Sunday 16 September 2007

Freeing Inner Monkey- Knowing Ourselves as Humans



Sometimes we find it hard to accept what we are. We find it hard to admit what really drives us.
The creature we are, why we are the species we are.

And what makes us good. Or to be more honest, what dictates our sense of good? Where does our sense of good come from?

The answer is Inner Monkey.
No, I'm not being facetious.
Let's follow our history.

Our emotions- our sense of Love and Hate, and all our values of interaction, have roots in our Biological class.
Reptiles are pretty nasty really. So are most animals.
Look at how they live.
Ok, we shouldn't judge them by our standards, but if we DID- and this is the point- they have nothing we could describe as ethics. They live towards eachother in ways that to us, are evil.

They feel nothing to eachother. Each one depends on himself.
Even collective species, such as insects, are not bonded by love. They are just cogs in a machine.
They are functions, parts, a means to an end.

Mammals are different. They give birth to and nurture their young. This makes mammals different. Mammals need some rudimentary Love for eachother to survive. Because the newborn involve such efforts to produce and rear, they cannot be abandoned, like the young of other classes and phyla.



Amongst Mammals, Monkey is special. By Monkey I mean Monkey in it's widest uses.
Haplorrhine Primates.
Monkey, is a special mammal.
Because Monkey lives by his wits.

Monkey is an opportunist.
Monkey explores things, to see how he can use them.

Monkey is curious.
But Monkey is not a creature who lives by hate.
Monkey never kills the young of other monkeys.
Monkey likes other Monkeys.

Monkeys like living together.
Monkeys will help eachother if they can.

We should not be ashamed of being a Monkey.
Monkey is a creature who has risen above the general nastiness of nature, who has climbed away from the Black Widow Spider, the Crocodile, the Dung Beatle.

Monkey is driven by Love.
Monkey just wants sex a lot.
Monkey wants to feel Loved, because in Loving, Monkey makes more Monkeys, who spread more love.
That's how we work, pretty much.

We love eachother because we want to carry on spreading Love.
And in Monkey, Love is special. Because Monkey needs other Monkeys. He doesn't really want other Monkeys eaten by the lion. He loses a helper that way.

Love and Curiosity.
Monkey's unique combination.

They drove Monkey to explore.
You see, that's what makes Monkey special- You know the saying, give a Monkey a typewriter, in time he'll type the Bible?
Well- that's what happened.



Inner Monkey learned to walk on two legs.
Inner Monkey learned to make fires.
Inner Monkey learned to hunt.
Inner Monkey learned to talk.
Inner Monkey became the Lord of the Earth.
Inner Monkey tamed animals.
Inner Monkey planted wheat.
Inner Monkey made art.
Inner Monkey built cities of stone.
Inner Monkey smelted metal.
Inner Monkey wrote poetry.
Inner Monkey worked out the courses of the stars.
Inner Monkey thought about where he came from.
Inner Monkey crossed the oceans.
Inner Monkey invented complex ways to rule other Monkeys.
Inner Monkey invented the telegraph.
Inner Monkey invented railways.
Inner Monkey remoulded the globe.
Inner Monkey found great new ways to communicate to Inner Monkeys far, far away.
Inner Monkey went into space.

Because Inner Monkey is Loving, and Inner Monkey is Curious.



And the rest? The rest of the crap we live with? It's a just a system Inner Monkey has designed. Even our intelligence, just something Inner Monkey evolved to satisfy his Love for other Monkeys, and his innate curiosity.
Inner Monkey is good.

For so long we ran from the fact of who we are and what motivates us.
We are ashamed of it.

We come from Monkeys and we love to love eachother.

But this is our strength, because Inner Monkey is good, he is everything that is good.

Inner Monkey can defeat Ingsoc.
Inner Monkey WILL defeat Ingsoc.

Learn to Love Inner Monkey.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

We watched the documentary of Sarah Baartman today in class and now I'm reading this post, they did say Sarah was an "ape"

Anonymous said...

Crushed,
What about our outer monkey, the way we are perceived by other monkeys? I have always heard that monkeys are violent. In fact two monkeys mauled their owner, leaving him without ears, an arm and half of his face. On film sets, they always say, "Watch out for the monkey, he's violent." They usually require two to three trainers.

I'm sure you will say that the monkey is violent because of the human monkey, but is that really true or is it the monkey's nature to strike back when they feel unloved -- like humans.

I hope I don't put words in your mouth. Isn't it really "Monkey see, monkey do?" Are the primates emulating us or are emulating the primates?

Just playing devil's advocate as my inner monkey dictates.

Anonymous said...

:) love the inner monkey, i love it

Anonymous said...

Aw... I said I wouldn't blog, but I couldn't help myself - besides, this is merely a comment!

Good points, very valid, especially the one on mammals contra other animals. Sometimes, human kind strikes me more like reptiles then mammals, though...

And, always remember what I said about monkeys and organizations! ;)


Great post, as always! I bow before thy...

Anonymous said...

Monkey never kills the young of other monkeys.

If a male monkey, detects the smell of offspring that aren't his...he'll kill them. Just like the male lion does in his pride.

Anonymous said...

Kizzie- We are all apes, just more successful than the other types.
As in, Six billion Homo Sapiens, the rest are numbered by the hundred.

We are the greatest triumph of Monkeydom.

And of Life.

Alexys- Inner Monkey has been perverted by Outer Monkey's logic.
Outer onkey is goal directed, he develops narrow focus.
Loves parts, not the whole.
He loves Power, or an Individual, or Stimulants.

He doesn't love the WHOLE.

The experience.
Your only shot.
Inner Monkey wants the whole experience.
He wants to Love to Live, not Live to Love.

That is the true point.

Love is a pleasure, not a demand.
We love to experience, not love to serve.
It isn't a burden- it's a bliss.

We are the fulfillment of Inner Monkey, not the starting point.

Oestrebunny- :) Well, I hope you embrace him.

Because she loves you, more than you love her.

Heart- It always amazes me how no one seems to bother working out at what point our key emotions evolved.

There is a similar issue with when we learnt to talk, which I will post on soon.

Stay?

Lucy- Carnivores, yes.

Monkeys? The only ones I can think of that do are Baboons, very much an outlier amongst the Cercopithecids.

Even Orang Utan, a fairly anti-social ape, doesn't kill young Orangs.

Anonymous said...

I always come by and read Crushed, but often can't think of a sensible comment. These last two posts have left me speechless.

Anonymous said...

i'm a proud monkey, inside and out. i think this video sums up your well-devised point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m89rYW0epTs

Anonymous said...

"Learn to Love Inner Monkey"

wow, thats deep... But what if your inner moneky turns out to be a cheeky monkey?

(have no idea what that means, just that's what some of my friends called me in London.. ehum)

Anonymous said...

I love your parable of the monkey -its like a Kung-Fu master teaching his novices... I have unconsciously assumed the lotus position as I read it...

Anonymous said...

By the way - I have an inner dog...

Anonymous said...

I the monkey thinking parts consume badly tasted nice! The noodles . Dunk it monkey hat squealed..

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to see what James will make of this! I like monkeys, myself...

Anonymous said...

I once brought my son a tee shirt that had a great pic of a monkey and the words spank the monkey... at the time i did not know what it meant..but i soon learnt...

Anonymous said...

jmb- Speechless in what way?
Speechless as in agreement, or speechless as in 'Crushed has lost the plot'?

Raffi- Me and my mate had to go this fair at the weekend (My flatmate had to mind her 9yr old brother, so we took him to this fair. The Reanactment romans were especially poor, I should add- and get a few 'Welease Wobin!' catcalls from a young man in shades, who may or may not have a blog.)

Having just finished the Wise Like Monkey post, which my mate had read, we spent much of the day people watching, guessing who we thought were in touch with their Inner Monkey.
We didn't spot many.

Crashie- Nothing wrong with that. Inner Monkey is your persona, what people like to see as your souls, so be the monkey you are.
If your's is cheeky, so be it.

Mine is kind of a sitting thinking monkey. Then he likes to go and play with the other monkeys.

And if it's warm...

Mutley- We need to start being comfortable in who we are as humans.
We need to stop repressing our humanity, especially our desire to show love and affection to other people- freeing people, especially woman, from this daft idea it can EVER be anyone else's business who is having sex with who, EXCEPT the two people concerned, as long as they are consenting adults.

As long as the two people concerned consented, it can NEVER be wrong, I don't care WHAT anybody else says.

Mu Tai- Yes, I see what you saying.

However, I suspect the answer lies in the composition of Eukaryote cells.

Welshcakes- James may not agree with much of it, I suspect :(
However, I think James' Inner Monkey roams quite free, even if James doesn't notice him.
He helps write Nourishing Obscurity.
Most blogs are written by Inner Monkeys. For most of us, it's the only outlet he gets.

Anonymous said...

Sally- I first heard that phrase in Beavis and Butthead.
Quite a good one though.

I still like 'Banking at Barclays', as a euphemism for it.

Anonymous said...

Isn't "monkey" a cockney term for £500? Or is my memory failing me?

Anonymous said...

While I'm aware that there are several reasons to disagree with the fundamental tenets of psychology (e.g., the fuzziness inherent in what is defined as normal vs. abnormal), one of the ones that always gets my goat is those who disagree with a science of humans because "we are too special for that" or "we have free will, so we can't be predicted". Yeah, we can't predict what humans will do 100% of the time, but since when did we get so special, so un-monkey, to be free of basic predictable tendencies and drives?

Anonymous said...

I'm reading a good book called 'Human Instinct' by Robert Winston. He goes into this subject rather thoroughly. It's incredibly fascinating.

I'd always assumed monkeys just sat around masturbating and eating bananas so didn't find it surprising that we are so closely related to them.

Anonymous said...

Speechless in admiration, I think! Certainly amazed.
I will never look at monkeys in the same way again.

Anonymous said...

Stan- I think you might be correct. I'm not sure whether this equates to any cash value monkeys have in Petticoat Lane.

Princess P- I likt the think, If you understand Physics, you understand chemistry. If you understand chemistru, you understand biology. If you understand biology, you understand psychology. If you understand psychology, you understand sociology. If you understand sociology you understand economics. If you understand economics, you understand politics. If you understand politics, you understand history.
If you understand history, you understand Man.

The compatmentalisatio of knowledge gets in the way of seeing reality.

Beaman- Human Instinct is quite a good read. The Naked Ape, by Desmond Morris is fascinating too.
From an everyday perspective, it's useful to know these sorts of things, so one can watch what people's behaviour means.

jmb- Some people think I'm being flippant, or mocking when I talk of Inner Monkey. I'm not- I think he underlies so much of what we think of as us.
With a larger brain added, of course.
But I think only a monkey COULD have taken that step.

Anonymous said...

Monkey was recognized as the most benevolent of all spirits in the Celestial court of Chinese myth.

Crude by the standards of the court itself, he was often banished for his role in cosmic pranks. Monkey once stole the mustache from the Celestial Emperor while he slept. Monkey especially was a foe of Lord Death and evil dragons.

Anonymous said...

Have you read Ismael?