15
15
15
spe
nt the rest of her day clinging tightly to her infant. She could not
gather as much food as she needed for herself and her baby. She was
too preoccupied with protecting her offspring from an unforeseen
attack. Her child wriggled impatiently in her arms. Further research
suggested that it wanted to go off on its own and have a good time.
But this was one baby which would never have the freedom to run and
play. It would never be able to wrestle and roll about with the children
of the more dominant females. It would never experience that easy
social access which leads to self-confidence and a quick mind among
baboons. Ultimately, it--like its mother before it--would live its adult
years on the bottom of the social pile.
The baboon's mother was forced to smother it overprotectively
simply to ensure that it survived. For among baboons, the babies of
the dispossessed have an omnipresent mortal enemy: the females of the
tribe.31
Let's be blunt. It is useless for women to blame violence on men.
And it would be futile for men to blame violence on women. Violence
is built into both of us. When Margaret Thatcher constructed a nuclear
navy, she was not behaving in a manner distinctly male, nor was she
behaving in a manner distinctly female. She wasn't even obeying a set
of impulses that are uniquely human. Thatcher, like Rome's Livia, was
in the grip of simple passions we share with gorillas and baboons,
passions implanted in the primordial layers of the triune brain.
<< < GO > >>
15
15
15
spe
nt the rest of her day clinging tightly to her infant. She could not
gather as much food as she needed for herself and her baby. She was
too preoccupied with protecting her offspring from an unforeseen
attack. Her child wriggled impatiently in her arms. Further research
suggested that it wanted to go off on its own and have a good time.
But this was one baby which would never have the freedom to run and
play. It would never be able to wrestle and roll about with the children
of the more dominant females. It would never experience that easy
social access which leads to self-confidence and a quick mind among
baboons. Ultimately, it--like its mother before it--would live its adult
years on the bottom of the social pile.
The baboon's mother was forced to smother it overprotectively
simply to ensure that it survived. For among baboons, the babies of
the dispossessed have an omnipresent mortal enemy: the females of the
tribe.31
Let's be blunt. It is useless for women to blame violence on men.
And it would be futile for men to blame violence on women. Violence
is built into both of us. When Margaret Thatcher constructed a nuclear
navy, she was not behaving in a manner distinctly male, nor was she
behaving in a manner distinctly female. She wasn't even obeying a set
of impulses that are uniquely human. Thatcher, like Rome's Livia, was
in the grip of simple passions we share with gorillas and baboons,
passions implanted in the primordial layers of the triune brain.
<< < GO > >>