Mountain gorillas love wild celery. It’s their favorite food. They learn early on that it grows best at forest edges. So they often forage forest edges hoping to find patches of wild celery.
But men go much further. Men harvest and cultivate seeds. They know that if they pollinate the best stalks they can ultimately harvest a much better form of celery. Gorillas can’t do this. They can’t think that far.
The greatest difference between men and Africa’s great apes is this complexity of syllogistic thinking, reasoning a series of logical truths to form a conclusion. The Republican National Committee and the supporters of Roy Moore are not syllogistically thinking unless they mean to lie.
I watched over a period of time with enormous fascination the silverback of the first mountain gorilla family ever to be habituated, Titus, the chief of Family 11.
Field scientists chose Titus to habituate first because he had only one hand. He’d probably lost the other one in a snare. With only one hand he was less dangerous. It also made him a weak gorilla leader, less able to protect his family. When scientists first found him he never had more than three or four other gorillas with him.
But over time the interaction between Titus and the field scientists created a bond that greatly enhanced Titus’ power. With scientists coming daily to watch him (and later, tourists), Titus forged the most protected family in the Virungas. Poachers weren’t going to mess around with a family that got human visitors every day!
At one point Titus reigned over 24 other gorillas and he lived to a ripe old age. I’m absolutely sure that other silverbacks noticed Titus’ success, and that that was crucial to scientists habituating so many other gorilla families.
Titus displayed an awful lot of syllogistic thinking. But finding wild celery and befriending humans for protection is still not as smart as sending someone to the moon and bringing them back.
If we’re faithful to our syllogistic thinking, we’re being truthful. We can never be 100% certain of anything, so it’s not possible to be 100% truthful. But where lies the divide between being truthful and lying?
Even great apes lie. Walking down a lumber path in the remote Kibale jungle in Uganda with four of my clients, I kept thinking someone was following us. At first I simply stopped and looked back – nothing. We started walking again and I swore I heard rustling behind us, so I stopped again. Still, nothing.
But the rustling got louder and closer and so in a soft voice I told the others with me to keep nonchalantly walking up to a bend in front of us, then on my signal to hide in the forest and wait for me to give the all clear.
We cleared the bend, I gave the signal to hide, and everyone enthusiastically melded into the thick jungle.
We all watched the chimp family round the bend and hesitate as they looked for us. When they finally discerned us in the forest, like a battalion of Spidermen they jumped into the forest screaming wildly!
The chimps were lying. They wanted us to think they were somewhere other than where they were. If it were something different, like they really enjoyed the lumber path and had to use it to get to some place to eat but were afraid of us, then they would have waited patiently like all animals for us to go away. They were hardly starving. In fact, I think they were having the time of their lives!
But trying to convince someone that you aren’t where you know you are isn’t as great a lie as saying that Roy Moore wasn’t a sexual predator.
Roughly a third of America supports supports Roy Moore and a lot of them live in Alabama. Now I could deal with this much better if they just said that they didn’t think sexual predation disqualifies Moore from being a Senator, or even: that a sexual predator is better than a liberal as a Senator now. I disagree with that but it’s logical. I know that in early man societies – fully syllogistic thinking humans – the way Moore behaved was probably the standard for many males. I know that there are many places in the world today where that type of behavior gets a pass.
So while I disagree, I’d still respect the person thinking this as a fellow human that I have to listen to.
Moore supporters either believe that sexual predation doesn’t disqualify him, or they believe those who tell them that Roy Moore is not yet proved to have been a sexual predator. Here we arrive at the threshold between truth and falsehood. The truth is that Roy Moore – even if he isn’t now – was once a sexual predator. There’s enough clear evidence for syllogistically thinking human beings to come to this conclusion.
Those who deny this are either liars or blind followers, and if you’re a blind follower you better watch out. If you’ve been brainwashed to believe this, you can be made to believe most anything. You might be convinced to leave your job or family, or commit a crime, or even to kill — to become a suicide killer.
I’m not saying not to vote for Roy Moore. I’m just saying come clean if you do. Vote for Roy Moore and admit that sexual predation in your view doesn’t disqualify him from the race. Otherwise, don’t vote for Roy Moore.
This is a profound moment in human history. This is when we’ll decide that we will govern ourselves using the reasoning so unique to human beings. It’s the moment we decide if we’re humans or beasts.
We completely agree with you Jim and also enjoyed your animal stories along the way of making your point. We wouldn’t vote for Roy Moore even if he weren’t a sexual predator!
Amen. Gloria Felsenthal.
Love the animal stories too. I think you give Moore voters too much credit to think they are capable of thinking or have morals. No possible way they can come clean!
Men in entertainment are falling left and right from sexual misconducts, but men in politics stand tall and strong with endorsements and party financing, no matter how many women made accusations. What can we do??
I agree with you, Jim, but I feel this profound moment in history was reached for many voters a year ago. They decided then that sexual predation in their view didn’t disqualify Donald Trump from the presidency. They decided then that we’ll govern ourselves as beasts.
I suppose certain animals engage in behavior that is self destuctive—maybe because the environment has changed faster than evolution can keep up. However nowhere is this more conspicuous than the slavishl devotion if Trump supporters to a man who doesn’t care one bit about their interest
Roy is a bad apple. Sometimes bad apples acquire power or are elected to office.
In the past presidential election many people not liking Hilary voted for Donald, probably based on not having as much negative information about him as about Hilary.
For me, Trump’s electoral college victory, which put a bad apple in the White House, revealed a flaw in our process for electing presidents. It needs fixing.
Our country has taken two centuries to begin living up to the vision in our founding documents that “all men (meaning “people”) are created equal. Getting the vote to women and people of color took time.
All this progress brings us to consider whether or not the old saying that “might makes right” has a downside and whether it has troubling implications for individual rights and for political democracy. Are we going to tolerate strong men taking advantage of weaker people, particularly women, and doing so in a sexual way? I’d prefer not to do that.
Some powerful people behave more like monkeys than humans.
I don’t agree with you because it is easy to get set up. It happened to me fifty years ago. Three hundred people believed information about me that was totally made up. I believe in innocent until proven guilty–and where have these accusers been for the last forty years? And why have they not come forward with their accusations until now? If he is guilty, time will tell. Until then, Alabamans should have the right to choose the best person for their State, to deal with current issues.
Wow, Jim. Very well put. That’s what bugs me…people who try to cling to, ” well, we don’t know for sure….”. Yes, we do. It’s like folks who drive around with a cigarette in their hand dangling out the car window. If you are going to smoke, Own It! If you are going to vote for a pervert riding to the polls on the back of Jesus, Own It!
If Alabamans elect Moore, they deserve all the inbred knuckle-dragging hillbilly depictions. “Suffer unto me the little children…”. Not in Alabama.
So how do you compare Bill Clinton to Roy Moore,
Talk about brainwashing !!!!
So many “Anonymous”‘s in the world, unable to own their own ideas. One of the points I’m trying to make in this blog is that we’ve got to own up to our own ideas. The more we detach our statements from ourselves, the less we become selves.
Excellent analogy with the animals and couldn’t agree more wholeheartedly.
The Guardian had an interesting article about Roy Moore a couple of days ago. It seems he lost an election when he was about 35 years old – slightly after the sexual attacks – and went to live on a cattle ranch in the Australian outback for a year. He lived with an deeply religious Australian family and, all the Australians the Guardian interviewed thought highly of him. Like one of our recent Presidents, he evidently learned how to walk the walk and talk the talk. Has our 1776 form of Democracy finally outlived its usefulness?
A poll said that 72% of Alabama Republicans did not think the claims against Moore were true. Yes, I have argued as you have that they should admit the truth and then say they are going to vote for him anyway. I think not admitting the truth somehow allows people to reconcile their values and their decisions, though this way is false. Humans have the capacity for rational thought but also apparently for self-deception in pursuit of a cause or protection of a community with which they identify.
I like to chew on rarely used words, especially when there is an accompanying story. Thanks, Jim, for syllogism!
Sadly, “gentleman” and “honor” are concepts that have declined amongst American politicians and other men of influence and the accompanying stories are distasteful.
Well said, Jim.
Strongly agree. Thanks, Jim.
Sexual predator’s tend to reoffend throughout their lifetime, which is why the courts have the list. Moore is not on the list, and it is up to the Alabama voters to decide next Tuesday.
Well, the discussion about Titus was a little over my head, but I totally agree with your discussion about Roy Moore. If folks vote for him, they certainly don’t mind having a sexual predator represent them in the Senate. I find it so hard to believe that they’d rather have a person like this than a “democrat”. Of course, Trump doesn’t see this sexual predation as a problem since he is also one (maybe not of teenagers, but who knows.) I guess the only good thing about Moore being elected is that he will so taint the Republican party that the Congress cold change hands in 2018, but that’s a wild statement, since we didn’t think Trump could ever be elected either. Something is terribly wrong among the people of this country.
The problem I have with Roy Moore and his supporters is that many, if not most, of those who are going to vote for him are Evangelical Christians. After all of these years of pushing for candidates who are righteous and who follow the precepts of Christianity, they are now willing to cast their votes for not only a sexual predator but for a man who has twice been removed from the highest court in the state. This is rank hypocrisy of the highest order.
Thanx Jim
Yes Bravo!