Sunday, June 3, 2012

Primates and Bananas


Have you ever tried to open a banana by the stem like most humans do, only to be met with utter fruity failure when the stem bends and bits of banana ooze out all over your hands? Or even if you get a good clean break, those little banana string thingys (official scientific™ term) clump around the banana fruit and you have to keep peeling them off as you eat. This isn't a problem for monkeys and apes...they peel the banana from the bottom if they don't just eat the whole thing and let out a primal scream. Try it, you'll see how easy it is to do and how cleanly it peels. Peeling a banana that is, not primal screaming.

So what do these critters know about something so simple as peeling a banana that we superior humans do not? Absolutely nothing. They don't think about it, they just do what is natural. We humans, however, look at a banana and see the stem and think "ooh, a convenient handle", as if nature packaged this fruit with an easy-to-open system like shredded cheese in a zip-lock bag.

Sometimes thinking too hard about how to approach a problem can create a mess, when there are simpler solutions. Consider the market. Often times those on the left like to criticize capitalism and call it evil, as if it were something that was devised to bring misery down on the human race. They argue from an "intellectual" point of view, claiming that this paper and that, these deep thoughts and those make their case. Looking through the lens of history, it is easy to see how many times these intellectually engineered systems fail.

Why do they fail? Aren't these highly educated progressives smart enough to devise a simple system that works? The answer is no, they cannot, because they can't do simple. See, capitalism is really nothing more than an economic extension of human nature. I'll trade you this for that, and if I can get more value out of my trade, then that is better. It creates wealth where it did not exist previously by changing the value of something. Its so simple it wasn't invented or thought up in some prestigious, progressive university on the East Coast. And it works too. There are winners and losers in capitalism, but the winning and losing is governed by the actions of the winners and losers themselves, not by decree of self-proclaimed experts or a federal government.

Like peeling a banana from the bottom, the economical banana isn't immune from problems. But this does not justify making things even worse by using a backward method. Concisely put: if something simple works well, why complicate it? So the next time your liberal friends are praising Keynesian economics or Karl Marx's beard, just peel a banana from the bottom, enjoy its fruity goodness, and think what an educated idiot they are.

Feel free to comment below. Please keep it civil and respect my no-cussin' policy.

10 comments:

  1. It doesn't seem like it would be very easy to peel a banana from the bottom. I've never tried though. My solution has always been to score a line across the stem with my thumbnail. This allows for quick non-messy peeling with the traditional top down method.

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    1. I do peel bananas from the bottom now and have for a long time after reading an article about it on the internets. It is actually quite easy. The bottom of a banana has four sides. Grab the corners of two opposite sides, and pull apart. The reason it works better is that the "bottom" is actually the top of the fruit, and peeling from that direction towards the stem is "with the grain" of the banana. This keeps most of those stupid string thingies on the peel and not on your delicious banana.

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  2. I never saw the stem as a convenient handle, but as a handy lever for starting the job of opening the banana, like the flip-tab on a can of soda or beer. I guess that makes me as smart as the average chimp, and smarter than the average socialist!

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    1. 4of7, I never know when you are being the 4 or the remaining 3.

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    1. Zaklog, if you could re-post your comment, edited for language, I would be more than happy to help you in your quest against Dan Savage, who is a putz. But I do not allow course language on my blog, even when properly quoted. F--- or F*** works perfectly.

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  4. I just started a petition to the White House to repudiate Dan Savage of "It Gets Better" for saying, "I wish all Republicans were f---ing dead." Could you spread the word? I'd love any support I can get.

    http://wh.gov/zGa

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    1. Thanks. I have made a lil post about it.

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  5. i must begin my course in advanced banana studies.

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    1. You then must begin your quest with Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana, the two origin fruits of the cultivated banana.

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