I Used To Be A Monkey

Just some thoughts

COMMENTS ON THE PATHOS AND PATHOLOGY OF SENTIENCE AND HOMO SAPIENS EXISTENCE…

 

 

Back in the Day

 

I know it was many generations back,….but I remember, my old friend, we used to hang out under the leaves of the jungle canopy, sweating in the humidity, sweating out humanity, grabbing and competing for fruit, having fun, then we’d swing from vine to vine, eventually ending up (at least most times) in that really awesome pool below that waterfall that raged, unabated and in full and it was unconcerned about us…you know?, …we were just 2 monkeys, why should the waterfall care about us back then?….it was really a great time!...

 

But, remember, we used to talk about how much I felt kind of funny about our tribe…and those weird thoughts and urges that were inside me that I couldn’t explain.  Remember?

 

Then, THAT one day,… I just did it!  I stood straight up on two legs!  I was 5 feet tall!  5 Feet!!  Never had any of us measured like that, and what huge celebrations we had that day!...

 

Then later I started walking on two legs more often than not, and CONCEIVING of CONCEPTS, thinking about things other than berries in the tree, the day’s hunt, food, fight or flight, etc. 

 

You remember that, don’t you?  When I asked you for that bauble around your neck because I valued it beyond food or survival?  Those were WILD times…then.  You always took my side…….which is why I am telling you this…I love you, friend.

 

I conceived of concepts like “infinity,” “universe”, “mine,” “ownership,” “property,” “lying,” “god,” and of winning at all costs, of protecting family rather than species,…and I conceived of the reality that our undeveloped species could not comprehend the depths of sentience and the concepts “living” or “dead” in this galaxy, the universe, and our place… what an insane rush!  I know you remember all of that, you were my best friend and the only one in the pack to stay with me and try to understand…Then I stopped growing much hair, which was weird (comparatively speaking, no insult to you, old monkey friend).

 

Then I made fire one day by accident.

 

Power.

 

WOW,… in retrospect, you know I got sentience of some sort….  I don’t know how it happened, it just happened, …

 

BEFORE ME, I was just trying to understand survival as a conscious being….

Then, I woke up,

 

And looked a MY HAND, and understood that this was “me."  Sentience, the concept of ME, ….so cool.

 

Then, at a species and survival level, I exponentially multiplied like a virus,

 

I ruled the world because of two legs, no hair, sentience, and an accidental fire…

 

I will tell you one thing, though.  Sentience is so cool,,, WOW, man, it made me visceral and ruthless…I won the battle of survival in my tribe!….Mr. Darwin would love me!

 

Of course, I had to procure food, and at that point, because of my exponential deviation, I was responsible for my whole tribe, and that was really hard, but my own new-found sentience and acceptance of it was GREAT!  I scared everyone in the tribe so much, but I couldn’t stop this sentient feeling, this exponential jump from stimulus, pain, and response, to calculated mental thought!

 

My instinct still, however, was to survive to eat tomorrow, so …

 

SOMEHOW, MY CLAN AND SPECIES DID NOT DIE….my Darwinian metamorphosis was so strong and advanced, the drive to procreate was so great, and my sentient awareness such a sea change on this orb,…that I multiplied like a virus….and I wasn’t a monkey anymore...

 

 

 

THEY CALL ME HOMO SAPIENS…

 

So, here we go, my friends,..listen up!....

 

With due deference to southern baptists, the taliban, jihadists throughout the world, the truly pious (to the extent of their comprehension), the kkk, and the black panthers here in the united states, and all others who blindly believe in their convictions and how they think they feel, (oh, and microsoft word, which always tries to fight the good fight against me and continually capitalizes certain apparently accepted “important” words while I try write them without capitalization, capitalization (or the lack thereof) is important in human communication),…Regardless, I have some comments about human consciousness and existence…

 

We became self-conscious very recently in the history of time.  We are a first-generation evolution from smart apes.  We have less hair, and stand up straighter.  We’re bipedal, we shave.  We made fire.   And we got ONE BIG THING in that last MORPH….

 

WE GOT SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS!... IN A DARWINIAN EXPONENTIAL SPECIES ADVANCE, which changed the earth.  Some genetic milieu combined….and a baby was  born of us,…genetically defined and scientifically labeled as HOMO SAPIENS…

 

and she knew a lot (comparatively speaking), so she made fire and stood up straight.

 

Then, she made fire for everyone, told the old ape he was hairy and couldn’t stand up straight, and,… THAT HE DIDN’T KNOW how to make fire….  

 

A long time ago, but a nanosecond in cosmic consciousness…