The Molecule of More

THE MOLECULE OF MORE

Submissive behavior can have negative connotations—letting
people “walk all over you,” for instance—but the scope of submissive
behavior is much wider than that. In modern society, submissive behav-
ior is often a sign of elevated social status—think of the strict adher-
ence to manners, the focus on social customs, and, in conversation, the
deference to others that is part and parcel of the behavior of what we
might call “the elite.” The common name for this behavior is courtesy,
a word derived from the word court, because it was the behavior orig-
inally adopted by the nobility. By contrast, dominant behavior, repre-
senting the opposite of courtesy, may stem from personal insecurity or
an imperfect education.
Planning, tenacity, and  force of will  through personal effort or  by 
working with others: these are the ways control-circuit dopamine lets us
dominate our environment. But how do we behave—and feel—when
the system falls out of balance? In particular, what happens when there
is too much or too little control dopamine?

OUTER SPACE CHALLENGE,

INNER SPACE STRUGGLE

GQ Magazine: What does it feel like to go to the moon?

Buzz Aldrin: Look, we didn’t know what we were feeling. We

weren’t feeling.

GQ: What were your emotions as you walked on the surface

of the moon?

BA: Fighter pilots don’t have emotions.

GQ: But you’re a human!

BA: We had ice in our veins.

GQ: Well, did you ever say, “I’m going to get in that [fragile

lunar module], and land on the moon”? Did that ever sort of

flabbergast you?