I remember a show where Betty White, who had just been on a visit to Ohio to spend time with Koko the gorilla, decribed the experience as transformative. To spend time with a so called great ape who has gained the ability to communicate through a few hundred words, changes our basic conception of what it is to be human. Language has previously been thought to be the most important attribute that distinguishes us from our sister species. To sit down with another creature that is both so like us and so different looking and have a conversation in which the gorilla might appear to be the more insightful participant, really shakes up our notion of the natural order of things. It undermines that arrogance that makes us feel superior to other animals. It's the same inflated sense of ourselves that makes humans feel superior to others of the same species who look different, who have other world views, religions or belong to a different tribe or nation.
People have felt uncomfortable with the monkey/man connection since Darwin first posited it over a hundred and fifty years ago. Are we not god's chosen creatures who have been given dominion over all the other animals? The fact that we have super egos has led us to presume superiority. It ultimately finds expression in dogmas, like those in the Old Testament, that say we are chosen by God as his favorites, to the detriment of other peoples, be they Moabites or Phillistines. We are lead by such notions down a path that not only presumes our primacy over other animals, but also over other people as well.
When we embrace our simian brothers, we start to heal that schism which has been the source of so much unhappiness. If we accept stewardship of nature, instead of control of it, we begin to enjoy the harmony with our environment that so many of our attempts to be civilized have destroyed. It's ok to have fun and the idea of being a monkey man sounds liberating to me. It's no wonder people give a little smile.
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