The Crazy Apes: A Satire of Human Society

Prelude

The technology revolution is a sword that cuts both ways. It has given us unprecedented standards of living that are the envy of less technologically-developed societies, but instead of making the world a more egalitarian place, it's making it much more unequal. Also, the benefits that have accrued to many of us have been at the expense of others, most of whom haven't yet   been born. Today's world is much more skewed than the one I entered seventy years ago. So much has changed, and not all for the better. 

In this book I use satire to focus on some of our human failings and societal shortcomings that, in my opinion, are causing significant problems now and well into the future. The issues I raise are not new, only their presentation is. As we are all involved in our daily lives, which in many cases can be rather stressful, we often don't have the luxury of putting our feet up and stepping back to see ourselves from a distant and detached perspective. To do that, I have enlisted the services of two distant relatives – chimpanzees – who, not surprisingly, see things from a different vantage point than us humans.

This book had its genesis the day I read the following dialogue, written by Juan Godoy, a Chilean geologist and naturalist who died in 1842:

A baby gorilla asks his father, "What are humans?" The father replies, "They are monkeys without hair, who believe they are masters of everything around them. They build shelters that go up to the sky. Their ego and greed know no limits and take from the earth much more than they need. They destroy the jungle, contaminate the air, and dump waste into the oceans. They enslave other humans and leave the multitudes to die of hunger so that a few can live in luxury. Moreover, they build weapons to kill each other. Sooner or later, they will exterminate themselves. Humans are crazy monkeys!"

So, it's clear where the title of the book comes from and the next chapter will make clear why I changed monkeys to apes.

Almost two centuries later, things haven't changed much; with the possible exception that maybe we're crazier! Those words resonated with me so much that they compelled me to expand on them to show just how unbalanced human society has become. They caused me to ask some questions. Are we leading or being led? Are we pushing ourselves, or being pushed by others? In our daily lives, are we moving too rapidly for our own good? Are our stone-age bodies being exposed to space-age technology in compressed time? How is that affecting us?

It's clear to me, and I'm sure to most of us, that we're living in a fast-paced world where everything keeps increasing exponentially: population, energy consumption, water consumption, food consumption, deforestation, contamination of our biosphere and everything we eat and drink, and last but not least, health costs, which are a reflection of our health, or lack of it. Our fast pace is unsustainable and we're moving toward the edge of disaster on all fronts with our foot fully on the accelerator.

Before getting into the meat of the book, in the next chapter I will provide a few interesting facts about the ape world and our distant cousins: the chimpanzees.

As you read through the following pages, I would be grateful for comments or any input you might have to guide me. In particular, if you have social issues that you would like to see discussed, please let me know and I will try and tackle them with the help of my two advisers. If there's anything that resonates with you, please share it with me and others.

Thank you and happy reading!

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This is a special year for me and all my fellow Canadians: our country will be 150 years old on July 1. I'm proud of my adopted country and thankful for having welcomed me and my family 60 years ago and millions others since then. As much as Canada is one of the best countries in the world to live in, it too suffers from the global trends of increasing social and wealth inequalities, caused by changing social mores and a corrupted political system that serves the interests of the one percent at the top of the wealth pyramid at the expense of the others, particularly those at the bottom. 

We are slowly losing our Canadian advantage of a fair and just society, where everyone is equal and protected under the law.  I decided to celebrate this special birthday by writing this book. I do it with a sense of public service, in the hope that some of my observations will touch others and spur them into positive, constructive action that will make not only Canada, but the entire world a better place for humanity.

Happy Birthday Canada!