Killer Whales and Killer Apes, Part Two

After my last column about the “Killer Whale” that drowned a female trainer in Florida, a reader pointed out that psychologically generated violence is not unheard of in nature. Even though exceptions do prove the rule, and the rule is the extreme violence of man, we still have to account for the exceptions in nature.

The reader cited an example of Bottlenose dolphins raping and killing harbor porpoises, a non-prey species. There are other examples of animals besides humans apparently acting out of hate. Female lions seem to loath hyenas, no doubt because they prey on their young, and will go out of their way to kill them.

More tellingly, Jane Goodall has observed a troop of male chimpanzees in Tanzania working themselves up into a frenzy to attack another troop adjoining their territory, and systematically wiping them out over time. Here we see the beginnings of the genocidal impulse, which has grown so monstrous in man.

Does the propensity for psychological violence increase at the higher end of the evolutionary neural ladder? Specifically, does the evolution of ‘higher thought’ carry with it murderous and war-making tendencies?

The quantum leap in cognitive ability that the evolution of symbolic thought represents is so powerful that the vast majority of people assume it mirrors the nature of the universe. That is, man separates, so we think things are separate.

But in fact separation is an evolutionary trick, an adaptive mechanism in Homo sap for manipulating the environment. No other animal on earth can ‘remove and make ready for use’ (the literal definition of separation) anything on the order of humankind.

Chimps are sometimes observed stripping the leaves from a twig and poking their pre-fashioned tool into a termite hole to extract the bugs, knowing that the termites will cling to the stick. They are thus exhibiting rudimentarily an ability in humans that has enabled us to build the most beautiful bridges and the most complex computers.

Is it coincidental that chimpanzees are the only other species on earth that have been observed committing systematic murder in the wild? I don’t think so.

Then what is it about the evolution of ‘higher thought’ that leads to the kinds of levels of violence we see in the world today?

Without division (the psychological mistake beyond utilitarian separation) there cannot be identification as ‘me and my group’ (be it ethnic group, religion, or nation). And without identification, there cannot be aggressive violence.

In negating man's archetypal tribalism, the idea/emotion of defending ‘my country’ would cease to exist, and fall onto the ash heap of history, where it belongs.

But the problem goes much deeper, involving the universal human tendency of self-centeredness. In the West, we derisively laugh at the pre-Copernicans with their earth-centered view of the universe, but don’t see the absurdity of our own self-centered individualism. In a few decades, people may look back and shake their heads in amazement at us, but with sorrow instead of a sense of superiority.

Does this mean the United States would no longer spend billions on its vast military? Don't hold your breath. Of course since America is in precipitous decline now anyway, we won’t be able to afford sucking at the teat of the sacred cow of the ‘Defense’ Department much longer. And the recent American practice of franchising military operations through private contractors is making things much worse, gorging the bloated beast of the military-industrial complex at the expense of dire national and global needs.

Violence can and does erupt from many psychological sources—suppressed rage, unaddressed fear, generational hate, or personal frustration, to name a few. But at bottom, psychological violence requires an individual or collective self that reacts from the idea and feeling of ‘me’ under attack.

A collective ‘me’ may be as small as Turkey, with its laws against “slandering the nation” by even talking about the Armenian genocide. Or as big as Communist China, which holds to archaic ideas of sovereignty and screams “interference in our internal affairs” even as it scours the planet for resources and masterfully manipulates the international system.

Humankind will never ‘evolve’ its way out of violence. Indeed, the only way we can bring about a transmutation within ourselves (which is humanity), is by discarding the comforting idea of time altogether.

In ending the idea of time as a means of change, one has the energy, immediacy, and focus to meet the human crisis.

Previously:

- Martin LeFevre is a contemplative, and non-academic religious and political philosopher. He has been publishing in North America, Latin America, Africa, and Europe (and now New Zealand) for 20 years. Email: martinlefevre@sbcglobal.net. The author welcomes comments.

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