[Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay]
Miller: Okay.
Couple of hundred billion brain cells in your skull.
You got more synapses than stars in the universe.
You are a fancy hand terminal.
Holden: Thanks
M: With a lot of buttons.
Now, I push a few trillion of them buttons in exactly the right way and, ta-da.
You’re talking to Miller.
The sound of his voice, the clothes he wore.
H: Plus the hat.
M: Yeah, I like the hat.
Plus, uh,
I’m pushing the buttons.
H: So it´s a magic trick.
M: So is your whole damn reality, kid.
Just different buttons being pushed.
H: Maybe I’m the illusion inside your head.
M: Whoa- whoa. Whoa.
I’m trying to keep things simple here for you, okay?
Pointing to himself: “Calculus.” Pointing to Holden: “Amoeba.”
Then, the reverse: “Monkey. Mozart.”
Detective Josephus “Joe” Aloisus Miller to James Holden in
The Expanse 03×10 /~22:00min
A prototypical conversation with a higher intelligence, a more complex calculus, which creates the wish that in our times of resurfacing anti-intellectualism, one would have the balls and power to make that point to the monkeys. No offense, dear monkey population, I do not mean you, our (more distant than close) evolutionary relatives, you have your own rules – I stress a metaphor. I mean the screaming monkeys of monkey business who rule the world pushing some buttons in the need pyramid of better evolved and more refined minds. The monkeys who use the social signals of a monkey hoard BEFORE homo sapiens (quite a blurry border, I know) to impress the rest of us and coerce us into fellowship or silence. It’s our fault if we give in and succumb – but it might be an ancient reflex exploited.
The planet of the apes has become a reality. Unleashed as a dystopian story in the 60ies by French author Pierre Boulle´s 1963 novel La Planète des singes, and translated into English as Planet of the Apes or Monkey Planet, it was finding its film adaptation, Planet of the Apes in 1968 with an iconic performance of Charlton Heston. Trump and Co. get elected because of their regress into bumping the fists on their torsos, screaming profanities and lies and making shock politics with this (see Naomi Klein). They appear loud and “strong” and the mind of the hoard says “ah, I know that, it is too much effort for me to compete and will cost too many resources – whatever…” ending up in “…well, maybe they are right, I just want to have a secure life and no problems – and there are a lot of problems”. Paying the bills, for example.
The fellowship will make them strong, the unchallenged show. A clear mind, who can also appear strong, is the rare antidote. Cornelius. A refined mind who knows moderation, who speaks “No!” this time to free ourselves from a tyrant who sold us freedom to gain power. An integrated society, an open society as mandated by Sir Karl Popper, but maybe with more emphasis on producing or maintaining also a minimum consensus on core values. No other form of society would also give its opponents space to work on the destruction of open society, but a clear “No!” should keep them in check. That it needs calm minds and a press which is less following the dictate of advertising and serving the industry, it needs serving people, respecting their borders.
See Banksy´s manifest on advertising about the intruding hoards of monkeys in our everyday life:
artivist.co.nz/subrosa/banksy-on-advertising
“Open society” could be said to have a disadvantage because of its alleged “lack of content”, but compared to utopian ideologies who could quickly become a negative “us vs. them” game, openness and inclusiveness is crucial. So that monkey business is not ruling our minds, that we are not compelled to buy every trinket they produce unsustainably. So that responsibility wins over irresponsible, destructive action – and reasonable voices who speak more quietly are heard, too.
By the way, watch “The Expanse”, read the books by author duo amalgam James Corey, it might become our future…