Every once in a while I say something intelligent. I know this only because someone intelligent says the same thing or something quite like it, after I do, in a respected forum.
In this case, a little more than a week ago I said the FLDS men in Texas (and Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada) were behaving just like a Band of Gorillas and not like evolved, reasoning, and civilized people. I went on (as I always do) to say that the FLDS Prophet was quite convincing in the role of dominant silverback and the other mature and favored males were obviously playing the role of lesser but still significant silverbacks.
And in the Wall Street Journal yesterday (May 21, 2008), Lionel Tiger, the Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers and the author of Men in Groups, The Decline of Males, Women in the Kibbutz, and The Imperial Animal (among other titles) said the same thing only better. I recommend the article to you. You can find it here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121132858677808907.html (Subscription required)
I was a young man when I came to believe that people are basically animals with a twist, and that twist is our amazing cortex. The cortex is what really separates us from the rest of the animal world, and along with such wonderful gifts as language and speech, we are also endowed with reason. And it is really this dual nature of man – both reasoning and an animal, which cause us to see such large discrepancies in human behavior.
While living in Great Britain, I learned that the word devolution is defined as “the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a state to government at national, regional, or local level.” (Wikipedia - Devolution) I always thought that it was too bad this word had already been defined, however, because it would be a natural for what I think happens when evolved humans return to their natural roots.
As a reasoning being, we can think outside our nature. As animals, we can return to that nature – if I had my way, I’d call this devolution - any time we give up on reason. And the FLDS compound is simply a community of humans acting like a Band of Gorillas. They have their alpha-males (the silverbacks.) And like a Band of Gorillas, the young men who are competitors for the marriageable women of the community are reported to be found guilty of some infraction and banished from the community (in Utah, these young men are referred to as “Lost Boys”), thus leaving these women available for marriage and childbearing with the silverbacks.
There is one thing, upon which Professor Tiger and I do not agree, however. He calls this FLDS community and others like it “deranged cults.” I think we ought to start calling them what they really are, that is a Band of Gorillas. They left reason behind and hide behind religion as they act the part of gorillas.
There is nothing new here. Just what I like to call "devolution."
1 comment:
A quick update for those of you who are not reading, watching or listening to some kind of national news: The Appelate Court has ruled that the State of Texas has not treated each case individually and the FLDS children should not have been taken from their families. What this actually means is unclear, for it appears that there may be some situations where they keep the kids and others where they must be returned. It wasn't a clear cut win for the FLDS, and it certainly was a set back for the State of Texas. All this really says is that Texas has just learned in their first foray into the prosecution of polygamous groups game what Utah, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada already knew - it ain't as easy as saddling up your tank and knocking down a gate.
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