The Monkey Trick

Human beings like feedback.

All sorts of colorful feedback.

Its how they know they aren't crazy, its how they know their hat holder ain't infected with a virus or something, which is sorta a pre-requisite for making any other kinda decisions about the kinda experiments you oughta do to find new behavior patterns that'd be of benefit to you.

Being able to trust your understanding of Reality is probably the fundametal psychological need, you can't even really do any other kinda experiments until you do the experiments that prove yer Brain's Crack Team of Scientists ain't all messed up.

That's one of the reasons for all the social animal shit, they're driven together by the need to know that their viewmasters and calculators ain't fucked up somehow.

That's what they're really doing when they're comparing notes on baseball cards and their favorite movies and shit, y'know?

That's also the reason folks do mental defrag shit, like playing Solitaire, I mean, it ain't only a social thing, the social bit is only one of the components that make up somebody's internal model of Reality.

That's also the reason some of us can do things that seem like magic tricks.

Like making people run around and act like monkeys.

'Cause if you willfully manipulate the feedback stream, from a position of authority, or with great skill and a knowledge of the buttons you can push, in lieu of authority, 'cause some folks hate authority, and then that authority thing is gonna work against ya, you can make all sorts of crazy shit happen.

You can temporarily alter Reality, bit by bit, in little ways.

It can be good stuff too, it don't just gotta be bad shit, like making people act like monkeys, y'know, don't get me wrong, none of us guys that know how to make people turn into monkeys and shit learned how to do it on purpose, I don't think.

Well, 'cause first off, that monkey thing is only a bit of amusement, its a parlor trick, and it don't work in combat on a battlefield, unless your the guy that has to give the Braveheart speech heh.

And second, everybody I know that knows how to do that monkey trick feels guilty about it.

Well, everybody except the guys who do it through the use of paintings and poems and shit, 'cause those guys can pretend its the object they made that did all the bad stuff, and not them, where you can't pull that kinda bullshit when its some words you said out loud, 'cause, y'know, yer responsible for those ahaha.

So a wilful manipulations of the feedback stream that we call Reality is possible, y'know, with an intent to change someone's mind at the other end, even if its just to do something benevolent, like making 'em laugh, or telling 'em about optional ways that they could look at stuff, to make 'em feel better, or to make 'em smarter or something.

But that same understanding of all the places you can put your hands on the feedback stream to start playing it like a piano is the thing that makes you a good joke and story teller (and everything else that has anything to do with that).

Its the trick that lets you help folks at least escape from all headaches and heartbreaks they've been beaten over the head with, if you ain't good enough to heal 'em outright, y'know, there's always Healing's weak sister you can turn to, Escapism, she's easy heh.

And its also the reason that smart and nerdy folks have a hard time at parties.

'Cause they know shit that threatens the apparent integrity of the Fragile Reality Web everybody has going that makes everybody feel comfortable.

And they think about that shit a lot, and it makes them look uncomfortable in Reality, which is pretty much my definition of a Nerd ahaha.

And nobody likes it when you bring that shit up.

'Cause, y'know, yer hitting a fundamental survival nerve with an axe.

Well, the folks that you can turn into monkeys don't like that shit, and the rest of us were keeping quiet about it, in an effort to get the panties off a cheerleader or something, until you opened your big mouth and set off all the Pyschological Alarm Systems that brought the Metal Gates and all the Andy Griffith Rent-A-Cops down on us ahaha.