When the world heard of the miscall of baseball umpire Jim Joyce that cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game, there were boos and people called for the use of instant replay in baseball.
But that was just the beginning of the story. After the game, a remorseful Joyce apologized to Galarraga. But that wasn't all. Galarraga forgave Joyce saying, ‘everyone makes mistakes.' And the next day he gave Joyce the lineup card before the game.
Here we have two persons demonstrating mature moral character. One admitted making the wrong call, a poor judgment that hurt the other, and apologized. The offended person was immediately forgiving of the offender.
Joyce showed a sense of responsibility for his actions, concern for their impact and a desire to act as a person with character. Galarraga demonstrated a sense of relational connection to Joyce, a respect for his personhood and an understanding of human fallibility.
It was such a refreshing change from relentless news of immature morality in business and politics, which often makes it appear like the (mostly) men never surpassed their adolescence and that we are stuck in an endless Hollywood movie.
In societies all over the world, there is evidence for mature moral character, like that demonstrated by Joyce and Galarraga. Men actually act like adults with some moral wisdom. They have self control or perhaps even lack the impulse to lash out or blow up. They have a sense of themselves as agents within a larger community. Where have the men like these gone in our movies, TV shows, and the stories that shape the minds of our children?
I'm suspicious that we are seeing less of mature moral character in young and adult men because of the damage certain socially-sanctioned behaviors have on brain development. Brain development, particularly the prefrontal cortex (the seat of executive functions), continues till age 25 or later for males. Neuroscientists are suggesting that behavior in late adolescence and emerging adulthood influences the final development of executive functions. Activities shown to be detrimental are those that focus brain energy on subcortical activity like any addiction. Addictions include playing violent videogames, binge drinking, and pornography.
The functions that can be damaged include empathy, foresight, action planning and following through, starting and stopping action, among others. And we know that addiction generally lowers motivation for everything else.
Things are more complicated, of course. Many societies foster the aspects of human nature that support a decent society and decent citizens. In recent decades our society seems to have forgotten what decency looks like, judging from the stories and attitudes instilled in us by the media and advertising ("Have it your way;" "Just do it"). Somehow self-centered greediness has become an acceptable and even prized adulthood characteristic.
Just compare TV shows from the 1950s and 1960s or movies from the 1930s and 1940s with those of today. It always strikes me that in most of the old media there was an underlying deep respect for human dignity. You can clearly see how our popular culture today encourages us to be personally reckless, voyeuristic, and narcissistic but also aggressive and sadistic towards others.
But of course it's more complicated that this also. The inattention we give babies, children and youth fosters a self-centered brain (stress reactive) attracted to self-centered activities. When we neglect the needs of children, they can only become self centered. When we are sadistic and harsh with children, they learn to be the same way with others. Our lack of support for families leads to stressed parents who can't give children the attention they need. But this is a topic for another blog.
I would like to bask in the story of Joyce and Galarraga. Can we keep talking about it for a while, splash it across facebook, and think about how good our society could be with more men like these?
