A fascinating meditation on the nature of Cookie Monster in light of recent "modifications":
If the Cookie Monster is no longer a cookie monster, what is he? Why didn’t they just name him “Phil: The Monster Who Sometimes Likes to Eat a Cookie”? Conceptually, this is no different than the idiot animal rights types who want their dogs and cats to be vegans, too. Cookie Monster cannot help being a Cookie Monster any more than your tabby can stop liking fish. It is their nature to do so. Why not just declare that Big Bird is now an elm tree? If the ineffable, inexorable, immutable nature of Cookie Monster’s cookie-eating can be erased for some good cause, why should Big Bird’s birdness be safe? ... Who says that making Cookie Monster into moderate eater will improve kids' behavior anyway? Indeed, for years, Cookie Monster has devoured not only cookies, but things which merely look like cookies, including plates, Frisbees, and the moon. If Cookie Monster is so influential, why haven’t I heard more about kids going to the hospital after trying to eat plates?
Speaking of the nature of things, about how this article from AP (dissected courtesy of Powerline): Expert: Apes May Be Key to Human Nature.
The article fails to adequately describe why bonobos are "are the most like humans", aside from pointing out that they "vocalize 'as though they are conversing' and often walk upright".
Our rat terrier constantly vocalizes, most certainly intent on conversing with us. He even walks upright, given the proper persuasive goodies.
As I understand it, chimpanzees are far more brutal and combatative -- why wouldn't they make a better model for the study of human behavior? Powerline points out the obvious:
I would think that humans provide better clues to human nature than apes, and we have thousands of years of human history, not to mention six billion or so living humans, to draw on for information about human nature. But the idea of drawing conclusions about humans from observations of apes has a long history, and shows no signs of going away. Why is that? I suspect it's because some people don't like what human history and human behavior tell us about human nature.
The real cherry on the top of this article is this quote:
"Then we have the power to change it and make it any other way. We could have an ideal world, if we but learn how to do it."
I had no idea that people still believed in that sort of tripe. Seriously, do you?
Posted by eric at April 22, 2005 03:00 PM
Comments
"Cookie Monster cannot help being a Cookie Monster."
Yes. God, what a crime to take away his identity. Thanks for raping my childhood, PR guys.
"why haven’t I heard more about kids going to the hospital after trying to eat plates?"
Ahh...excellent.
As for your links to horrific murderers: almost makes me wish I WERE a chimpanzee. They're dirty, nasty creatures, but make us look like animals by comparison. Sigh...okay, off to reconstruct my optimism and ignore these grisly stories.
Posted by: d2ana at April 23, 2005 10:18 AM