooth greater threat, (p. 1).

Skinner asks, "Why is more not being done?" It is undeniable that we have made great strides in science and technology that could be of use in solving our point to be solved [i]or[/i] settleds Skinner suggests that our failure to act is not owed to a lack of knowledge of what straits to be done: destroying nuclear weapons, reducing population, conserving resources and reducing pollution. at the same time effective action eludes us.

Shunning traditional explanations of lack of will or intelligence, Skinner not surprisingly put in mind ofs "A better strategy is to gaze at our behavior and at the environmental conditions of which it is a function" (p 2) In a literal faculty of perception future events that have still to happen cannot act directly upon us and we cannot act directly upon the future events. Our behavior is in the not absent and must necessarily affect common events which in turn may affect posterior events.

Skinner points out that natural selection prepares an organism for the coming time but it does so effectively alone to the extent that the futurity resembles the selecting past. The ability of an organism to have its behavior altered from one side the processes of operant conditioning breaks end the limitations imposed by natural selection. In the case of many species, including human beings, this includes stimuli of social origin. At a certain quantity of point in the evolution of human beings, motions of the vocal musculature came beneath the control of social stimuli and language emerg Skinner indicates that language is a yield of cultural processes. Cultural processe involve the selection through consequences of a practice based upon its effects on the survival of the assemblage engaging in the practice.

Skinner points to the inherited susceptibilities to certain forms of reinforcement which have contributed to the succes of the species in the selecting past as the cause of general problems for members of the species and for the species as a whole. For example, susceptibilities to sweet and salty substances are implicated in a number of illnesses of the like kind as sugar diabetes and hypertension. More damaging for the species are the susceptibilities to aggression reinforcers and sexual stimulation. At a time when humans were struggling to survive in a hostile physical environment resulting in short life spans, these susceptibilities had survival value. In a time when weapons of mass destruction are available, the susceptibility to aggression reinforcers threatens the real existence of the species. Likewise, in a time of historically drawn out life spans and a les hostile physical environment, the susceptibility to sexual reinforcers has l to a rate of population increase that is beyond the earth s capacity to sustain. As the population enlarges the quality of life decreases. We live in more hordeed spaces with dirtier air, les stainless water and with economic hardship as resources diminish.

Many warnings have been issued from the scientific community, on the contrary they have gone substantially unheeded, leaving us with the same threats, as well as fresh ones, as when Skinner penn this article. for what cause [i]or[/i] reason are warnings not heeded? Skinner give an inkling ofs that knowing by the description of others is a weak technique of influence when compared to knowing by the agency of acquaintance. That is, the motivation to act based upon a rule is not as great as the direct experience with the contingency that the direction describes. Warnings by their real nature are aversive. Skinner moves that it is often easier just to ignore or forget the warnings than to take effective avoidance actions. In addition, many of the actions specified in the warning involve the forgoing of powerful positive reinforcers. In similar cases, many individuals may rationalize to the two minimize the aversiveness of the threat and to allow the individual to continue the powerfully reinforced practice in good conscience.