Filmstrip From a Guest Speaker
A friend sent me a link to one of the best explanations of this confusion of ideas thing I have ever seen. Dance Monkeys Dance!
I've been tagged on my last post, by the way, but that will have to wait. I hope all the good victims aren't taken before I can get back to that!
posted by breakerslion @ 6:32 AM
14 comments
14 Comments:
I have a hard time with veiwing people as monkeys. I feel it debases our humanity.
Considering the amount of "uncivilized" behavior that takes place every single day, I would think that the monkeys have a better case for feeling insulted. I never heard of a chimpanzee clubbing a baby seal for example.
Yes, but THAT is not monkey behavior.(clubbing baby seals, i mean)
I see the monkey comparison alot. I feel there is something too simplistic about it.
Humans are capable of the worst kinds of behaviors. I realize that. I mean everyone knows it. & I also go along with the evolutionary theoroy. I think the whole "stupid monkey nature" gives people a wrong image of themselves & their potentuals.
Maybe, it is just me?
Ok, you got the flip answer before, now I think you almost deserve the long-winded one :-)
We are not monkeys exactly, any more than we are mules or pigs. We are, however, capable of behavior that can be described in that way. The main point is, we are potentially dangerous animals. We are a product of nature, not apart from it, and our intelligence in some cases, merely lets us rationalize away our brutal and self-interested behaviors. We apply veneers of social convention and sensibilities to help us get along with each other, but this too is a mind trap, limiting our thinking and perceptions. Example: I once suggested putting honey in tea to a Japanese person who reacted as if that was one of the most ridiculous things she had ever heard. Our culture creates such blind spots in all of us.
I tend to favor the psychological model of the "horse and rider". This forebrain/hindbrain approach has been most helpful to me in interpreting my own behaviors and subconscious motivations, including those behaviors that fall into the category of self-sabotage. It also helps me understand the little levers and emotional/biochemical triggers used by control freaks, among others, to manipulate social behavior. It helps explain why they work. I think the "rider" part is what makes us both similar to, and different from, the monkey. I think most of the larger primates have a "rider", just not as well developed as a human one. Curiously, it is the "horse" part that first responds to emotional manipulation. Welcome to the herd/pack mentality. Yes, humans are different, just not that different. We are not different enough to require God's magic penis to explain our existence.
thanks for the comment. It's helpful
That main point is, we are potentially dangerous animals. We are a product of nature, not apart from it, and our intelligence in some cases, merely lets us rationalize away our brutal and self-interested behaviors. yes, I see that.
& your "horse & rider" model makes sense.
We are not different enough to require God's magic penis to explain our existence. This I also agree with.
I'm trying to put it all together in a way I am satisfied with.
I have always loved this piece even if I have to mop the sarcasm off of my monitor..technically we are closer to Apes and the greatest tragedy is that we aren't more like Bonobos than the other Chimps...try to imagine how different our world would be if we made love not war?
I am very excited that Neuroscience is on the threshold of revealing how our chemically controlled neurons in the 3 lb organ that is holding our ears apart is responsible for creating everything from gods, art and behavior to soft ice cream, viagra and nuclear weapons.
The downside is of course that somebody will use this technology to try to control every aspect of our lives even more efficiently than they do now. Regardless, if we can atleast convince the 5.5 Billion others that there isn't a rescue party on the way and that we have to work it out ourselves...it's a start and just maybe we will have a chance.
if we can atleast convince the 5.5 Billion others that there isn't a rescue party on the way and that we have to work it out ourselves...it's a start and just maybe we will have a chance. you know I don't think that is impossible to do.
Instead of assuming people are stupid, give them the benefit of doubt. It's been drummed into us to much by religion that we are stupid.
The funny thing is they want to tell us we are born sinners & need redemption by a God, but on the other hand they mock us if we believe in evolution.
I guess that's another reason why the monkey thing bothers me. It smacks of religious type put downs.
I yam what I yam. - Popeye
I think the monkey video is deliberately harsh because the authors want to kick the complacency out of people who insist on dividing us out of the animal kingdom. Imagine what a non-human extraterrestrial might see if one were to look at humans. Hairless apes with big brains and clothes... and toys and dangerous habits?
Imagine what a non-human extraterrestrial might see if one were to look at humans. Hairless apes with big brains and clothes... and toys and dangerous habits?
Wellll, they are just big eyed butt fuckers to us, Ha ha!
Yeah, and it's all that farting and tap dancing that really bugs me!
I too, am in mourning.
My second-favorite juvenile-silly joke:
Why do gorillas have big nostrils?
Because they have big fingers.
My first-favorite is the trick with the Land-O-Lakes butter girl that turns her into a flasher.
Stupid, but everyone laughs!
My first-favorite is the trick with the Land-O-Lakes butter girl that turns her into a flasher.
Huh?
You're kidding right? Ok, you have led a sheltered life. Take one Land-O-Lakes cardboard butter package. Remove one side with kneeling Indian maiden. Do not discard the rest of the package. Take sharp knife (X-acto is best) and cut the two sides and bottom of the butter package that she is holding, then bend it up to turn it into a flap-thingy. Now, cut out the knees from the Indian maiden on the opposite side of the package, and tape them behind the butter package flap that you have created. Show your friends. Everyone laughs. They just do.
Not everyone has led the culturally rich life with which some of us have been blessed. My brother showed me that trick when he was something like 19 and I was 7. I felt so lucky...
ILD
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