Matthew knew that phrenology was nonsense, and yet, years later, he found himself making judgments similar to those made by his father; slippery people looked slippery; they really did. And how we become like our parents! How their scorned advice - based, we felt in our superiority, on prejudiced and muddled folk wisdom - how their opinions are subsequently borne out by our own discoveries and sense of the world, one after one. And as this happens, we realise with increasing horror that proposition which we would never have entertained before: our mothers were right!
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Matthew recognized that phrenology was a flawed science, yet as time passed, he found himself adopting similar judgments to those of his father. He noticed that people who appeared slippery seemed to indeed possess that quality, making him reflect on the influence of parental beliefs on his own perspectives. The realization hit him that, despite dismissing their opinions, he was slowly mirroring them in his own life.
This reflection led to a deeper understanding of how we often inherit the views of our parents, even when we initially consider ourselves to be above such biases. Over time, the scornful advice that we once rejected can turn into our own beliefs, and we begin to see evidence of our parents’ wisdom in our experiences. This culminates in the unsettling recognition that the very notions we previously scoffed at may hold truth.
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