Innate curiosity

I'm wondering: is intellectual, scientific or artistic curiosity a result of one's surroundings and upbringing or an innate quality?

There's ample evidence to back the second view. There are several erudite writers who didn't grow up in literary households and great movements boom from places where culture doesn't figure in every-day life.

I was lucky to grow up in a house-hold where there were always a lot of books and films in the house. From an early age I was able to develop an interest in a broad range of subjects.

But then... I have encountered several people with this curiosity who didn't grow up in this sort of environment. I'm going to illustrate this with an environment where different ways of thinking don't really figure in every-day life.

In the city I grew up in, Concepción, it was very difficult for individuals to look out of their little insular bubble. Not only is it difficult to have intellectual interests there but take a different political stance and there's little doubt that you'll be ostracized.

My old school there is a good example of this. A school ran by disgusting beauracrats, taught by disgusting teachers, attended by disgusting students, brought up by disgusting parents - in short, a school of disgusting cunts.

So, in a 'disgusting' place like this, how does one develop an interest in anything?

It is kind of ironic that one of the people I accused in this blog (though I didn't want him to read the post, but that's one of the risks you run with being so fucking candid online) of lacking curiosity is one of the most curious people to have gone through that school: http://simonking1.blogspot.com/2011/08/when-curiosity-is-at-peak.html Unlike the typical response you would have expected from a former atendee of that school, he actually stood his ground and intelligently argued against me.

And one of my childhood friends I found out has an interest in architecture, playing musical instruments, photography, reconstructing vintage cars, 60s and 70s rock, etc. And he didn't grow up in the kind of environment where you'd expect this sort of curiosity from emerging.

Whilst these people haven't completely broken out of this 'bubble' (invariably you'll find that they espouse all the right-wing political beliefs passed on directly from their parents), they are examples that unusual and creative minds can come from anywhere. A Marxist reading of this subject would say that all human beings are products of their environment, but through my observations I find that originality and curiosity can sprout out of anywhere.