The Despotic Chimpanzee and the Ultra-Rich
The Despotic Chimpanzee and the Ultra-Rich
Friday, 10 October 2014 11:44
By Lorenzo Del Savio and Matteo Mameli, Truthout | Op-Ed
Because of escalating economic inequalities, the ultra-rich are becoming increasingly dominant and oppressive. This applies to democratic countries too, where the rewards and incentives in politics are such that elected politicians are constantly captured by oligarchic power and end up serving the interests of the ultra-rich rather than those of the electorate. Current democracies are oligarchic democracies. Some argue that large wealth inequalities are inevitable in a free society where people can freely develop their talents and freely compete in order to obtain what they want. But how can a society where all the political power is effectively in the hands of a miniscule ultra-privileged minority be genuinely free? How can a society like this be properly respectful of the equal dignity of all people?
In one of his books, primatologist Frans De Waal recounts what he once observed in a group of chimpanzees at the Yerkes National Park Primate Research Center. What he saw can tell us something important about political power. Chimpanzees are a hierarchical species. They have what primatologists call a dominance hierarchy, and at the top of this hierarchy is the dominating alpha male. In chimpanzees, domination is obviously not gained through the accumulation of wealth, as it so often is in humans, but rather through the direct threat of physical violence and through various kinds of social and manipulative skills. Domination consists in being able to coerce others to live and behave in certain ways. In chimpanzees, this primarily applies to sex (who is allowed to mate with whom) and to the display of power. Everyone in the group is coerced to show deference and submission toward the alpha male and, moreover, the alpha male has privileged access to females.
What did De Waal see? On one occasion, Jimoh, the alpha male of his chimpanzee group, was in an angry mood since, earlier that day, one of his favorite females had repeatedly refused to mate with him. He then spotted that very female mating with Socko, a juvenile male. Alpha males are normally relatively tolerant of juvenile males, as they do not - at least not yet - constitute a threat to their domination over the group. Normally, in a case like this, an alpha male would have simply chased off the youngster. But this time, no doubt because of the anger he had accumulated, Jimoh started chasing Socko around the enclosure with what were clearly ill intentions.
Jimoh wanted to catch Socko and punish him with violence. Alpha males are extremely strong and can, especially through biting, inflict deep and sometimes deadly wounds. Socko, understandably, tried to escape. He started screaming loudly and, because of intense fear, had an attack of diarrhea. While Jimoh was intent on catching Socko, several females that were nearby started manifesting their distress and disapproval at what was happening. They did this by producing the characteristic waa-barks that chimpanzees use in protest against intruders and aggressors. Initially, there were only a few females doing this. Their barking was not very loud and they looked around to see how the rest of the group was reacting. But, slowly, other females joined in, and when the top-ranking females finally participated, the barking became more confident and, therefore, louder. The intensity of the barks increased until, as De Waal puts it, "everyone's voice was part of a deafening chorus." At that point, Jimoh suddenly stopped the attack and left Socko alone. As he did that, Jimoh showed a nervous grin on his face, a grin that in chimpanzees usually signals fear and submission. It is called the "Grin of Fear" and it is often seen on the faces of nondominant members of the group when they interact with the alpha male.
More:
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/26674-the-despotic-chimpanzee-and-the-ultra-rich
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