Monday, July 23, 2007
The Monkey Trials: Evolution of a Blog Part I
As previously warned/threatened, I'm going to spend much of the remainder of the summer blogger-doldrums brainstorming over a new angle for this blog.
When I started this, it was just meant to be a place to share gags and thoughts with a handful of local friends who were also blogging at the time. Then it morphed into the whole comedy fake news thing and ultimately into its present "reflections on life" mode, which is frankly starting to bore me.
So over the next while I'm going to trial balloon some new ideas.
First up, perhaps I could do more to focus on my Monkey Principle.
Long-time readers will already be familiar with this, since it is one of the first things I blogged about. More of an attitude to life than a principle, it can be summed up in one line:
Humans are a species of ape and should be judged accordingly.
Now, this may seem very obvious, but these days there's a pretty hefty amount of misanthropic thought rampant amongst the environmental movement and some other lefty causes. There are so many over-earnest types who hold humans to an impossibly high standard; who gnash their teeth and wail:
"Oh humans are so bad. We're the worst creatures on Earth. We're so mean and greedy. We've wrecked the environment..." etc. etc.
Well, no shit. What do you expect from a bunch of monkeys?
To put it in perspective, let's imagine a genetic engineering experiment involving baboons.
Let's say you took a bunch of baboons, locked them up in a big biosphere lab and gave them some kind of DNA booster shot that made them way too smart, way too soon without any counterbalancing evolution of their social development. Now let's say you let them have a bunch of chemicals, nuclear weapons and pointy sticks and left them to their own devices for a few years.
Does anyone actually think that experiment would have a happy ending?
If some hippy-dippy type on the research team said: "I would bet any money that when we come back we will find the baboons living in peace and harmony, caring for each other and their environment," I would happily take that bet and soak this person for every penny he had, since he would clearly be the biggest idiot the world has ever seen.
No, it is obvious that such an experiment would have one of two possible conclusions:
1. We come back to find the lab covered in baboon excrement, half the baboons with pointy sticks stuck in their eyes and the other half mixing toxic chemicals with no regard for their own or others safety; OR
2. We would come back to find the baboons had fiddled with the nuclear weapons and blown themselves up.
So, you see, we humans are currently living in the best case scenario of what is reasonable to expect from technology-using primates. This is a blessing to be celebrated, not a failure to be condemned.
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Now, how would this affect the blog theme? I'm thinking I would make this more of a news commentary site. I would hunt for goofy news clippings that epitomize the Monkey Principle and provide some (hopefully) humorous commentary to illuminate.
Readers could discuss the general silliness of the selected news item, or suggest others for future posts.
On the whole, the site would have more of a Jon Stewart / Stephen Colbert vibe to it.
I'll try this out tomorrow so you can see what I have in mind. In the meantime, let me know if you have any suggestions.
posted by Mentok @ 9:50 a.m.,
7 Comments:
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At 1:00 p.m.,
said...
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eeeeeee, ooooooo, ooooo, eeeee eeeee--get it? i'm a monkey! ;-)
for the record, jon stewart and stephen colbert are my absolute favorite fake news journalists, so any leaning in that direction would be fine by me! -
At 4:00 p.m.,
FiL said...
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Well, we've got an old Mk 57 nuclear bomb in the garage that I've been tempted to muck around width, but I think I'll stick to the pointy sticks.
Oh, you want feedback, not just wit? Well, for what it's worth, I quite appreciate the breadth of your commentary, Dearest Mentok. My fear would be that you might find a self-imposed monkey mono-theme too restrictive. Maybe add it as an occasional rubric? -
At 11:17 a.m.,
Mentok said...
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marcy - just stay away from the pointy sticks, OK? ;-)
fil - you too
OK, so that's one vote in favour of news commentary, one suck-up brown-noser vote for keeping things the way they are ;-)
(Seriously, Fil, that is a good suggestion: instead of wholesale change, just come up with a handful of new story themes to freshen up the mix.) -
At 3:59 p.m.,
Grumps said...
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To paraphrase Lewis Black, you can do fake news like the Fox Network but wouldn't that then be the real news?
JK.
I like the rambling, mystery-meat approach to the blog. You never know what you're going to find once you cut into that deep-fried breading on the outside.
And at least you post consistently.
BTW, GrumpsJr performs six shows at the Fringe this year -- one every day from Aug 2 to the 5, then on Aug 7 and finally Aug 10. -
At 5:28 p.m.,
said...
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i like the compromise idea.
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At 11:29 p.m.,
Mentok said...
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grumps - I'm not sure I want to be known as the "mystery meat" blogger ;-) ... but I get what you mean.
marcy - wow, what a pillar of strength you are in the face of peer pressure. Two contrary comments and you're already changing your vote. ;-) -
At 8:35 a.m.,
said...
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that's me, i stick to my guns no matter what! i think . . .
