Planet of the chimps

It's occurred to me that our image of ourselves as an “advanced species” might be a delusion. Over the past couple of millennia, science and technology have advanced at an astounding rate. But I submit that, for the most part, human behavior and interaction is barely one step removed from the caves. Put another way, Bush, Cheney and their ilk may not be an aberration. They may well represent the norm of the human condition.

The only difference between cavemen beating each other over the head with sticks, and modern day warfare, is the ease with which life is destroyed and the appalling number of deaths involved.

Perhaps, in some way, the barbarians who have stolen America have done us a service. They have made it glaring apparent that traits such as greed, “me, me, me,” survival of the fittest, nationalism, extreme dogmatic beliefs, fear of “the other,” and a widespread lack of human sympathy and empathy, are merely signposts along the road to extinction.

How many people can you name who seem to have made an immense evolutionary leap? Offhand, I can only think of a handful in our own era such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the unknown man in Tiananmen Square standing in front of tanks holding a shopping bag and, of course, thousands more like them whose names we’ll never know.

To put these abstract opinions into current political terms, it seems to me that today’s Republican Party seems determined to wipe out all civilized achievements. And the (liberal wing) of the Democratic Party seems to want to find a way through the maze of obstructions toward a more enlightened world. These are my personal biases which may or may not be so.

Our current presidential campaign is yet another example of human ambition trumping basic human decency. Does anyone really believe that our would-be "leaders" are acting out of a need to make the world a better place?

On reflection, that “Planet of the chimps” headline is an insult to chimps. So I suppose my question is, does anyone here on DU really believe that humanity has made any meaningful societal advances in the past few thousand years? Or that we'll see such advances come about in our lifetimes?

But when you're fighting a group ruled my their reptilian brains, the Repugs, it's slow going.

Progress is slow when people manipulate the most "base" human instincts.

Look at the United Nations. A faulty institution as it stands. But there was so much possibility there.

Now it stands in shambles, eaten alive by the new American T-rex, the Bush administration.

The Lizard King

JFK
RFK
MLK
Wellstone

Even Alan Berg, who apparently was one of the few "Fighting Liberals" left in this country, and was gunned down by Bushfriends for his efforts to aggressively, but verbally, defend against them.

He died, and the Wave of Bush Party Radio began that has effected the thought processes of this nation the same way Nazi Party Radio did to Germany. Same psychosis, and we had all better hope The Loyal Bushies don't go as far in the end, because that is likely where we'll have to ride it to, those of us who survive.

The progressive Elves versus the Repug Orcs.

But that's fantasy, as in our real world, our progressive liberal thinkers have been stripped of any real power long ago.

I think the final blow was the destruction of "real" news outlets.

The castle of the academia is now surrounded and the gates are about to be crashed in for the final slaughter.

The Orks will have the world and "bringers of light and progress" will again be sequestered to the deepest areas of the forgotten forrests...

Bushification/Nazification does bring it's own self-fufilling propecy of a bipolar world. Indeed, one is either with the Bushies & Nazis or one stands against the Bushies & Nazis. Cartoon villainy, alive again on Earth. Did it ever leave?

(Pol Pot, Ferdinand Marcos, and Augusto Pincoche, I am looking at yooooouuuuuuuu...)

Still isn't FULLY like that, but closer by several orders of magnitude that Old America. That is not to say that all who oppose the Bushies/Nazis are automatically "good", and to begin thinking stuff like that is to become Bushie ourselves.

In any case, though it pains and to this day astonishes me to say so, your "cartoon" description of the siutuation is more accurate than it has a right to be, as any fictional tale of good vs. evil should never have grounding in the reality of a "shades of grey world".

But the Bushies have seperated out much of the evil, and punctuated it with some Blackwater SS Thugs and a side Corrupted Civil Service.

May God and Heaven help those who are alive to see the year 2100.

As I have been thinking about it, the only reason we Chimp-People even got rid of slavery (which, sociologically, is perhaps one of the few actual advanceemnts humanity has made since falling from the trees) is becuase of the Industrial Revolution.

I see now that, if Peak Oil and Climate Change lead to near pre-industrial per capita energy use, then the descendants of the Bushies will certainly forget why they ever "let" their inferiors off the hook in terms of their natural birthright as Bushie Slaves.

23rd Century Bush-Amerika, if such even still exists and not worse, will have functional slavery again. ESPECIALLY if the energy runs out and, as it appears now, none of the proposed substitutes cannot replace more than a miniscule fraction of the energy there was before.

for too long

and now the pressure is such the Time is Ripe....Worse for the War Mongers....we got the Internet...communication is now light speed......Better times are here if we build the CASE and implement the catalyst/mix for the Peace Movement to grow....

And people wonder why he is called the chimperor.
He is their KING!!