Are people around you acting like apes?

Are you witnessing selfish behavior whereby you give generously, but others do not reciprocate?  Have you found that you are not given credit for your good ideas, maybe even criticized or ignored, but that your ideas are stolen by peers and bosses?  Do you observe that some do not respond in a timely manner to your queries and comments while you do?  Have you dealt with people who ooze charm in public, but behave like venomous serpents in private?  How about tribalism  -- the us vs. them?  And do you know people who are driven to sabotage others' work?  Finally, do you witness strong resistance to positive change?

In his new book, "Games Primates Play," Dario Maestripieri of the University of Chicago (who is both a professor and a primatologist) describes, in detail, how much of human behavior apes primates in good and bad ways.  But he also says that visibility and transparency are contributing factors toward ameliorating bad behavior and accentuating the good. 

While human behavior may at times be quite animalistic, we also have proven ourselves to be capable of amazing goodness.  Everyday in our world there are billions engaged in precious acts of kindness, generosity, caring, and selflessness. 

Although human evolution and education have improved our behavior, there is something more to our capacity to live rightly.  It is this: at the core of our being we are divinely-engineered beings with a limitless capacity for doing good. 

INTELLIGENCE/LOVE is the unbounded source of a non-physical universe filled with immortal, spiritual beings.  Ever-creative MIND/SOUL generates our spiritual make-up, which possesses an inexhaustible arsenal of holy qualities and abilities. 

Divine awareness defeats bad primate behavior with SOUL-enabled ethical, intelligent and caring responses.  When we encounter bad, primate-like behavior we do not need to respond likewise.  Instead, we can choose to assert our intelligent and wise spiritual reasoning and attributes.  Unethical, immoral, selfish and malicious behavior proves itself powerless before our MIND-sanctioned, spiritual power. 

SOUL/MIND capacitates us to think intelligently and act effectively.