<HTML>In a message dated 12/4/02 2:31:14 PM Pacific Standard Time, seamus2001@attbi.com writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">This seems like projection to me. A baby crying for milk has no command capabilities. It is we [some of us anyway] who choose to see it as a command. Of course one can easily slip to a legalistic/sociologistic frame and say the baby's crying is a command backed by the sanction of the state that it not be denied being fed and hence we have laws to prevent infanticide and the like, but isn't the whole point the fact that the overwhelming number of parents want to feed and love and cherish their baby, despite when they have bad hair days? Ian </BLOCKQUOTE> I suspect response to a baby crying is hard-wired. I have seen research results that show parents are usually highly reactive to their own kids cries, more highly reactive than random outsiders. I do not feel like getting all sociobiological about the point,a nd I am not paying enough attention to fully fit this into the discussion, but babies cry for lots of reasons. I assume the ones who make their parents / caregivers respond better to their needs probably survive better. People who do not get how this is power MIGHT learn by spending more time around crying babies. DoreneC</HTML>