Very Alike Are We Humans and Chimpanzee

The most enduring lessons are those which cost us the most. Still I am going to have to try to be the eternal optimist. I'll just accept that I am the sum total of all that has happened before me, even unto the beginning of the universe. If all things had not happened exactly as they did even down to the smallest reaction of causality, I would not be the me who exists in this presence. So I give thanks.

Some of those things that happened to me were bad things. Some of the things that I caused to happen to others were bad things. Hurtful things, spiteful things and hateful things have been done by us all, to all of us. No one person has a clean slate. Everyone has a burden of responsibility for the good and the bad we inflict on each other. So what can be done?

Human beings have done some pretty horrible things to one another. That can't be said without the thought of all the good things Humans have done coming to mind too. Even so, I try to look at all of the horrible things Humans have done in the light of logic and reason, as should all other matters be looked at. I see things like this.

There was a time long ago when Humans did not exist. Our prehuman ancestors walked the Earth, and viewed the Earth in an entirely different way. I'll say our prehuman ancestors thought about the Earth, and the environment in which they lived, pretty much the same way as any other so-called "non-sentient animal" creature would.

Look at this video of our closest relative creature. Their ancestor is our ancestor. There was a time when we were one, then they went their way, and so too did we. When we went our separate ways, we abandoned some things and took other things with us. The violent nature that served us well, and for eons as pre-humans was not only brought with us, but also intensified and made more deadly.

Gang of Chimps Torture and Kill a Lone Chimp

Gang members knife-attack a man from rival gang on the street

When I view scenes like in this video of our cousins the chimps, and our Human brethren, I can't help but to think that there was a time when the split off point between us and them was only a few thousand years distant. The closer to that point in time in which we split, the more apelike in behaviour we were. The earliest stone tool making by Humans developed by at least 2.6 million years ago. We know chimpanzees use stones as tools, and fashion spears, and other tools. After all these millions of years since that fateful day when Humans and chimps went separate ways we still act like them, and they like us in so many ways.

That is why I call violent acts, and hate, and racism, and sexism, and religion and other things primitive. That is why I call some other things advanced thinking. The seeds of it are found in the actions of the chimp named Hair in this video. The seeds of compassion, and justice. The advanced thinking of a chimp name Hair reflects the advanced thinking of Humans who renounce the primitive aspects of our pre-human and pre-chimp ancestors.

Oh how so very alike are we Humans and Chimpanzee. Let us learn from them. Let them be our teachers, so that we may advance, and lay away our primitive ways. Let us be more like Chimp Hair.

For me this points towards something important. It points to a way out of the never ending cycle of violence and revenge among groups of Humans. That is to recognise that there is blood on all hands. To know that the blood was spilled as a result of primitive thinking humans who were closer to the time of the split off with chimps. To not hold the sins of the father against the children, if the children abandon primitive thought. Then Humans can focus on advancing our society and way of treating one another, instead of dwelling on grievances against our more primitive ancestors. They didn't know any better. We should.

Let Humans draw a line in the Sands of Time. On one side is the primitive, and on the other is the progressive.