[extropy-chat] Serenity: "...make people better."

[J. Andrew Rogers]

On 10/15/05 5:08 AM, "Russell Wallace" <russell.wallace at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> And to those people who've been calling humans "monkeys"
> and "primates", for God's sake stop doing it.


Using the term "monkey" or "primate" for humans is a useful literary device
in some contexts, and I would dismiss your suggestion on those grounds.  On
some levels it is intentionally offensive to those that need to hear it
most.

There is a common way of lazy thinking that assumes humans are divorced from
the rest of the animal kingdom, that would do not express or possess the
primary attributes we attribute to animals that supposedly make them
inferior to us, and that we are intrinsically special or valuable in some
way.  Using the term "primate" or "monkey" instead of "human" when in a
discussion where the absolute sanctity and special-ness of "human-ness" is
assumed is a reminder that we are essentially very clever critters with bulk
behaviors and properties that are largely indistinguishable from the rest of
the animal kingdom in the abstract.

Even to the cleverest of monkeys is not immune to mathematics and physics.
There are many humans that would do well to understand this, but most do
not.


J. Andrew Rogers