Starting trouble does not figure into my game plan, neither does waging arguments with conspiracy theorists or ideological extremists. I take comfort in the wisdom of, “It takes all kinds.” Writing a collection of arguable assertions under the cover of, “What The #%@!” seemed like a way to broach controversy without stirring up angst. It simply is what it is. I don’t want to wear it out with my hang ups but then again I would like to share story that might challenge someone’s thinking. That would be a good thing.
Yuval Harari, author of “Sapiens” and “Homo Deus”, both best sellers, is a scholar in the area of Human History, from The Stone Age to the present. In “Sapiens” he explores how an insignificant species, of no more consequence than any other mammal, how they could advance so rapidly and take over the planet. That’s exactly what we’ve done in roughly the last 10,000 years.
He tells the story of how bees exist in a tight social construct. They cooperate in very large numbers which makes them unique. Thousands of bees function for a common purpose, say making honey. But in a split second they can redirect their collective effort to a different task, defending the hive or break off into smaller groups to nurture larva in the bee nursery or fan air to cool the hive. The way they go about each task is literally, carved in stone. No new ideas in the bee hive. E.O. Wilson (world authority on social insects) calls this ‘Super-socialism’. There are only a dozen or so super-social species. A small contingent of ants can not go off exploring and start a new ant colony like the Pilgrims on the Mayflower. In super-social communities the entire community succeeds or dies as a group. All but one Super-social species are insects: Homo sapiens is the other. What sets people apart from bees and ants is that we certainly do cooperate in very large numbers, (voting in elections, holiday shopping, driving cars at rush hour) but we do so with flexibility (new ideas). Voters can write in a name that is not on the ballot, shoppers can change their mind and switch gifts at the check out and drivers can disregard the GPS and exit sooner rather than later to avoid traffic. Some mammals are flexible but only in small groups. Dolphins cooperate in herding fish up into shallows, creating a bow wave that pushes fish onto the bank where they are gobbled up. But it only happens in family groups. One chimpanzee pulls a limb down so another can collect low hanging fruit and then they share. But those examples only happen with small numbers. Tens of thousands of soldiers stormed French beaches on D-Day with a single purpose. Still, small groups changed tactics as situations required, either advance or dig in, return enemy fire with machine guns or throw hand grenades, etc. Humans are the only species that cooperate both flexibly and in large numbers.
At first, his accent and frail appearance belie his story telling skill. Harari was speaking to a group in Stockholm, Sweden. The story went like this: Only a few hours earlier, he was at a hotel in New York, didn’t know a soul there. A bellhop took his bags down on the service elevator and loaded them into a taxi, driven by another stranger. He checked out at the desk, returned his key, again to someone he had never met. Of all the places in NY the cabbie could have gone, he takes Harari to the airport where another stranger takes his luggage and checks it in through security. He shows his identification, answers key questions and proceeds to his gate where another stranger scans his ticket. He boards a plane where another stranger seats him beside yet another stranger. A new, different attendant provides food and drink during the flight and people wait patiently as those seated nearer the door deplane first. His luggage is taken to a hotel by someone from the university while another stranger drives him to the auditorium. Then, standing in the spotlight on an unfamiliar stage, he shares a story about Human History with hundreds of strangers.
Harari stops to sip water from a bottle, surveys the audience and stretches the pause to emphasize the moment. “I want you to know,” he said, “never, ever, will an African chimpanzee leave his familiar troop of 20 to 30, mostly relatives, leave his territorial patch of rain forest, ride in a taxi driven by an outsider to the air port, board a jet with a crew of alien chimps, fly halfway around the world, surrender his possessions to another unfamiliar chimp to take to his hotel and walk onto a strange stage by himself, in front of hundreds of Swedish chimpanzees to share with them a story about bananas.”
The audience loved the story. As if it needed a second verse he begged the question: “What do you think you would get if you put several thousand chimpanzees in an a basketball arena for the Chimpanzee World Championship? How would they organize, who would put on players uniforms, who would be referees; how would food vendors take orders and make change, what about ushers, spectators? People could connect the dots and make it happen. Chimpanzees can cooperate creatively but only in small, family groups. It would be chaos.” They got it. Humans are not only able to cooperate by the millions (religion, nationalism, war, sports events, etc.) We are both creative and flexible in the ways we transition from one role to another, sports fan to religious devotee, situation to situation. Add language which facilitates story and dexterity to make and use tools, we have evolved from paleo-humans who functioned very much like troops of primates to civilized cultures and ideological sects. We send people to the moon and bring them back but also dictate, all across the world, when the Faithful pray and how they go about it. Cooperating in very large numbers, flexibly, that’s how we came to dominate planet Earth.
Consider this, one highly visible, nationally known celebrity chooses to kneel in protest rather than stand for the national anthem and the reverberations are, years later, still making news. Nearly every American got the news within a few hours and judged the situation according to their own moral compass. Opinions ranged from one extreme to the other. He should be banished for his treachery or he should be revered for his courage. I don’t care much about flags, don’t value programmed, manipulated, wanna-be patriotism. I think he showed courage to put himself in harms way for an unpopular but noble principle. But What the #%@!, the point is, a chimpanzee could not have made that choice.
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