NationStates Jolt Archive

The monkeysphere(Humorous) (http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/monkeysphere.html)
Wiki on the monkeysphere (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkeysphere)

A decent illustration of the monkeysphere from one of the links:
Picture a monkey. A monkey dressed like a little pirate, if you wish. We'll call him Slappy.

Imagine you have Slappy as a pet. Imagine a personality for him. Maybe you and he have little pirate monkey adventures and maybe even join up to fight crime. You'd be sad if Slappy died, wouldn't you?

Now, imagine you get five more monkeys. Tito, Bubbles, Fluffy, Marcel and ShitTosser. Imagine personalities for each of them. Maybe one is aggressive, one is affectionate, one is distant and quiet. And so on. They're all your personal monkey friends.

Now imagine a hundred monkeys. Then a thousand.

How long until you can't tell them apart? Or remember their names? At what point, in your mind, do your beloved pets become just a faceless sea of monkey? If you get enough monkeys, you'll eventually have enough that you no longer even care if one of them dies.

Now, each of these monkeys is every bit the monkey that Slappy was. It's just that you don't give a rat's ass any more.


So, what do you think of the monkeysphere?

I think its the bloody truth. And yes it does make you see the world in a very different way. society is, and always has been, totally disensitised(sp?) to the suffering of other people. I called it the "overthere" syndrome; "hey, did ya hear about that [TRAGIC EVENT] overthere in [FAROFF COUNTRY]"

It occurs to me that this could solve some of the problems with NS.
Politics in general, actually.

It occurs to me that this could solve some of the problems with NS.
Politics in general, actually.

How so?

How so?

Well, for one thing, the entire platform of the Republican party assumes that only the Republicans are human.
And the platform of the Democratic party assumes that only non-Republicans are human.
And so on; there's always someone you have to ignore if you want to debate politics.

I do not agree with the quoted part of the article. I care if any American dies, as long as he/she was not executed. I won't lose any sleep over it, but I do care.

I do not agree with the quoted part of the article. I care if any American dies, as long as he/she was not executed. I won't lose any sleep over it, but I do care.

American, eh?
How about French?
How about Indonesian?

And I should point out, if you really think you're right, you've never read the newspaper, with all the "X was murdered by Y with Z" or "X dies of horrible illness Y in Z hospital".

Why do my threads always die?:(

Fuck other people. There, I said it.

Fuck the world a lotta people gotta die tonight...

I think its the bloody truth. And yes it does make you see the world in a very different way. society is, and always has been, totally disensitised(sp?) to the suffering of other people. I called it the "overthere" syndrome; "hey, did ya hear about that [TRAGIC EVENT] overthere in [FAROFF COUNTRY]"
ZOMG no, I'm still obsessing over [relatively minor but well-publicized semi-tragic occurrence] here in [my locale]!

I think its the bloody truth. And yes it does make you see the world in a very different way. society is, and always has been, totally disensitised(sp?) to the suffering of other people. I called it the "overthere" syndrome; "hey, did ya hear about that [TRAGIC EVENT] overthere in [FAROFF COUNTRY]"
Or, as Stalin so eloquently put it, "One death is a tragedy. One million deaths is a statistic"