We are all monkeys, crazy for bananas

I have this one excellent - but admittedly, a little too much for my lazy mind to process in one go - book that I've been meaning to finish for a long time (since last year!): Robert Fisk's The Great War For Civilisation.

I used to be very much into Middle East politics, after what had transpired in 2001. It used to be a game of 'them VS us' for me, with me labelling 'the others' as ruthless imperialist who are hell bent on destroying the Muslim world.

But then I realized, that there's a lot of other kind of suffering being inflicted elsewhere, from the level of nations and right down to small community of people. Everywhere from the big wide web, to classrooms, to states, to religious sects - the whole 'them VS us' mentality is at work.

I wondered what is it in the human mind that bring about this? I have many times remarked to myself that 'the Middle East is a fucked up place'. Not only because of the attack of outside forces, but also because of the Arabs killing Arabs incidents. How the hell can they wipe off that many number of lives without any remorse? And come to that, how come we could coin the statistic without feeling anything?

This article gave me something which could explain the points that I've been thinking for a long time. Of course we should be skeptical when it comes to scientific writings (even though admittedly it is hard for us to do so - although you could argue that this is article is perhaps too simplified), but a quick look around us would verify that there is indeed some weight in the whole idea of the Monkeysphere.

Guess Darwin would be delighted - or perhaps despaired? - at the points mentioned here.

But hey, the article also made me think about something else: namely, the proliferation of social networks (emphasis on Facebook). For all those people you added on your 'friends' list, how many would you REALLY care? Who are they, really? Just yet another faceless (I mean metaphorically, mind) person at the other side of the screen? And here I am wondering about how some people could go on and have contacts by the thousands...

On a side note, I'm rather reducing the time I spend on the site, seeing as it is a great time killer, and not to mention some of the stuff I encounter there from time to time. Really, you could grow to hate people if you spend too much time there.

This is something thought up as I monkeyed around at work. As coherent as a mashed banana, it is.

Happy monkeying, yer monkeys.