Observations of an Erect Biped

January 23, 1995.

(of society)

Genetic inbreeding of the species over the last 40 years or so has caused the downfall of intelligence. And of most elemtary social skills.
Iesus was a Jew who preached peace. However, the Jews of the era were being persecuted by the Romans - thus the teachings of peace and "love thine enemy" were probably not taken with much enthusiasm. A wounded animal wants to strike back. Much like Gandhi's example - people wronged are going to want to vent their anger. Either on their oppressors or on themselves. The fight/revolution is as necessary as the actual overthrowing.

Their arms race is not over, it has merely shifted from the superpowers to the streets. In the cold war, for good or ill, at least the species was unified against a common enemy.

Their Roman Empire may have been the worlds 1st case of an empire being poisoned to death by lead. The American Emipre will be the first one poisoned to death by apathy.

Christians seem to finally get the point: be nice. But there is always a catch. Reflect on this, sacrifice that, forgive this, jericho that...they cannot seem to be nice for it's own sake.

Our entire society is based on the pleasure principle. The id's desires are always placed just eyond reach. Thus we all have to strive to be able to fulfill those society implanted desires. Thus visions of half naked bronzed amazons and their male counterparts will sell more tacos than a simple taste test.

Perhaps, with the advent of cheap, efficient, and clear communication technology, we will all turn out like the ants.

Link callous ideology to apathy and thus when apathy becomes desirable or the Thing To Do, any system of government becomes safe.

> Psychopaths breed mass paranoia breed violence breed apathy breed psychopaths.

   "I'm just a lunatic with a superball in my hand."
   - Paul Tobin, Fringe
The glass hammer doesn't care how much money you have, it's how much you consume.

Taboos exist to further sow fear and distrust. Principle of divide and conquer.
   Media - make people paranoid, sell more papers, make 
     money.
   
   Politicos - be as universally acceptable to all 
     politically correct means offending nobody; therefor 
     having no stong philosophy.
The species of the 1950 and the 1960's rebelled. The 1980's species rebelled against rebellion. Now they are rebelling against rebelling against rebellion.

The glass hammer forces the species to diversify its fields and see only the immediate day in front of us, to omit the big picture.

  • The Myth of the Baby Boomers:
    SEX promotes LARGER WORK FORCE promotes DEINDIVIDUATION OF MAN promotes DESPERATE NEED FOR RECREATION promotes SEX.

    The Status Quo wants sex; sex as a drug, given in controlled amounts. Baby Boom myth requires a repressed society.

    There is no intellectual middle class.

    From hunting and gathering to horticulture to agriculture so industrial to post industrial society. Civilization is a drive towards social inequality and the Alpha Male concept.

  • Religion mirrors society.
    phase:                   religion      society
    hunting and gathering    pantheism     most socially mobile
    horticulture             prime&lesser 
                               gods        beginning class system 
    agriculture              monotheism    caste system                        
    industrial               science       political agenda
    post industrial          humanism      political agenda
    
    Observing the species I came across an interesting situation. In a field test poll 80% defined likeable character as people who are "nice, friendly, and easy to get along with" while they defined dislikeable character as those people who "people who can't get along."

       "...Bunch of easily led automatons pelting a grocery
    store clerk...don't you have jobs to go to?  Why don't you
    go commute or something?"
       - Clerks
    
    The species shows extreme denial when confronted with the fact that it is really nothing but an advanced form of primate.

    An Observer must be constantly reminded that the species observed is merely a flesh-automaton. Which, of course, can be programmed.

    (of the individual)

    The individual feels constricted; trapped without knowing why. The block of ice forged by the glass hammer keeps the individual from being truly free. The individual has visions of himself screaming from behind a frozen surface drowning in the lake of life.
    
       "In my dream, I was drowning my sorrows... until my 
    sorrows, they learned how to swim."
       - U2
    
    The individual wonders if the he is crazy.

    The individual then wonders if the world is crazy.

    (of language)

    Ads promote iconeracy - one picture to convey one thought trend. To reduce people to mere skeletons of intellect. To make people more simplistic. To make critical thinking unnecessary. To make people more controllable.

    Observing the youth I have made this discovery. More and more people lose their powers of communication. Vocabulary is shrinking and iconeracy promoted. Idiomatic ifs supposed to complement language, not supplant it!

    The machiavellian methods of language restriction thought up by Orwell and brought to life by pop culture are realizing their goal. Can original thought survive?

    The species has lost the pleasure in learning - they only learn what society tells them they should learn and then are categorized into specific roles. Only then, in that worker-bee desperation do they remember the pleasure of learning and thinkings and regret that they do not have the time for it anymore.

    (of Coffeehouses in general)

    In this atmosphere, there is not a word spoken nor a thought given that can be said to be meaningful - this is the essence of smalltalk and the crux of chit chat.

    (of reproductive stratagems in the species or of how men and women plan to fuck)

    In the spring courtship rituals abound, like the buzzing of mayflies dancing around the garden, this particular species has its own seperate methods of signalling sexual desire amongst itself.

    The female of the species plays mind games and manipulations, so the male of the species is forced to do the same. So the females must play some more, a never ending spiral, a web of deceit at the center of which sits The Black Widow of Love. The setting of this is the hormonal depression which affects us all. These games teach us to be callow, insensitive, and cold - apathetic.

    Most females of the species have mates, yet males are often alone. Yet no one questions the research of a celibate religous fundamentalist when it comes to the basis of genetic research.

    The females of this particular cultural range and geographic locus seem to be attracted to males who exhibit large size, build, and obvious displays of influence among their aggregate.
    Interestingly enough, that is the same way baboon females choose their mates.

    (of love or of how men and women plan to fuck with each other)

    The species is predictable. The females seek alpha males to mate with and the males seek dominance over their environs to make themselves more attractive to the females. A few males can reason to use psychological tactics in their daily associations with the females to compensate for the inability to manipulate using body language and expression.

    Their Freud would say:

          
          Men select women on the basis of health - clear skin,
       bright eyes, shiny hair, good bone structure, red lips 
       and rosy cheeks - these are signs that a woman is in the
       peak of her childbearing years.
    
          Women select men for alpha male qualities - the
       ability to dominate other males and bring home a large
       share of the kill.  They assume male dominance ensures
       survival of the family group.
    
          Each one of the species is searching for a mate with
       a particular set of positive and negative personality 
       traits.
    
    Individuals of the species do not find other individuals when they look for mates. They find copies of themselves. Dyads who stare at each other will soon be alone, those who can communicate will last. However communication as a lost art among this aggregate.

    Females of the species deny that they are instinctively drawn to alpha males, reasoning such actions are brought about by "destiny," "love," "chemistry," or "magic moments." They deny operating on the first circuit primate behavior.

    The males relegate such actions of attraction to, "She's got nice tits."

    The single of the species will attempt all sorts of tricks, plots, and devices during the courtship ritual and justify this in the name of Fair Play in Love.

    (of Despair)

    The species can never be content as a whole, but several have learned to Step Out of the Picture.
       "You were born, you came from nothing, you die, you go 
    back to nothing, so what have you lost?  Nothing!"
        - Eric Idle, The Meaning of Life
    

    (Conclusion)

    To agree with R. A. Wilson, we are all a bunch of primates who talk shit far too much.

    Index