I am a great admirer of European civilization and its achievements - not least, because I'm a European myself; but it is time we faced up to the fact that we are still more ape than human. Collectively, despite calling ourselves Homo sapiens, we are more accurately described as Earth's "Greatest Ape"; as ethnic Europeans we might consider ourselves to be the "Great White Ape" (or Homo stupidus economicus). Africans may tend to look more like apes than Europeans, but appearances can be (and in this case certainly are) deceptive.

 

I'm writing this to some extent "tongue in cheek", to amuse rather than offend my fellow white apes, but also in order to make a serious and rather important point, i.e. that we really are apes, and not just according to some theory, which most people, even if they do not understand it, feel obliged to believe, because authority and majority says they should. 

 

In the 19th Century, many people were very offended by Darwin's theory of evolution, particularly by its implication that humans (even Europeans!) share a common ancestor with chimps and other great apes. But if you are acquainted with the evidence, it is very difficult (to my mind, impossible) to deny the extremely high probability that Darwin's theory is essentially correct and that we humans, like all other organisms, are the product of an evolutionary process. We really do share a common ancestor with apes and monkeys, and in fact, as we go back in time, with all other animals as well.

 

Most serious thinkers have long accepted Darwin's theory of evolution and of man's animal origins, but this has not prevented them from denying to a large extent its most important implications: those relating to all human behavior (including their own) and the socio-economic order, which we refer to as Western Civilization, that developed from it.

 

As its creators, we white apes are very fond of emphasizing the achievements of Western Civilization (often assuming it to be synonymous with "mankind" as a whole), but are reluctant to look honestly at its short-comings; and even when we do, our attention is directed towards the past or at the short-comings of "other" white apes (particularly the Germans) and the wickedness of Nazis, Communists, "racists", or the like, thus consolidating our own "moral high ground" and exempting ourselves from seriously questioning it.

 

The truth which we are not facing up to is that our socio-economic order (our economy and way of life) is deeply rooted in our animal nature (if Darwin is correct, how could it be otherwise?) and as a consequence is inherently unsustainable (looked at in this light, it is pretty obvious).

 

This is simply said (just a single sentence), but its implications could hardly be more profound (which is why we struggle to face up to it). It means that we are deluding ourselves regarding our ability to meet the challenge of global warming and achieve sustainability for Earth's ever increasing population of technologically empowered but essentially insatiable "Greatest Apes" on our finite and vulnerable planet. The inevitable consequence is that a ruthless mother nature (who is already "warming up" for the job) will impose sustainability on us. We will not like her methods one little bit, perched on our pillar of self-righteous moral high ground as the world around us descends into chaos, before finally engulfing us as well - but that is what will happen if we fail to face up to the challenge and do the job ourselves.

 

Sustainability is not an option that can be accepted or rejected. The option that we - so far, at least - have persisted in rejecting (or rather, in not facing up to), is of doing it ourselves. Thus proving ourselves still to be more ape (animal) than human. A real human being (an ape that aspires to transcend its animal nature by attempting to follow its more enlightened, human nature) would put his children's and grandchildren's future before the gratification of his own, short-sighted, materialistic, dumb-animal self-interests. But not the Great White Ape.

 

At least, that's the way it looks at the moment.

 

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