Mad Dogs @ 66

Great to have you here at The Lake Bob!

Do you have an opinion or two on how much (if at all) our genes drive us to pick sides/enemies/ideas that in the final analysis defy logic and reasoning?

I’m not qualified in any of the relevant fields, obviously, so take this as the mutterings of some drunk if you like. But I think we’re far, far less removed from other primates than we flatter ourselves to think. It wasn’t long ago that humans were said to be different because no other species used tools. Then scientists found lots of species that use tools. Then we were different because no other species has speech. Now they’re figuring out that extemely complex communication systems are more common than we ever realized. More and more, it seems the trend says that thinking we’re all that different is simply a measure of our own ignorance about the rest of the animal kingdom.

So, yes, oversimplifying beyond description: defend the herd, take more soil, justify with primitive god totem. Repeat.

Put another way: our closest relative on this planet is the Bonobo Chimpanzee of Equatorial Africa. Bonobos, unfortunately, are becoming extinct.

Why are Bonobos becoming extinct, you ask?

Because we humans are eating them.

We have a lot of work to do.

But we are equally related to the Common Chimp (Pan troglodytes), whose males are notorious for forming paramilitary bands and fighting protracted border wars with rival male groups.

These aren’t really distant relatives, BTW. The groups fighting are the equivalent of second cousins and usually were once in the other group, fissioning off to establish their own territory.

Likewise some of the most vicious wars are committed between groups that are actually “genetic siblings”. The Tutsi and Hutu were ethnicities largely fabricated by the Belgians splitting up the population into “those that have 2 cows (Tutsi)” and “those that have one or no cows (Hutu)”. The Bosnians were simply Serbs that were converted to Islam. And then there are the Palesinians and Jews…both of whom share something called the Cohen Modal Haplotype on their Y-Chromosomes. This genetic marker is rare in other Middle Eastern groups (unless they have some evidence of being Jews converted to Islam or Christianity).

We frequently kill those that are genetically most like us…when those groups diverge from whatever we cose to label as “ourselves”. It seems that these folks are sometimes viewed as even greater threats than those that are distinctive physically. Nothing makes people so insecure as the loss of their identity, and when others within the group “convert” it portends internal cultural extinction.

neokneme @ 74

Let them eat Bonobos bonbons…

What will Bono say?

I actually wondered that myself! “~}

Bob Harris @ 72

Why are Bonobos becoming extinct, you ask?

Because we humans are eating them.

We have a lot of work to do.

Let them eat Bonobos bonbons…

What will Bono say?

The SCVP is nothing but a bunch of rank hypocrites! Ever since Charles Whaley and his fucking leather shoes muscled their way into the Central Planning Committee, it’s been one spineless compromise after another with the corporate whores we were formed to oppose.

Un-fucking-believably, Whaley’s SCVP has been playing footsie with the National Dairy Council, the Incredible Edible Egg, and their anti-transgendered minions in the traitorous SLGB (no T) so-called “community.” This is not the SCVP I knew and loved. Accordingly, several of the ousted SCVP-CPC members and myself have formed the VPCS specifically to counter the crass MSM-approved SCVP.

Please consider signing up for our mailing list at home.rr.com/~roudebush/vpcs/index.html, or go to Yahoo Groups and search for VPSC to join our forum.

FUCK those SCVP bastards! It makes me soooooo mad. I hate them.

707!!1

Un-fucking-believably, Whaley’s SCVP has been playing footsie with the National Dairy Council, the Incredible Edible Egg, and their anti-transgendered minions in the traitorous SLGB (no T) so-called “community.” This is not the SCVP I knew and loved. Accordingly, several of the ousted SCVP-CPC members and myself have formed the VPCS specifically to counter the crass MSM-approved SCVP.

Please consider signing up for our mailing list at home.rr.com/~roudebush/vpcs/index.html, or go to Yahoo Groups and search for VPSC to join our forum.

FUCK those SCVP bastards! It makes me soooooo mad. I hate them.

SPIEGEL: Make love, not war. Bonobos are famous for their uninhibited
sex. How important is it for their social order?

De Waal: Very important. Bonobos have sex about seven times more
frequently than chimpanzees. But their encounters are also shorter,
lasting 14 seconds on average. For them, sex is like shaking hands,
and they do in all kinds of positions. These Kama Sutra primates
stimulate each other orally and with their hands, and they even have
sex hanging upside down. Most importantly, however, they engage in all
kinds of combinations, homosexual or heterosexual. They do avoid sex
between mothers and sons, however. Unlike chimpanzees, they also have
sex when bonobo females aren’t even in heat. I would say that
three-quarters of their sexual activity isn’t for reproductive
purposes.

SPIEGEL: For what, then?

De Waal: For pleasure and relaxation. And for repairing damaged
relationships. When bonobos climb a fruit tree, the first thing that
happens is that the females have plenty of sex. Their so-called GG
rubbing, or rubbing their genitalia together, is the cement holding
together their social order. Finally, the males use sex to try to get
food from the females.

That’s my kinda social order!

pseudonymous in nc @ 80

Bob, welcome.

Want to talk a bit about trends and fashions (and copycat-ism) in armed rebellion? Who are the big models of emulation around the world, aside from the obvious one currently at large somewhere on the Afghan-Pakistan border?

This is a bit afield of Who Hates Whom, but I’m struck by the reflexive adoption of Che Guevara as some sort of symbol of freedom. You see his face everywhere these days — he’s an international brand as much as Coca-Cola.

And that’s just bizarre to my eye. I mean, I liked The Motorcycle Diaries, too, and Batista sucked, but our noble doctor also had a hand in hundreds of extrajudicial killings.

Sorry, not wearing his face on a T-shirt, no thanks.

Always disturbed me that the essence of manhood was how many people one can kill. As a woman I implore you, can we not improve on this model? Guys?

Bob Harris @ 59

btw, the proper response to realizing that the US is not uniformly exceptional as a positive force is not to start assuming that the US is exceptional as a negative force. Power is what it is. It does what it does. I’m pretty convinced that any superpower with so little check on its actions might have behaved similarly.

That said, we cannot ignore the fact that every time the U.S. has deployed troops or supported dictators, it came down to the decisions of individuals. No matter how many different ways can weigh the influence of, say, neoconservatism and postmodernism and authoritarianism on President Bush’s foreign policy, it is ultimately secondary to the fact that he gave the order to invade Iraq – a conscious choice.

I acknowledge that many of the people in the inner circles of our government have been raised and educated under certain paradigms that make any alternative impossible for them to seriously consider. I also think there’s some truth to the theory that anyone who sincerely believed in those alternatives couldn’t have won an election against a candidate who followed the conventional wisdom – which might explain the predictable fates of Adlai Stevenson, Dennis Kucinich, et al.

But it is also our experience that when a regime follows its own dogma with sufficient dedication and blind faith, it doesn’t take much internal dissent to stick a wrench between the gears.

I know I’m not really saying anything substantive here, but when any discussion enters the realm of macroscopic patterns, I think it’s genuinely critical keep the influence of the individual in the back of our minds.

The influence of the individual—makes me think of John Dean, testifying to the truth during Watergate, despite his certain view that no one would believe him, and that as a consequence he was facing prison for sure, because he felt that the truth was important. Dear God I pray there will be people who feel this way now.

Truth is beautiful

Abu fought the law, let’s hope the law wins.

Yes, thanks Bob. And thank you to everyone else who stopped in today.

And just to plug another book chat coming up (11/4), make sure you pick up a copy of Susan Faludi’s The Terror Dream. I’m about halfway through it and it’s one of the most fascinating books I’ve read this year.

So now I’m out of here. If I can only find my pants…

Check on the patio next to the hot tup. They’re under the shrubbery.