    29

    becom

    e a master of the art of intimidation.  What's more, he has become a

    primate politician, currying favor among the masses--the lower-ranking

    males and the powerful lady leaders of the female cliques--and carefully

    building alliances with other strong males.

    But chimpanzee leaders, like human power-brokers, eventually grow

    old and weak.  In their younger days when a potential rival showed up to

    challenge them, they reared back on their hind legs and made a dramatic

    show of brawn and agility.  But when strength and swiftness fade, the aging

    leaders use another tactic.  Like my dog, they pretend they do not see.

    A rival may swagger toward the reigning monarch determined to

    assert his claims.  The muscular youngster jumps up and down.  He makes

    terrifying noises by pounding on any resonant object in sight.  He swings

    huge branches intimidatingly through the air.  But the weakened elder deals

    with this pecking order challenge in a strange way.  He turns his head and

    pretends to be utterly absorbed in examining a banana peel.65

    For a time, the aging leader who refuses to see his rivals retains his top

    position.  His old system of alliances props him up.  But if the youngster has

    played his cards right, he has quietly built up coalitions of his own and

    gained the favor of the populace.  Then the challenger's public humiliations

    of his elder may one day prove decisive.  Eventually, the older statesman will

    be forced to yield his position, and the young turk will become the new head

    chimp.66

    Human superorganisms go through similar pecking order con-

    frontations.  They gather allies.  They curry support among the common

    people.  They make theatrical shows of strength and power.  And when they

    sense that they may lose, they follow the path of the chimp and the dog.

    They undergo perceptual shutdown.

    In 1931, the Japanese lunged toward a higher position in the hierarchy

    of nations.  They invaded Manchuria, treating the local inhabitants in a

    manner that was bloody and barbaric.  But no one tried to stop them.  Six

    years later, the Japanese made an even more ambitious move.  They landed

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