by
Nellie Bowles
The New York Times
November 9, 2018
by
Franklin Foer
The Washington Post
September 8, 2017
Imagine observing a group of chimpanzees in the woodlands of
western Tanzania. One day, an otherwise ordinary member of the group decides he
will affix wildflowers to the hair on his head and rub a red ochre paste on his
face. Imagine further that he, so adorned, then swaggers among his fellows
gesturing to his new appearance and pointing at and laughing disdainfully at
his group mates. Finally, imagine that this same chimp begins taking overt and
deceitful actions to get what the others consider a disproportionate share of
food that the group has hunted or found.
Three Questions
1. What do you think Mr. Special’s group mates will think of
him, and what consequences might he face for such behavior? His
fellows might ignore his appearance or find it amusing. Then again, the ranking
male and female might take umbrage if the lesser females start given Mr Fancy
the attention and deference they normally give to the two leaders of the group.
Eventually and more probably, his antics regarding food, if they continue for
some time, will likely result in him being beaten and/or driven from the group.
2. Now, imagine a corollary scenario among a group of modern
humans. Think of a business office situation where someone adorns himself and
behaves in a manner suggesting to others that he is superior to them. And that
he begins stealing or bullying to obtain promotion, wealth or communal
resources to a degree that degrades the wellbeing of his group mates? For
example, a cologned, well-coiffed, well-dressed Wall Street financial manager
becomes known in the office for his vanity and arrogance. In his work he
frequently takes action to demolish low income housing that will put
thousands of low income tenants on the street in order to make way for the
construction of expensive, highly profitable townhouses on the same land. Does
our Mr. Profit exemplify the spirit of liberty, equality and fraternity in his
individual and business behavior?
3. How has it come about that the maverick among chimpanzees
scenario is an obvious affront to chimp individual and group morality, yet the corollary
among humans is acceptable?
I kindly ask that you not jump to a conclusion, in the
currently popular mode of “gotcha, see, I can think faster and therefore better
than you,” that I’m a socialist using an evolutionary biology analogy as a
rationale. Also, this essay is neither a sophistic argument intent
on demeaning all points of view other than mine, nor an attempt at rhetorically
deceiving you or clobbering you and your ideas into submission to my way of
thinking. I kindly ask that you stay with me a bit longer. I’m simply trying to
expand thinking not win points of argumentation.
First, I am not a socialist. During thirty plus years of
working and living in Africa, observing firsthand how various forms of national socialism fail, I found little in that social system to recommend to any large
society. Now, consider the following.
