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Edited on Tue Dec-18-07 02:49 AM by tblue37
past their own noses. Each one of the people who push this nonsense believes that he will be able to grab his money and get out before the whole thing comes crashing down--if the fools even stop to realize that it must all come crashing down and soon.
They are all caught up in the game, believing that nothing is ever enough for them.
Many years ago I read an article in one of the newsweeklies--I no longer remember which one. It described a situation that I have always referred to as the "banana wars."
A tribe of chimpanzees that lived in an area where they had enough food for all, but no significant surplus, was observed over time by a group of researchers. They saw cooperation among the chimps for the most part. When a too weak or too small chimp could not reach a piece of fruit, another chimp would help him/her get it. All did well and lived comfortably.
Then, just to see what would happen, the researchers trucked in a huge surplus of bananas. What happened then should seem eerily familiar. Everyone went nuts. Hoarding and theft replaced cooperation and mutual assistance. The larger, stronger chimps would collect as many bananas as they could amass and then spend all of their time guarding their pile, threatening and driving off any other chimp who tried to get one. The big chimps weren’t eating their bananas; they didn’t have time. In fact, they went hungry while guarding their wealth against constant attempts by other chimps to swipe bananas—or while attempting to enlarge their own hoard while stealing from another chimp’s hoard.
Meanwhile, the chimps without a hoard ignored the perfectly fine ripe fruit in the trees and kept trying to steal bananas from the hoarders’ piles. They too went hungry in the midst of plenty, because they wanted to steal bananas from the hoarders, rather than make even minimal effort to pick a piece of fruit from a tree.
Even family groupings were torn apart by this situation. Mothers would drive their young away from the banana pile if they were both trying to grab one from a hoarder, and if the mother happened to be a hoarder herself, she would even drive her own offspring away.
The banana wealth rotted, the fruit in the trees went uneaten until it was overripe and no longer edible, and the chimp tribe fought and fought and fought.
All along in the modern world technology has made it possible for all to be fed, for all to be provided for. Food shortages are not inevitable—they are created by perverse behavior fueled by greed. Food, shelter, clean water, medical care—there is plenty to go around, though with the growth of the world’s population and the pressure it puts on the ecology, that won’t last. Obviously, when the ecology collapses, there won’t be enough to go around (the fruit will over-ripen in the trees).
Because of our invasion and occupation of Iraq, we are pissing away billions of dollars that could provide health care, green technological research and development, cures for cancer (as opposed to cures for erectile dysfunction), and many other desirable things. The wealthy get wealthier, far beyond any possible need they might have, while the middle class and poor are squeezed and immiserated.
Think about Dick Cheney. The man is old and sick. He probably doesn’t have many more years left. He knows eh could drop dead at any time. He has more wealth than he will ever be able to use. He doesn’t need another cent, and he could easily retire to enjoy a life free of worry—and doing so might well increase his life span. He doesn’t need to do things that make him the most hated man in the country. Why would someone set himself up to be perceived as evil for generations to come?
Of course, he isn’t thinking about that sort of thing. He is just thinking about protecting his bananas from anyone who might try to get one, and about stealing bananas from other people’s hoards—or out of the mouth of the baby chimp who managed to sneak in and grab one when he was defending against a larger competitor.
He isn’t eating his bananas, and he can’t stand to see anyone else eating a banana. He wants all of the bananas in the world, and can’t bear to think that anyone else might get a single banana.
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