The Problem of Baboons

“The alpha male baboon is not a leader; he just has the best stuff.” –Robert M. Sapolsky, author,  professor

I thought long and hard before writing this piece because comparing someone to one of our primate relatives is historically an odious, racist trope. Yet unlike racist intent, this is not about appearance or intellect – which one cannot change – it is about behavior which one can change. I use the comparison because it highlights a problem we must see clearly. And we do have a problem.

Robert Sapolsky, Stanford Professor of biology and neurology, studied baboons in their own habitat to better understand the biological basis of human behavior. Baboons live in social groups and the alpha male, typically the strongest and most aggressive, keeps his standing by intimidation and, when necessary, by violence. He does what he wants; getting his pick of the females and stealing food from other less aggressive males. Should you offer him food, he would think you’re weak. He will slaughter infants that are not his but keep his own progeny safe. In Sapolsky’s bestselling book Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, he makes the observation I’ve quoted above, “The alpha male baboon is not a leader; he just has the best stuff.” The alpha male has no intention of serving the troop, he just wants access to the best resting spot, food and females for himself. In his standing, he feels entitled to anything he can take, all others are beneath him, and any resistance is met with force and violence.

America, we have made the mistake of putting an alpha male primate into a position calling for leadership. We mistook wealth—acquired by luck of birth, media fascination, and amoral animal cunning—with “success” as a leader. Too many of us mistook bullying for strength because the bully said things we wished we had the nerve to say. Donald J. Trump believes he should have the pick of the females and the possession of anything else he wants, including your lunch. His response to any challenge is to dominate and he will escalate to violence if intimidation fails. He will protect his own progeny and  be violent to others. He has called state governors “weak” for not intimidating and “dominating” those protesting the murders of unarmed African Americans. In this behavior, Donald Trump literally has the morals of a baboon. I don’t say it merely as an insult; I say it as a statement of objective fact.

I also hesitated to write this because I don’t typically indulge in mere name-calling. I try to understand what’s correct in someone’s positions. However, as we now work to remove DJT from office, we see intimidation escalating to violence as a response. In recent days, DJT sent anonymous armed thugs into U.S. cities to deny American citizens the right to peacefully protest. Indeed, it appears they intend to provoke resistance so that he can make a show of force to impress and intimidate the rest of us. He cares not at all if anonymous “officers” violate the protesters’ Constitutional rights to peaceful assembly and free speech. To him the only rules or societal norms that matter are those serving his purpose to remain at the top. With all that, the time for being civil in our opposition is over.

Worst of all, this has happened at a time of maximum peril from a global pandemic that requires actual leadership. Such leadership springs from an intent to serve the common good, in turn requiring empathy and concern for others. These are impulses which the alpha male’s brain is not at all wired to do.  Thus, the outcome of Trump’s baboon brain has been to serve only himself, to downplay the seriousness of this pandemic because it does not serve his re-election goals. Now we are a global epicenter of the pandemic, trapped inside our own nation by a wall—only ours is made up of disease and international disdain. How ironic. Our economy is trashed because the pandemic is uncontrolled because the alpha male baboon-in-chief is bored with it. Worse, DJT has inspired others to copy his behavior, engaging in their own narcissistic impulses, so that even wearing a mask – the simplest, most effective public health practice we currently have – has been transformed into a divisive message. A leader would have had the humility and intelligence to follow the science. The baboon-in-chief could not.

The next six months are going to be a dangerous time in America, perhaps the most dangerous since the Civil War. A plague is upon us and we not only have no leadership, we have an authoritarian baboon who plans to hurt us for trying to replace him with leadership. He has at his disposal levers of power and henchmen who will do his bidding regardless of legal barriers or social norms. This is a crisis; we must act like it.

I absolutely do not advocate violence of any kind, but our own non-violent response must be tougher and more unwavering than his. Conceding anything to him will be interpreted as weakness. He and his followers must obey the rule of law. We must insist that the U.S. Constitution means what it says. We must demand that law enforcement follow the Constitution, that our courts, our political leaders, our medical experts, and our own family, friends and neighbors do their civic duty to speak, to vote, to act, to publicly protest (in masks), to demand a higher calling from ourselves as a nation.

“Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, in the strife of truth with falsehood for the good or evil side.”

This is that moment.

If we fail, we will become Baboon America, and no one in the world will be safe from that.