{"id":1959,"date":"2011-03-08T21:26:25","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T02:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=1959"},"modified":"2011-03-08T21:26:25","modified_gmt":"2011-03-09T02:26:25","slug":"bonobos-in-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=1959","title":{"rendered":"Bonobos In Paradise"},"content":{"rendered":"

I came across another article about bonobos<\/a> today; bonobos are a chimp-like African monkey that are growing in popularity amidst their human cousins, because they are so peaceable and hippy-like. When bonobo tribes have conflicts, they often settle them by having an orgy. They also share and hug a lot, and not surprisingly, women are mostly in charge. They seem so happy and well-adjusted, like we humans could supposedly be if only we’d get over our greed and violence and masculine hubris regarding our souped-up brains.<\/p>\n

Well, the bonobo world does sound nice. But this article briefly mentions something that probably explains why bonobos are the way they are, and we are not. Quote:<\/p>\n

Bonobos’ generous nature likely evolved because they live in an area of the Congo where food is plentiful. They never had to compete with gorillas or kill for a meal like common chimps do. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

OK, so the bonobos found a place where everything balanced out for them. Unfortunately, the human species did not. Our big brains made us clever, restless and fecund, and so our rapidly-expanding species set out to inhabit almost the entire land mass of the planet. <\/p>\n

Even before we did this, though, we became keenly aware of shortages and uncertainties, leading to all sorts of uncharitable behavior and awful things (like war). <\/p>\n

Many of my generation (the Baby Boomers) dreamed of a bonobo-like world when we were young. But reality and time have overtaken us. Humans just weren’t meant to stumble across paradise. If we are ever are to find a stable and sustainable equilibrium with our environment, it’s going to need to be through our own blood, sweat and tears. And brain-power. <\/p>\n

So don’t hold your breath.<\/p>\n

PS — Yes, I was lamely attempting to be witty by reference to David Brooks’ book, Bobos In Paradise<\/a>. If you want to seriously learn about bonobo world, though, the guy to consult is Robert M. Sapolsky<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I came across another article about bonobos today; bonobos are a chimp-like African monkey that are growing in popularity amidst their human cousins, because they are so peaceable and hippy-like. When bonobo tribes have conflicts, they often settle them by having an orgy. They also share and hug a lot, and not surprisingly, women are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,9,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1959"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1962,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959\/revisions\/1962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}