The Crazy Apes: A Satire of Human Society

The Common Good

Successful living in large or small groups requires striking a balance between individual and common needs. Groups, cities, countries or the world thrive when everyone works for the common good, while respecting individual needs such as privacy. On the other hand, groups languish when individual needs trump common needs. Even though some privileged individuals thrive in a languishing group, they do so at the expense of others.

Consider a common situation such as four individuals going out for dinner. If they agree to individual tabs, then each will eat as he/she pleases. If, on the other hand, they agree to share one tab, a different dynamic results. Each keeps a mental tab of what the others ordered and as the evening progresses the one who has ordered the least will order more food or drink, otherwise he/she will be subsidizing the others. When that happens, the next person feeling disadvantaged orders another beer, glass of wine, scotch, etc. And this goes on until everyone has eaten and drunk much more than they had intended, or even worse, more than was good for them. The common good was trumped by individual interest and they all lose. The only winner is the restaurant owner.

All it takes is one person to try and take advantage of the others and the chain reaction starts. This behaviour illustrates how modern society works: generally, individual interest trumps the common interest most of the time, if not all of the time. Why are we not more respectful of the common good?

The following dialogue is between two chimpanzees named Abu and Mabu: I use A and M to distinguish the speaker.

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M: What would happen if instead of eating one banana a day we all eat two?

A: Sooner or later we would have no bananas left to eat.

M: What would you say if from now on I start eating two bananas per day?

A: I would say that you would be inconsiderate and greedy, for taking more than your fair share, for not thinking of the rest of us. You would be hurting yourself as well as us.

M: Nobody would be hurt if I'm the only one doing it. It's only if everybody else eats two bananas a day that we will run out of bananas.

A: So why should you have more than others?

M: I just feel like it. Moreover, I'm better than others and more deserving.

A: I'm sure you don't mean that. Has your short stay with humans contaminated your thinking and morals? Wouldn't you care about what the others will think of you? Wouldn't you care about your own actions: your sense of fair play?

M: Eating two bananas a day will make me stronger and I can become the alpha male and have more respect than I do now. Isn't that good?

A: How long do you think it would take for others to start eating two bananas a day to compete with you? What's to stop them from eating three or more per day to become stronger than you?

M: I see your point. If one can play the game, others can too, and that's a very slippery slope. For a moment I thought I could have my banana and eat it too!

A: I'm glad this nonsense talk has come to an end. For a while, I though you were starting to think like a human. I was beginning to wonder if your stay with them had robbed you of your commonsense.

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Privilege in a civilized society is a sign of weakness, not of strength, because it bestows on some a sense of superiority; and when that happens equality and fairness are thrown out the window, and from there it's indeed a slippery slope.

Western society has been on a slippery slope since the American war of independence and the French revolution. It was gradual at first, but we're on a steep slope now and we have a lot more sliding before we hit rock bottom.

Common sense and the common good have been the casualties of our long slide. They have been replaced by alternative facts and spinning: the creations of spin doctors, a new and highly sought profession in the corporate and political worlds.