Human interest items

After discussing the hoopla over the "new ruralism" and such things as the "fluffy mountain lion syndrome," spoilsport Glenn Reynolds made the following insensitive remark:

Nobody's going to want to settle in a place where they're worried about kids being eaten.
Oh, come on, Glenn. Get with the program!

Not only are we going to reintroduce predators, but there's a new movement: people belong in zoos:

LONDON - At the London Zoo, you can talk to the animals - and now some of them talk back.

Held within a rocky enclosure and barely clothed, eight British men and women monkeyed around yesterday for an amused, bemused crowd behind a sign reading "Warning: Humans in their Natural Environment."

The captives in the Human Zoo exhibit sunned themselves on a rock ledge, clad in bathing suits and pinned-on fig leaves. Some played with hula hoops, and some waved. A signboard informed visitors about the species' habitat, worldwide distribution and threats.

Visitors stopped to point and laugh, and several children could be heard asking, "Why are there people in there?"

London Zoo spokeswoman Polly Wills said that was exactly the question the zoo wanted to answer.

"Seeing people in a different environment, among other animals... teaches members of the public that the human is just another primate," Wills said. It also, she conceded, lets them "have a gawk at people."

Omitted from what the Inquirer passed off as a mere cutesy human interest story was a vital detail of the London exhibit. Human beings are billed as the "plague species":
LONDON (AFP) - London Zoo unveiled a new exhibition -- eight humans prowling around wearing little more than fig leaves to cover their modesty.

The "Human Zoo" is intended to show the basic nature of human beings as they frolick throughout the August bank holiday weekend.

"We have set up this exhibit to highlight the spread of man as a plague species and to communicate the importance of man's place in the planet's ecosystem," London Zoo said.

The scantily-clad volunteers will be treated as animals and kept amused at the central London zoo with games and music.

For a more local view, here's London's "Independent":
The spectacle of five of the planet's most advanced great ape species hanging about in swimwear on Bear Mountain, the 91-year-old Grade II-listed terraces that once housed polar bears and grizzlies, is the opening salvo in a campaign by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which runs the zoo, to highlight humanity's status as a "plague species". Nearly 15,600 separate species are believed to be threatened with extinction caused by human activity.

To underline the point, displays outside the enclosure comparing humans with chimpanzees and gorillas note that more humans are born every hour than the existing population of the two other apes.

Managers were unapologetic about their selection of eight largely trim and shapely specimens, including an international kick-boxer and a professional dancer, to ensure maximum publicity by cavorting around the enclosure during open hours over the bank holiday weekend.

Simon Rayner, ZSL's communications manager, who dreamt up the idea, said: "The point is to jolt people into recognising the impact of human beings on their environment and that of other animals. We are saying, 'Look, here are humans stripped down and treated exactly the same way as other animals'. We are the same and the way we treat all animals has consequences."

Well, what do we do with disease carrying animals?

As I said in my discussion of "predator" salesmanship tactics, new ideas take time!


UPDATE: Here's the picture of our future:

Eloi.jpg

Personally, I think the Eloi were cuter. But these things are all a matter of, um, taste.

MORE: This "see the bad humans at the zoo" meme fits quite well into the current theme of children teaching parents -- breathlessly explored in today's Inquirer:

....in addition to teaching their parents how to deal with new technologies, kids today also are teaching them profound ethical lessons about protecting the natural world and respecting themselves and others. Here are some of the examples I have heard from schoolchildren that go beyond technology or popular culture: A girl: "I taught my mom to recycle." A boy: "I taught my dad to enjoy rap." A boy: "I taught my mom to be independent." A girl: "I taught my dad not to interrupt me." A boy: "I taught my dad not to make cracks about gays."
There's more, for those who want to learn!

Regarding willingness to learn, the author offers a new definition slogan:

The slogan I use is, "You are not what you know but what you are willing to learn." Willingness to learn demands respect for others across difference. Puzzling and even disturbing ideas are invitations to curiosity, and the greater the difference the more there may be to be learned. The world is a rain forest of variety full of promise that is at risk of being lost. If one teenager could give his father an appreciation of rap, another may be interestingly articulate about body piercing and baggy clothes. I have argued that the willingness to learn is a form of spirituality. It is a stance of humility, because there is so much to be learned.
I think willingness to learn is being confused with willingness to agree.

And, of course, this discussion begs the question of who taught the children what "they" are teaching their parents.

In fact, I'd love to learn more!

MORE: I just, um, learned that the Mary Catherine Bateson, the author of the above, is the daughter of Margaret Mead. (Some of her famous quotes are assembled here.)

UPDATE: Similar "education" here.

UPDATE: Thank you Glenn Reynolds for the InstaLanche! Welcome all.

BTW, I agree with Glenn's final observation about armed property owners. What's being forgotten by the people promoting this sentimentalized view of nature is that self defense itself is natural. For humans, of course, it takes the form of being armed.

UPDATE (08/29/05): Readers might enjoy my latest post, which further explores "willingness to learn."

posted by Eric on 08.28.05 at 11:12 AM





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Comments

There's worse.

I wonder what it is on the far Left that seeks self-annihilation. What is the psychology of an ideology which seeks its own destruction?

John   ·  August 28, 2005 11:51 AM

"Seeing people in a different environment, among other animals... teaches members of the public that the human is just another primate,"

That's exactly why I have come to agree with Jack T. Chick that evolution "is the cruelest hoax in history."

I'm against it. I'll stick to creation myths.

By the way, that display of women in bikinis contradicts another Politically Correct egalitarian lie, i.e.: that bikinis are just as "oppressive" as burqas if not more so. And the very name "bikini" is also Politically Incorrect, as it comes from our anti-Communist atom bomb test at Bikini Atoll on July 25, 1946 (Baker Day).

I'm always willing to learn more! The problem I have is with the notion that some ideas should be suppressed and some knowledge withheld. I dropped Psych 101 (maybe it was Psych 1A) at Berkeley after they refused to allow me to examine the scoring methodology of a psychological inventory test which deemed me to be "dishonest" because of my "inconsistent" answers to questions like "Are you masculine?" and "Are you feminine?" I wanted to analyze the test itself, but they said it was "restricted" to Ph.D. students only. This game reminded me of Chinese Mandarins and medieval priests, but I've seen variations on the theme ever since.

Eric Scheie   ·  August 28, 2005 12:26 PM

The kids quote section reminded me of a Bill Cosby line...

"I brought you into this world. I can take you OUT."

Mrs. du Toit   ·  August 28, 2005 06:34 PM

Just a month ago, I wrote a short horror story on this topic, "Catamount Comeback" which needs to go out into the electronic ether again seeking a buyer.

I like stories with a happy ending which this one has...

...the lefty activists who protected the cougar get eaten.

Eric R. Ashley   ·  August 28, 2005 11:24 PM

That's a good line! (I'll have to try it on Coco!)

Eric Scheie   ·  August 28, 2005 11:26 PM

I'm always willing to learn less! -- particularly about such ugly things as (c)rap "music", body piercings, and baggy clothes. The Beatles, the long hair, the bell bottoms, and the drugs of my own youth were already too "hippie" for me. I'm a "square" -- proudly.

Funny about me, I know:
It is with my left hand that I write
-- and yet I am so far to the Right.

They called you "dishonest"? --------------. You're one of the most honest people I know! A man of impeccable honesty, independence, and integrity. If you weren't, I wouldn't be reading you.

Back in the early 1980s, I and a group of others took a test of "masculine" vs. "feminine" traits. At that time, I was a pretty hard-core feminist and denied the very idea of "masculinity" and "femininity". I've changed my mind on that, I think they are valid concepts, though very hard to define. At that time, I was thinking of it in terms of, and opposing, the idea of men as active and strong vs. women as passive and weak, and I still oppose that, or else I would have to become a man's man.

Anyway, looking at my paper, a big masculine man said: "Yeah, you're masculine." Thinking about it now, I think that's quite a compliment, coming from a man like that. Funny, I've always thought of myself as kind of effeminate. I was a sissy when I was a little boy. I liked to play with girls and often identified with girls. I was a gynosexual long before I ever heard of anything sexual. I even played with a doll once. I took a styrofoam ball, stuck it on a pencil, and drew a face on it.

My favorite color throughout my childhood was red, though it gradually shifted from an orange-red to a magenta. My first favorite color was pink.

Dawn hated pink, she loved blue instead. She hated that "blue is for boys, pink is for girls." Dawn dogmatically insisted: "BLUE is for THIS girl!" Holy Dawn and her holy blue.

Wicked Wanda once tried to entice Dawn into entering "this cute pink room" with her. Dawn absolutely refused in the name of all that is holy. Wanda also tried to get Dawn to sit in a green room and smoke marijuana with her. Dawn absolutely refused in the name of all that is holy. Holy Dawn and her holy blue.

Norma has always loved red and has always hated the association of red with Communists. Dawn and Norma hate all Communists.

Holy Dawn and her holy Negro wife Norma vs. wicked Wanda.



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