To:    Comment at the Guardian
Re:    Earth's "Greatest Ape" on view in the City of London
Date: Saturday 21 October 06

In response to the following article in today's Guardian by Martin Kettle: "When democracy lost its grip on the City of London"
 

 
In the City of London one can recognise better than anywhere else (if you open your eyes) that free-market capitalism is rooted in man's animal nature, which it has developed and been honed to take full (and thus such effective) advantage of - unsurprisingly, in view of what Charles Darwin is supposed to have taught us about human origins, but for some reason we are reluctant to apply it to the social sciences of history, politics, economics, sociology etc. It is time we did.
 
As Earth's "Greatest Ape" we are behaviourally programmed to seek power (of which money is now by far the most important and versatile form) and social status. In the City the human ape is free to apply his "animal intelligence" to this end - and does so very effectively.
 
It is this dominance by our animal nature that makes our growth-dependent economy and the grossly materialistic lifestyles (and lifestyle aspirations) it engenders inherently unsustainable.
 
Never mind the unfairness of it - it is this inherent non-sustainability (which is causing us to plunder and spoil the planet for our children and future generations) that should really concern us.
 
The solution? To replace our animal intelligence with more enlightened, human intelligence and, among other things, accept (voluntarily, proudly and gladly) for ourselves a maximum wage (i.e. a limit to personal power and advantage).