The idea of this book was to present a correct representation of Man. There are those who say Man is a killer. He is no more a killer than is any other form of life. Those "bad" things that Man is accused of are no more than that part of Man that touches the jungle. The important and unique feature of Man is not only that he is the bearer of intelligence and art, but that he is instinctively altruistic. Dave Putnam, studio executive and film-maker has stated that although money is made in violent theater that excites Man's connection with nature . . . theater audiences respond equally to those films that stress Man's nobility and honor, The difference to the accountants seeking the "bottom line" is that violence is cheaper and easier to fabricate than is social awareness. It is easier to pull triggers and crash cars than it is to find the talent that can make interesting theater out of the personal struggle to enhance the meaning of existence. In addition to this; the talent that is capable of this miracle is seen as a threat to the status quo. It was shortly after the House Unamerican Committee saw to the blacklisting of Hollywood's best writers that the poison of violence and sex for money entered the culture.
There is great hope for Man. We must be clear on this. Man the warrior must not be glorified . . . Man the creator should. The present revolt against violent theatre is based on its effect on children. Violent theatre does not only affect children but affects everyone who watches it. The present O.J. Simpson case is a perfect example. O.J. was playing the role of a Navy Seal and was in training as an expert killer with a knife. Adult behavior in every area of society is poisoned by the cynicism and betrayal of those who put money ahead of everything.
The real Butch Cassidy and the real Sundance kid were released by the governor of Wyoming if they would give their "word of honor" that they would not rob in Wyoming. They never returned to Wyoming. If one were to give his "word of honor" in the present United States he would be laughed at. The word of honor of a bank-robber was solid in the old days. Honor today is a quaint word associated with the knights of the round table. The film industry today puts money before honor. They have poisoned the well.
I regret the pot-shots I have taken at some very good people. The neccessity for throwing ice-water on the head of Homo Sapiens Sapiens made it neccesary. The problems that we have are going to intensify. The root causes remain. All literate people are aware of what they are. The younger people, and I include baby-boomers in this category, accept the anarchy of life today because they have not experienced those times when you could leave your door unlocked or walk just about anywhere in safety. So many attrocities take place that they have become innured. The historical perspective made possible by my longevity is not shared with everyone. Surely we have had wars and depressions and injustices in the past but there is something terribly evil about the callous way ordinary people think and behave today.
I was renting some storage space and there were four normal clean-cut intelligent people waiting in the office. They were talking about "weirdo" mental cases wandering the streets. A tall young building contractor recounted how he used a high-pressure water hose to knock down a poor psychotic who wandered by waving his arms and talking to himself. This got a big laugh. Cynicism and distrust are epidemic. Compassion is a thing of the past. Bogart and Cagney were tough talking but they had more heart than todays average man. Their counterparts in violent theatre are icy and inhuman.
The Melendez brothers shotgunned their own parents for their wealth. A young mother murders her two children. A famous football hero is on trial for killing his wife and an innocent resteraunt worker. Children are carrying guns to school; not for show and tell, but to defend their lives. The Nazis were dispicable but were acting out of conviction. These people have no principles at all . . . they seem to be animated by pure blood lust.
Anthropology has concerned itself with culture. This is culture . . . our culture! Has no one noticed that the Canadian "rat experiment" predicting the results of population overcrowding was an almost exact premonition of our present problem? Is there no one who will speak up and say that the Catholic Church bears a responsibility here? When will we face the realities of a life dominated by technology without a corresponding social advance? Someone . . . anyone . . . speak out! There is no history in nature, of God or little people in flying saucers saving a life-form that is unwilling to save itself.
Man is a threat to life on the planet. If unbridled population growth due to technology is the cause, it is going to require a massive and international assault on the birth rate. We have to have "think tanks" that are not the property of those profiting from the ghastly results of unbridled technology. The "supply side" that would dismantle social structures in this scenario point to profits on Wall Street. They ignore the poverty of Main Street. The movie "Soylent Green" was about a futuristic civilization where population was kept in balance by an industry that herded up people and turned them into "Soylant Green" a tasty and nutritious food for those who had not been harvested yet.
What is happening now is rapidly going to intensify. Everything that you abhor about present day life is going to get worse. What is happening now could not have been envisioned by science fiction of the fifties. They worried about monsters from outer space. Now we have monsters in our neighborhoods. Monsters with baby faces like the Melendez. If an intelligentsia does not rise that is capable of analyzing and publicizing the basic problems underlying this madness, then we are doomed. We have no time for academic sparring nor "natural history" anthropology. We can not afford legal wrangling about individual rights that take prescedent over the rights of society. Monsters have no rights. Among the monsters I include those whom have let the potential blessings of atomic energy turn into radioactive waste sites, the monsters that are destroying the rain forests, and the monsters that are proliferating weapons of mass destruction. Is a corporation executive who allows oil-spills because he is too cheap to put double-hulled tankers on the oceans a monster? I would say so.
Summary justice is given the poor who cannot afford a lawyer. The record of the public defender as a defense is dismal. O.J. Simpson is spending seventy thousand dollars a day for legal expenses. how many people can get this kind of justice? Where I recommend justice for the underdog, I recommend summary justice for the demonstrated monster. I plead with every educated person to call for the removal of the commercial jungle from the tribal government. This is the first step to saving, not only the honor of our country, but the future of the world.
The anthropological format of this book is to expose ideas that have become the victim of thought control. The foremost is the attempt to hide the degree that Man is symbiotic with technology and the obvious fact that he has been since his inception. The second is the lie that a property culture is neccesary to Man's life; three million years of tribal life refutes this. The discussions about bipedalism, heat conservation,savannah life, etc. are pitiful attempts to negate the fact that Man was a spear-carrier. Robert Ornstein in the "Evolution of Consciousness" details the three major brain enlargements that led to modern Man. He mentioned that the biologist J.B.S. Haldane has noted that the extraordinary increase in brain size was the fastest evolutionary transformation known. It is obvious that it occurred as the result of a demand for change to meet a crisis. There is no climatological reason for it. The only crisis that makes sense is that Man's population exploded due to his technology, this pushed him to look for hunting grounds, and caused the only possible answer . . . war!
Primitive warfare provides the Darwinian mutational cause for this phenomena. It explains it. Population growth pushes territorial conflict and the result is war over hunting grounds. if we postulate that primitive warriors were equal so far as weapons went . . . strategy, cooperation, communications and ruthless planning made the Darwinian difference in whom would survive. These are all products of the brain. The unfortunate who was not too observant and sapient was killed and eaten.
Modern warfare involves technology instead of individual mental ability.
This means that although Man continued the senseless occupation
of war, his brain did not get any bigger. Technology parallels nature as
a creative force. Modern warfare led to more and more technology, in fact,
modern warfare (note WWII and the Cold War) advanced technology in even
more rapid fashion than did primitive warfare brain expansion. Physical
biological change in an organism is instituted as needed. Modern Man did
not have to change biologically by increasing his brain size because he
had technology.
In this case he was like early Man in that he did not have to grow
long hair or fangs because he had technology. Early Man's technology was
limited to spears and he had to grow a larger brain as war eliminated the
stupid.
While Man was a warrior he was not a murderer. The intense social cooperation demanded by a tribe under siege led to an intensely social population. This was the birth of altruism in nature. how did he make the distinction between murder and the killing of another human being in combat? The answer is Totemism; which must have left its imprint on the genetic makeup of succeeding generations and can easily be discerned today. Why deny that the spear is responsible for bi-pedalism and many other social and physical changes?
If a man slashes his wife and eats his children has he done anything
wrong?
The answer is not as obvious as it would seem. If he is a member
of a jungle community he might simply have been hungry. A hungry lion will
do this and so will many other natural creatures. Eating ones spouse is
part of the black widow spiders life style. What causes it to become wrong
for us? The answer has little to do with the ten commandments. The answer
is: that what works for the jungle does not work for the tribe. The ethical
matrix of a social animal is different than that of a lone carnivore. Jungle
behavior within the tribe becomes evil. Tribes without written law condemn
such an act. They have to be written and codified in civilized law because
the jungle has intruded itself into the tribal kraal . . . the techno-jungle.
I have written a philosophy of technology. It is a first cause. Man and technology are inseparable. When technology advances . . . Man advances. How can one say there is no hope for Man? Technology is expanding in quantum leaps. We must understand that an advance in technology should be accompanied by an advance in technique. It always has. The techniques will have to move the owners of technique to share the buffalo.
Turn your PCs into weapons. Do not let them continue to keep you isolated and ignorant. Do not let apathy and defeatism destroy this world. Do not look for some savior to save you if you are too degenerate to save yourself. Such a messiah would not be interested in a life-form so hopeless. Throw off the poison of indifference and sloth. Recognize that you have been corrupted too and pray to God to remove the corruption. Ask the counselors turned out by our universities why they deal with demonstrated monsters like the leader of the Bosnian Serbs. When has anyone ever seen sweet reason succeed with the warrior? Hang him after a war-crimes trial! This is what our military power should mean. Honest American soldiers are not afraid to die fighting tyranny. They will resist blatant intervention in the interests of "American interests" that are really the interests of multi-national corporations. This does not mean that they would not fight on the side of humanity. If we are interested in strictly American interests then we would be better disarming completely. We went into WWII with wooden guns and in four years destroyed fascism. Never again will fascism be considered a viable solution by an honest man. There will be fascists so long as the totem gene exists but they will never be able to win adherents among reasonable people. WWII did not do away with the totem gene but it destroyed fascism as an idea.
I have tried to be entertaining enough to get your attention but I am deadly serious. We cannot handle the problems of today with slovenly thinking. We must construct a philosophy that encompasses a "social contract" for our times. It must begin with a recognition of the dual nature of Man; Man the symbiote, a fleshy organism welded to technology. The dual nature of Man as a social creature entangled with the vines of the commercial jungle must be recognized. We must take machetes in hand and cut our way out of this dangerous place. This jungle talks with sophisticated accents and like some incubus, clings to our backs. It waves money in our faces to buy our honor.
Nothing could be more hypocritical than the rating system that is supposed to protect children from violent theater. Violent theater affects everyone. We have all been dipped in this polluted culture. The fact that O.J. Simpsn was making a movie about a Navy Seal and was trained as a knife fighter for the part indicates the source of his madness. A doctor recently committed suicide after hiring a hit-man to shoot another doctor. It is not just the kids who are going crazy. The adults are affected too.
Of what good is money when a drive-by shooter can kill you for fun?
You anthropologist so obsessed with culture . . . what of a culture like
this? What about a culture that is made in the jungle boardrooms? What
about a culture that is sleazy and degrading . . . that laughs at honor
. . . that glorifies sadism? This is a jungle culture. This is cultural
Darwinism as well as social Darwinism. This is the culture that formed
the person behind the gun. It gets richer because it not only sells the
gun but it forms the mentality of the shooter. Like those who add nicotine
to cigarettes, it adds motivation for the gun-buyer. The jungle cat does
not have any social responsibility. A jungle carnivore does not let ethics
come between him and his prey. He does not worry that what he is doing
is poisoning the earth. To be truly human is to love humanity. To be a
tribesman and relate yourself to the natural environment is to recognize
that unlimited human biological success is a dead-end street. The tribe
is now a world-tribe and if we do not help the Chinese leadership with
their population problem we will soon be forced to sink boatloads of illegal
immigrants. This is a time when the human right to procreate must come
under question. Let us grab hold of a philosophy that puts the liberal
under scrutiny as well as the conservative.
The liberal that in the interest of integrating society is allowing
people to be identified by their race or national origin. Only the minority
itself has the right to do this. They have the right to fight discrimination
by identifying the reason for their plight. No one else has this right.
The liberal who promulgates decisions that would weaken family ties without
offering a better and stronger form of social organization is doing no
one a favor. It would be better to do what the conservative does and prate
about "family values." The idea of strengthening the individual is fine
but not at the expense of leaving him a lone carnivore prowling the streets.
We must organize a new relationship between people at the most basic level. It must come out of a struggle to oust the jungle of commerce from society. I do not mean to burn down the shopping centers but just as they are zoned to keep them out of neighborhoods they should be zoned to keep their owners out of our government. Ask yourself why we are paying two hundred and fifty billion dollars a year for a military that will not fight. Ask yourself why it costs ten million dollars to run for congress. The answer to these questions should make you mad. I hope his book makes you mad! Listening to the pudgy, not-yet four million dollar author, Newt Gingrich calling himself a "revolutionary" makes me mad. As a genuine revolutionary with impeccable credentials, this self-serving servant of Rufus Murdoch makes me boil.
Lament
Fadiman and Schuster left
and little men with narrow eyes
conglomerate big deals with peanut brains and
grey suited peasants fearful of the boss
now own the arts and carefully eviscerate the goose
that laid those golden eggs
and cunts and daggers are the bottom line
as cocain gibbering madness fills the shelves that
cradled warm moist love and songs with wit and courage
. . . oh!
the commissars of Mammon spawn of a computer
with talent gone the arts
have turned pedestrian and gentle minds
from boredom nauseate and die unread in unmarked graves
alas!
st.john
Epilogue
It is galling for a writer to be misunderstood. A number of the readers of the Totem Gene seem to think that I am trying to affect some sort of reconciliation between Darwin's Theory of Evolution and Creationism. This is absurd. Darwin's theory was a theory back in 1895, In 1995 it is a fact. Without it a whole list of sciences could not exist. Certainly the science of biology would be difficult without it.
Those who call themselves "Creationists" today are victims of a cunning propaganda by leaders in the religion business. These interpreneurs would turn the Christian Bible into a dogma. At the time this collection of spiritual stories was put together everyone thought the world was flat. The religious fundamentalist is attempting to turn the very real need of humanity for a spiritual outlook into an attack on reason itself. How I could have given the impression that I would be rooting for the ignorant red-necks who put the teacher Scopes on trial is a mystery to me.
The dualism that I presented in The Totem Gene taught that there were two entirely different methods of creation. One is manual creation . . . the fabrication of artifacts and ideas by human beings and the other method is evolution. The word "creation" does not neccesarily imply consciousness. A river creates a sand-bar by carrying soil along with it. Evolution is a creator but there is no scientific evidence that it is the result of a conscious decision by some God. There is no proof for there being a God. Searching for such proof is hopeless. None of the miracles that have appeared in my life could be scientifically demonstrated nor their source identified. It is possible that some alien force from another part of the galaxy caused them. I do not know.
My own experience has shown me that I personally need a spiritual
life. A spiritual life depends upon faith. Science has little use for faith.
When one says; "I have faith", one is not saying that "I know" . . . If
one knows, then one has no need of faith. The creationist is a person of
little faith. "Faith is the evidence of things not seen." Hanging on to
the bible as a rock of reality betrays a lack of faith. Evolution is generally
the evidence of things that are seen. My faith is faith in God and does
not need a proof. The bible does not offer proof, neither does the Koran.
The bible does not offer instruction in material things. The bible offers
instruction in spiritual things. While I believe that Gods wants us to
have faith . . .
I do not believe that he wants us to throw reason out the window.
I believe that the spiritual is an area of human experience completely separate from that other area, the material world we must deal with. I believe that when we try to mix these two together . . . we do harm to both. When I see the television evangalist scrunching up his face in an attempt to bend God to his will I think . . . "oh you of little faith." These are not prayers, these are demands. Christ implored his disciples not to pray on the street corners in order to enhance a reputation for piety. He told them to go in a closet and shut the door. He wanted them to surrender to God and not try to turn God into their personal genie.
If I totally believed in the Bible I would have to believe that Christ,
when he told his disciples that the Pharisee is going to burn in hell and
take all his followers with him, was speaking the truth. On all the evidence
. . . Man is a technocrat as a result of the broken stick. Technology became
a thing in itself, and intelligence bloomed within it. In spite of "Forrest
Gump" I do not believe that stupidity is piety.
The End?