Friend inspired contemplation.

I would like to have a pointless ramble if I may. I'm writing this completly from scratch so please forgive me for any gramatical or spelling errors. I'm a little fed up of work and would like to unload some random thoughts.

I shall start with a thought, first expressed by a friend of mine. This observation is originally his, which he shared as a comment on a story I told him. I find myself, most likely un-necassarily occupied with it. I was telling him about my trip to the Natural History Museum in London. During my tour of the exhibits, I was not paying full attention to myself. As I walked down a hallway, not looking where I was going I suddenly felt a light tap on my knee. Assuming I'd unwittingly almost walked into someone, brushing my leg against their bag or something trivial like that. I looked at my immediate surroundings. To discover, to my horror, that I had accidently kneed a child onto the floor. Of course feeling concerned, and absolutly awfull that I had knocked a small child flat onto the floor! I reached down to help them up and make sure they were ok (I could see that they were about the height of my knee, so I must have kneed them in the head :-S), but, I stopped about halfway. Suddenly conscious of the fact that I could be seen to be overstepping a boundry of some kind. To be met with a hostility and, perhaps not most sincerly, prescribed a label which has had a recent boom in publicity.
Thankfully the child was fine and the mother laughed

This is where my friend commented on how it's interesting how social discourse can have an effect on our instincts. I know I said I became aware of the reason why I stopped myself. But this was'nt at the very moment I stopped, I actually stopped myself from helping the child up then became aware. So I can completly empathise with his comment.

This has led me to think about alot of different things, with no real intended point or conclusion. One was the effect of social discourse on actions which we do not put conscious thought into. We all have "automatic reactions", when something happens we react without thinking. Such as if a snow ball was thrown at us, most of us would flintch or when we touch something hot,we tend to pull away very quickly without having to make a conscious choice too. These reactions are commonly seen as natural to our bodies, I wonder, can the unnatural social discourses we are bombarded with every day have an affect on our natural reactions. Alternativly, to what degree are we natural beings? What part of us is the result of biological process?

I'm just spitballing (to put it bluntly). Personally I take the view that we are more a result of the social than of the natural. We have natural bodies and capabilities but I think that's it. Everything else about us such as our temperment, mental health, psyche, gender, capabilities and habits are socially defined. This is very vague, I hav'nt put too much thought into this to make a fully coherant point, but as I said I was'nt out to make a conclusion.
If I have any readers who have an idea please share some thoughts yourself.