life-long reflexes.
Depending as always the accidents of the environment— what
happens at points of neurological vulnerability—this circuit will
organize itself into a strong, dominating role in the pack (or
family) or a weak, submissive role. Without going into the
jungles with the ethologists, one can observe this mammalian
imprinting process in any litter of puppies. It is very quickly
determined who is TOP DOG and who is BOTTOM DOG.
Status in the pack or tribe is assigned on the basis of preverbal
signaling system (kinesics) in which these muscle reflexes
are crucial. All of the emotional games or cons listed in the
popular psychological game-manuals of Dr. Eric Berne and the
Transactional Analysts are second-circuit imprints, or standard
mammalian politics.
To quote from my novel Schrodinger's Cat:
Most of the domesticated primates of Terra did not know they
were primates. They thought they were something apart from
and "superior" to the rest of the planet.
Even Benny Benedict's "One Month to Go" column was
based on that illusion. Benny had actually read Darwin once,
in college a long time ago, and had heard of sciences like
ethology and ecology, but the facts of evolution had never
really registered on him. He never thought of himself as a
primate. He never realized his friends and associates were
primates. Above all, he never understood that the alpha males
of Unistat were typical leaders of primate bands. As a result of
this inability to see the obvious, Benny was constantly alarmed
64 Prometheus Rising
and terrified by the behavior of himself, his friends and associates
and especially the alpha males of the pack. Since he didn't
know it was ordinary primate behavior, it seemed just awful to
him.
Since a great deal of primate behavior was considered just
awful, most of the domesticated primates spent most of their
time trying to conceal what they were doing.
Some of the primates got caught by other primates. All of
the primates lived in dread of getting caught.
Those who got caught were called no-good shits.
The term no-good shit was a deep expression of primate
psychology. For or instance, one wild primate (a chimpanzee)
taught sign language by two domesticated primates (scientists)
spontaneously put together the signs for "shit" and "scientist"
to describe a scientist she didn't like. She was calling him shitscientist.
She also put together the signs for "shit" and
"chimpanzee" for another chimpanzee she didn't like. She was
calling him shit-chimpanzee.
"You no-good shit," domesticate primates often said to
each other.
This metaphor was deep in primate psychology because
primates mark their territories with excretions, and sometimes
they threw excretions at each other when disputing over territories.
One primate wrote a long book describing in vivid detail
how his political enemies should be punished. He imagined
them in an enormous hole in the ground, with flames and
smoke and rivers of shit. This primate was named Dante
Alighieri.
Another primate wrote that every primate infant goes
through a stage of being chiefly concerned with bio-survival,
i.e., food, i.e., Mommie's Titty. He called this the Oral Stage.
He said the infant next went on to a stage of learning mammalian
politics, i.e., recognizing the Father (alpha-male) and
his Authority and territorial demands. He called this, with an
insight that few primates shared, the Anal Stage.
This primate was named Freud. He had taken his own
nervous system apart and examined its component circuits by
periodically altering its structure with neurochemicals.
Among the anal insults exchanged by domesticated primates
when fighting for their space were: "Up your ass," "Go
shit in your hat," "You're full of shit," and many others.
Prometheus Rising 65
One of the most admired alpha-males in the Kingdom of
the Franks was General Canbronne. General Canbronne won
this adulation for the answer he gave when
Depending as always the accidents of the environment— what
happens at points of neurological vulnerability—this circuit will
organize itself into a strong, dominating role in the pack (or
family) or a weak, submissive role. Without going into the
jungles with the ethologists, one can observe this mammalian
imprinting process in any litter of puppies. It is very quickly
determined who is TOP DOG and who is BOTTOM DOG.
Status in the pack or tribe is assigned on the basis of preverbal
signaling system (kinesics) in which these muscle reflexes
are crucial. All of the emotional games or cons listed in the
popular psychological game-manuals of Dr. Eric Berne and the
Transactional Analysts are second-circuit imprints, or standard
mammalian politics.
To quote from my novel Schrodinger's Cat:
Most of the domesticated primates of Terra did not know they
were primates. They thought they were something apart from
and "superior" to the rest of the planet.
Even Benny Benedict's "One Month to Go" column was
based on that illusion. Benny had actually read Darwin once,
in college a long time ago, and had heard of sciences like
ethology and ecology, but the facts of evolution had never
really registered on him. He never thought of himself as a
primate. He never realized his friends and associates were
primates. Above all, he never understood that the alpha males
of Unistat were typical leaders of primate bands. As a result of
this inability to see the obvious, Benny was constantly alarmed
64 Prometheus Rising
and terrified by the behavior of himself, his friends and associates
and especially the alpha males of the pack. Since he didn't
know it was ordinary primate behavior, it seemed just awful to
him.
Since a great deal of primate behavior was considered just
awful, most of the domesticated primates spent most of their
time trying to conceal what they were doing.
Some of the primates got caught by other primates. All of
the primates lived in dread of getting caught.
Those who got caught were called no-good shits.
The term no-good shit was a deep expression of primate
psychology. For or instance, one wild primate (a chimpanzee)
taught sign language by two domesticated primates (scientists)
spontaneously put together the signs for "shit" and "scientist"
to describe a scientist she didn't like. She was calling him shitscientist.
She also put together the signs for "shit" and
"chimpanzee" for another chimpanzee she didn't like. She was
calling him shit-chimpanzee.
"You no-good shit," domesticate primates often said to
each other.
This metaphor was deep in primate psychology because
primates mark their territories with excretions, and sometimes
they threw excretions at each other when disputing over territories.
One primate wrote a long book describing in vivid detail
how his political enemies should be punished. He imagined
them in an enormous hole in the ground, with flames and
smoke and rivers of shit. This primate was named Dante
Alighieri.
Another primate wrote that every primate infant goes
through a stage of being chiefly concerned with bio-survival,
i.e., food, i.e., Mommie's Titty. He called this the Oral Stage.
He said the infant next went on to a stage of learning mammalian
politics, i.e., recognizing the Father (alpha-male) and
his Authority and territorial demands. He called this, with an
insight that few primates shared, the Anal Stage.
This primate was named Freud. He had taken his own
nervous system apart and examined its component circuits by
periodically altering its structure with neurochemicals.
Among the anal insults exchanged by domesticated primates
when fighting for their space were: "Up your ass," "Go
shit in your hat," "You're full of shit," and many others.
Prometheus Rising 65
One of the most admired alpha-males in the Kingdom of
the Franks was General Canbronne. General Canbronne won
this adulation for the answer he gave when
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