Street Art by Bansky
The phrase “forbidden fruit” took on new meaning today as the President of this Country signed into law today an act which made it a capital offense to use, possess, or distribute bananas. This has been a controversial and highly debated topic for some time now and no one is quite sure how people are going to react. Most people have compared this to Prohibition of the 1920s. Some early evidence is already before us and we need to look at it carefully.
On the political scene, the Walter B. Jenkins Memorial Urinal has been changed to the Walter B. Jenkins Memorial Banana. Ecdysiast Fanny Fox has now been accused of jumping into the Tidal Banana. Former senator Gary Hart is alleged to have slipped upon a banana on his way to be given the Democratic presidential nomination. Senator Larry Craig has been apprehended while attempting to slip a banana under a toilet stall partition in the Minneapolis airport while Tiger Woods was taken to the hospital in an ambulance after an overdose of bananas.
In other parts of the world, two Latin American countries have defaulted on their loans from the World Bank, and have experienced a sharp drop in currency value, claiming that their exports of a certain controlled substance have been confiscated at the borders. The president of the Dole Fruit Company is alleged to have committed suicide, having OD’ed on a controlled substance.
In New York City, riders on the subway have seen graffiti illustrating the forbidden substance coming down the tracks. The Chiquita Banana spokesenorita has been deified and placed in the pantheon alongside Amelia Earhart. Farmers’ markets nationwide have been carefully inspected to make sure there is no illegal fruit available. Street gangs have formed, brazenly revealing suspicious objects as they storm through the streets just ahead of arrest. A papal Encyclical stating that bananas are a symbol of Satan has been proclaimed throughout the Roman Catholic Church. The future of the clothing store Banana Republic remains unclear. Product developers at Baskin Robbins have begun researching a replacement for the popular banana split.
In a small town in the Midwestern US, a medical examiner was called to the morgue to examine the body of Fred Schultz, the town butcher. Much to his amazement, the physician found that the late Mr. Shultz was in possession of the largest banana he had ever seen. He decided to take it and preserve it in formaldehyde, for his pathology museum. When he went home, he showed the banana to his wife, only to hear her moan “Oh my God, Fred Shultz is dead!”
On the musical front, activist and Calypso singer Harry Belafonte refused to drop “The Banana Boat song” from his repertoire. Britpop singer Donovan, creator of “Electrical banana”, could not be reached for comment.
Perhaps the strangest side effect of this new law is in the field of poetry. Olympia Press has published a green-covered chapbook of new poetry with such selections as: “Ode to the West Banana”, “The Divine Banana”, “One Hundred and Fifty Sonnets to a Pale Banana”, “How do I Love Thee, Dear Banana; Let Me Count the Ways”, “Banana, Be Not Proud”, “To his Coy Banana”, “Ode on a Grecian Banana”, “The Banana Not Taken”, “There’s a Certain Slant of Banana”, “Ozybanandias” and “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Banana.”
Literature was not spared either. “Finnegan’s Banana”, “The Glass Bead Banana”, the stories of Hans Christian Bananderson, “A Streetcar named Banana”, “Sons and Bananas”, “Rip van Banana”, “Harry Potter and the fruit that shall not be named”, “Of Human Banana”, “Much ado about Bananas”, “Death comes to the Archbanana”, “The Old Man and the Banana”, “The Call of the Banana” and “Banana Island” are all slated for publication.
The net effect of the new law has created a powerful cultural meme, equal in terms its grip upon society, to the flu epidemic of 1919. Even the most astute prognosticator can have no idea of the long-term effects of this event. Each individual must make an independent decision as to how he or she is going to adjust to this new environment. The challenge is there.
This fey and whimsical post represents an important cultural development but puts it into a street-wise format derived from Monty Python, Douglas Adams, and Woody Allen. I am discussing the cultural meme and how society becomes infected by a bio-psycho-social virus, or parasite of the mind. The concept raises the question as to whether we are possessed by thoughts imported from those around us. The two authors that are central to this new but rapidly developing field are Richard Dawkins and Robert Aunger. These author’s are not easy to read, but what they represent is reflected all around us. I hope this explanation makes my writing clear.
8 comments:
As a lost banana at one time I have just lost all my bananas to the cold?
What next have some lemon aid?
chago
Being a Monty Python fan----I laughed my butt off. You might have gone on to mention guys at Mardi Gras yelling at girls to – Show me your bananas!
Bearded hippies in sandals preaching: Tune in, Turn on, Go Bananas!
Mothers with their yellow placards marching in the street chanting: Just say no!
Panels on late night television discussing the existential meaning of bananadom.
The International Banana rights movement; and the infamous banana conspiracy (for a more serious note, see: United Fruit Company)
And of course the popular song: Yes, we have no bananas.
As a segue into the last paragraph of your blog you might mention the discredited Hundredth Monkey effect.
All this aside, I will now digress into my particular opinions vis a vis evolutionary psychology:
Socrates is rumored to have said that we are born with all knowledge present inside us and that the process of education is simply learning how to access it. When I read that in 1976 it was still a time dominated by Behaviorism when everything was considered a learned response to environmental conditions. The classroom discussion was limited to a brief philosophical debate.
By graduate school, evolutionary psychologists were arguing that ALL of the knowledge you need had already been placed in your memory by evolution. They rejected the importance of social transmission as well as any major impact of learning or experience. My Personality Psychology professor claimed that 90% of the personality was genetically determined. This was a time when The Bell Curve became a best seller.
I am not a creationist, and living in Ecuador, Darwin is somewhat of a local hero. BUT, I do have some trepidation about any theory that has Darwin and the word evolution in it. I am familiar with how some groups have used scientific theory in the justification of their political dogma. The Eugenics movement certainly falls into this category.
With that out of the way, I think the narrower question of how ideas and culture are disseminated is interesting and a valid research topic for social psychologists. If you have ever played the game telephone it’s always fun to see how simple messages become distorted within small groups. I don’t have access to journals but I am sure there have been serious studies on this phenomena.
Of course the concept of memes is beyond a simple model of communication. The theory that many of our thoughts are not generated from within our own brains but are acquired as ideas from others, and once inside us, pursue goals that may be in conflict with our best interests reminds me of 1950s science fiction movies like Invasion on the Body
Snatchers. While at times I can envision the human race as a giant cancer on our planet, I cannot think of thoughts being alien invaders. Nor do I believe that they are viruses that infect us (although falling in love may sometimes appear that way).
I still like an idea that my best friend and I shared in high school: our physical brains are like transistor radio receivers that tune into ideas that somehow exist around us. As we undergo intellectual-emotional change we became more receptive to other channels of ideas. Why not?
I must confess, although I have The Selfish Gene in my library, it is way at the bottom of my reading pile. From the short blurb provided, I understand that Dawkins is a biologist and has applied a gene-centered view to his theories of cultural evolution. The argument is that gene-based structures in the brain, with which individuals are born, and which therefore precede individual experience, constitute a filter or bias by which all experience is evaluated.
I can understand that for neurobiologists who still believe that each memory corresponds to some group of neurons in some brain center, this idea is very appealing. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that the brain or in fact culture is so simply arranged. It is somewhat like the differences between Newton, General Relativity and Quantum mechanics. All work well within certain parameters but none appears to be an overall theory of the universe. Nature vs. Nurture theories seem to be in a similar situation. Psychology is a long way from its own M theory.
Robert Aunger in his The Electric Meme appears to be thinking outside of the box. A signal which is a bundle of patterned energy that causes local changes that prompts a replication reaction. The signal may be like a catalyst, speeding up the sequence of events, or bringing the relevant parts of the process together. There is no need of viral or hard structurally based explanation, and the process appears dynamic.
Since we are on somewhat on the topic, I would like to mention that I have just picked up The Brain That Changes Itself. by Norman Doidge. It is on the top of my pile as it seems to be less theoretically oriented and more clinical which is my current personal bent.
As always, I enjoy the chance to stretch my thoughts a bit with you. Unlike the google blog Shrink rap doesn’t come automatically so it just got misplaced for a while.
L
Dear Larry,
I will take your wonderful comments about this blog quite seriously and I may incorporate them into a revision of the blog itself.
I do not think most people understood my blog and were somewhat puzzled by it.
I am quite familiar with the argument put forth by evolutionary psychologists and I feel it deserves very careful consideration. Please check out the term cryptoanalysis, I am sure you will find it very interesting. I think one of the closest ways that you and I relate is that we are both outspoken, opinionated, contrarians, welcome to the club. Please keep your comments coming. Sparky
I googled cryptoanalysis and I got:
the study of methods for obtaining the meaning of encrypted information.
I sure you must be refering to the breaking of the gene code.
I am not in agreement with Margaret Mead's notion of a child being a Blank Slate- The idea that humans are entirely cultural beings whose only nature is a malleable one – does not make sense, in the face of modern genetics and neuroscience.
However, if we take the idea of cloning to the extreme presented in The Boys of Brazil, even with 100 clones it would be impossible to produce another Hitler. Perhaps it was the way his mother sang as she made his sauerkraut which activated his psychopathy.
There may be a basis in genetics, but there are also activating events, cascades, and loops which are part of the internal and external milieu.
Please send the name of a person or book that might explain cryptoanalysis.
Thanks for sweeping the cobwebs out of the grey matter.
Larry
Dear Larry,
I am totally embarrassed: I had a senior moment and I wrote cryptoanalysis when I should have written cryptoamnesia.
If you will check it out I think you will quickly grasp that my comment now makes some sort of sense. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
News Flash- Meme theory goes mainstream---
I was watching Big Bang theory last night and two of the charcterrs mentioned Meme theory in relation to gossip.
I imagine that you are proposing cryptoamnesia as a possible explanation for mode of transmission. It seems logical that at least in some cases it is true (and it is in accord with Occam´s razor- so an acceptable hypothesis). It also doesn’t rely on any mystical or magical or imaginary connections, so it’s on safe footing.
I would point out that I don’t mind unscientific, illogical, or mystical explanations; however they would not be appropriate for professional journals.
So as I see it:
I’m sitting at a restaurant and behind me a couple is discussing a book. I hear them, but I am paying more attention to my conversation with my dinner partner. On the way to work the next day there is an NPR program that mentions the book. I am driving and thinking about work problems so I’m not paying any conscious attention to the radio. That weekend at a party a group begins to talk about the book. Even though I haven’t read it, I seem to have very insightful comments.
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