#GOBONOBOS in 2018 picked up by COUNTERPUNCH

by Dr. Susan Block

Congratulations, my fellow bonobo sapiens. If you’re reading this, you have survived almost a full year under the toxic, terror-laced reign of the most blatantly unbonobo President in American history.

By “unbonobo,” I mean cruel, insensitive, narcissistic, nationalist, sexist, racist, mendacious, murderous, warmongering and (most notably) Nazi-loving… all traits that are the polar opposite of bonobos.

What are bonobos?

If you believe in the scientific truth of evolution—somehow still battling with the Bible for American hearts, minds and funding—then you probably know that bonobo apes (along with common chimpanzees) are humanity’s closest living relatives.

But did you know that, unlike those rather murderous common chimps or us über-murderous humans, bonobos have found a way to get along without killing one another? I call it “The Bonobo Way.”  Bonobos do fight and hurt each other sometimes, like we do. They just don’t murder or make war… like we do.

How do they do that? In both the wild and captivity, bonobos utilize consensual sex (quality and quantity), female empowerment (ladies in charge), male well-being (guys get love), compassionate inclusion (everybody gets love) and the sharing of resources (even with strangers) to defuse the violent tensions that can lead to murder and war.

Can we do that too… in 2018?  Yes, we can. Si se puede. There’s no denying it involves a complete overhaul of our civilization, which is currently camped within the harsh, suspicious, militant, male-dominant framework of common chimps, and teetering on the edge of economic and ecological collapse. But every step in the right direction counts, so my 2018 New Year’s resolution is: #GoBonobos in 2018.

I know, it’s strangely similar to my 2017, 2016 and 2015 resolutions, but here in our little international village of Bonoboville, we are quadrupling our resolve because the cause warrants it. To bring our resolution more in tune with our resistance, here is our 2018 rallying cry:

Less Chimp, More Bonobo!

The Unbonobo Presidunce

Some maintain that humans are closer to bonobos than we are to common chimps. As Sex at Dawn author Dr. Christopher Ryan points out, unless we are sociopaths, we tend to regret murders and war, rather than relish them with the shameless gusto of common chimps. This regret is considered a sign of being “humane,” though it’s actually more common among bonobos than humans, especially some humans…

Which brings us back to our utterly unregretful, most blatantly unbonobo Baboon-in-Chief (with apologies to baboons).

“Blatantly,” because the Trumpus puts it all out on the White House front lawn, as well as the Mar-A-Lago golf course, for everyone to see and hear. Famed primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall pegged Trump perfectly, comparing the President’s political style to common chimp charging displays of “stamping, slapping the ground, dragging branches, throwing rocks,” abandoning any old-school Presidential pretense of politeness, compassion, responsibility or integrity in favor of loud complaining, vain preening, shameless bullying and bald-faced lies.

Other American presidents have been more unbonobo in their political actions (so far). George “Dubya” Bush’s Rape of Iraq, Tricky Dick Nixon’s bombing of Cambodia, Haberdasher Harry S. Truman’s A-bombs, Andy “Old Hickory” Jackson’s Trail of Tears, plus several slave-owning presidents, starting with saintly George Washington, come to mind.

But none have said, signed, blurted or tweeted such manifestly unbonobo, nasty, narcissistic things as the current unpresidented Presidunce.

Thankfully (and there was much in 2017 to be thankful for), this Presidunce is too much of a dunce—so far—to pull off the kind of massive national hypnosis that sent America through the poppy fields into unwinnable Perma Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, cheered on by fellow billionaires, corporate nationalists and the super-sized Military-Industrial Complex (MIC), he is expanding these wars, plus throwing in $1.6 trillion to enhance our nuclear capabilities which are already capable of blowing up the world several times over. Whether or not we blow it up, Team Trump is doing a very unbonobo job of pissing off the world, throwing fire and fury on incendiary topics, fellow leaders, innocent civilians and whole nations, not to mention the United Nations.

War Watch 2018

Is that the stench of war in the wind? The tiny-pricked dickhead who loves bigly bombs keeps us (and maybe also himself) guessing as to where it might erupt. North Korea? When we’re hoping that Kim Jong-Un will be the cooler of two hotheads, we know it could happen here. The Middle East is another a good bet; in moving our embassy to Jerusalem, we might as well have declared war on Muslims. Also, Africa; what actually happened in Niger? Then again, maybe some of these statue-worshiping Confederacy buffs will fire up another Civil War right here in our increasingly isolated American “homeland.” Civil or utterly uncivil, with more and more militarized local police forces, we’re really bringing the perma-war, or “occupation,” home.

Of course, war is ultra-unbonobo, morally and ecologically, wherever it blows. It’s not *just* people that wars kill. Of all of humanity’s unbonobo, poison-belching industries, the perma-war economy has the most destructive effect on the environment.

There are other ways to hasten humanity’s and most other species’ demise on our beautiful but finitely accommodating hostess Earth, and in 2017, the Trumpocalypse rolled full-speed ahead on those too. Flooring the gas pedal, and tossing ecological ethics out the window like lit cigarettes, the Trump Train tears down the tracks, gutting the EPA and giving a trillion dollars’ worth of tax breaks to billionaires, the rich man’s ultimate gift to himself. Then there’s the White House “suggestion” that terms like “science-based” be eliminated from CDC funding proposals. And who can forget Trump neglecting poor, abused Puerto Rico, rotting in its hurricane-devastated rubble while he cheekily tossed paper towels and heartless insults at suffering victims.

All of this is “unbonobo,” the Bonobo Way being based, to a great degree, on the equitable sharing of resources within the community. Bonobos even like to share with strangers, and they welcome their “immigrants,” most of whom are young and female, maybe in part because they infuse the old order with “new blood” and fresh energy.

Unlike common chimps and modern humans, bonobos don’t suffer greedy leaders. An abundance of resources in their lush native habitat within the African rainforest of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) means there’s enough food for all, as there would be for humans if we shared our resources equitably.

Meanwhile, Teflon Don the Tasteless Gourmand robs the rest of us to feed his ego, as well as those viciously avaricious fellow billionaires, the MIC and obedient, unscrupulous family members. All U.S. presidents financially benefit from their office, usually after they serve, but the Trump Crime Family really moved in, taking the cake, the candles and the candelabras, while blatantly stamping the fake family name on it—all in 2017. What shall we let them steal in 2018?

Toxic Trump Slump & Heaven-Scented Hype

Every day and into the deepening nightmare, His Royal Blatancy has been everywhere—his nasty tweets, his bloated face, his raspy voice—in both the real and fake news (and telling the two apart is sure to get even tougher in 2018). All through 2017, toxic “Trump Slump” has been seeping into our psyches as surely as the Keystone Pipeline leaked 210,000 gallons of ruinous fossil fuel into the grassy fields of South Dakota.

Indeed, Doncula von Trumpenstein, the self-confessed (then reneging) “pussy-grabber,” also grabbed our sexual libidos in 2017, poking, pulling and shaking many of us into a new kind of “PTSD,” Post-Trump Sex Disorder. Symptoms include humiliating erectile dysfunction (in men), painful dryness (in women), abject nausea, enervating depression and feelings of sexual aversion, caused by anger, fear, confusion and disgust absorbed from a case of electoral dysfunction that still, over a year later, has the power to paralyze.

Women in particular have been hit hard by the disorder, which I all too often see or hear about in my sex therapy practice. When those casually violent boasts—confirmed as all too real by over a dozen women coming forward with stories of having been nonconsensually clutched, kissed or fingered by short Trumpy fingers—were not just ignored but rewarded with the presidency, a lot of women shut down sexually, as if we were the ones he’d assaulted.

And in a way, we were and still are. Because he’s Pussy-Grabber-in-Chief, fergawdsake! He’s not just grabbing a few dozen women’s literal pussies (that’s bad enough); he’s grabbing all American pussies’ rights, throwing them like slabs of juicy red meat to the ravenous Religious Right. Yes, tRUMP is about as genuine a “Christian” as Sinclair Lewis’ Elmer Gantry, but like Gantry, he just loves to be worshipped. It’s a marriage made in heaven-scented hell.

The Rotting Right & Pussy-Segregating Pence

Meanwhile, down here in the Trumpster Dumpster, it’s blatantly clear (if there was ever a doubt) the Religious Right’s “religion” has nothing to do with “Peace on Earth” or “Good Will Toward” anybody. Many applaud the Jerusalem move because they actually want it to set off World War III—a fiery and furious Trumpaggedon leading to the Rapture Lottery they’re sure they’ll win. In the interim, they’ll sell Grandma’s social security to the corporate nationalists in exchange for sexist laws that grab their wives’, daughters’ and sisters’ pussies, dragging them and us into a real-life Handmaid’s Tale.

Veep Mike Pence won’t grab your pussy, or so he says, with great fanfare about the so-called “Pence Rule” of never taking dinner meetings with female colleagues who are not your wife. That’s gender discrimination, which is just a different side of sexism, positioning women as evil temptresses whom good married men must avoid and whose bodies should be subject to government control.

What is it, Mike? You can’t even grab a pizza with a woman without also grabbing her pussy? And what if you’re gay? Would that mean you couldn’t take a dinner meeting with another man? What if you’re bisexual? Would that mean you couldn’t take a dinner meeting with anybody?

We may not know the full sexist scope of the Pence Rule, but we do know that the not-so-blatant, yet über-sycophantic (and more than a little bromantic) Mr. “Put-the-Queers-on-a-Trail-of-Tears” is deep in the corporate pocket of the Koch Brothers, even as he salivates to grab your pussy’s rights to contraception, health care and liberty, in the name of “God.” No wonder Donnie keeps Mikey close enough to inhale each other’s testosterone poisoning.

Yes indeed, His Blatancy is a malignancy that could eat us all alive, a twitter-fingering brain-eating virus. Along with his creepy Cabinet of oily oligarchs and butt-licking Congress of corporate sissymaids, he’s gobbled up the already foul Washington “Swamp” and pooped it back out into a toxic pile of radioactive horse manure that fertilizes giant corporations, enriching the rich, impoverishing the poor, and stinking up everything for the rest of us.

A Tilt to the Left?

And yet… there is hope. There is always hope, especially as we make the soothingly traditional transformation from a yucky old year to a brand spanking new one.

The Trumpeting Blatancy has been a wake-up call to all.  Obama seemed so bonobo, seducing the Washington Press Club and most of the world (#MeToo) with smooth one-liners; we barely noticed him discreetly bailing out felonious corporate bankers and drone-killing innocent villagers in faraway lands.

When the Bombastic Trumposity is this blindingly blatant, it’s easier to see whom you’re fighting… or resisting.

Revolution, even bonobo revolution, thrives on fear and loathing. Our fear and loathing of Trump has set off waves of revolutionary fervor, organizing, protesting, parodying, voting, getting out in the streets and into government buildings, taking a stand and taking a knee. But will it take us where we need to go?

Trump, Trumpers and some Lefty purists mock “The Resistance,” and sure, it’s not easy to herd cats… or pussies. Nevertheless, the anti-Trump uprisings have been impressively large, passionate, diverse, and mostly peaceful. Mammoth protests of the regime’s most unbonobo efforts have held back catastrophes like the repeal of Obamacare, some anti-immigration measures, and maybe even put a healthy fear of “snowflakes” into Trump-drunk, Crying Nazis.

Elections in 2017 have brought in heartening wins for Democrats. Not that the Dems are true “bonobo sapiens”; too many are neoliberal perma-warmongers bought by Wall Street, the NRA, the MIC and the PIC (Prison-Industrial Complex). But in general, they’re the lesser of two evils (and the greater evil is a pretty deep evil), and their wins are a nice slap in that smirking orange face.

For example, Danica Roem (the first openly transgender person elected to a state legislature), unseated Republican Bob Marshall, one of the state’s most socially conservative lawmakers. In recent years, Marshall had referred to himself as Virginia’s “chief homophobe,” having sponsored a bill (which died in committee) that would have banned transgender people from using the bathrooms of the gender with which they identified. Marshall’s loss (the first time a Republican lost that district in 26 years) and Roem’s win has got to bother Team Trump, who included the word “transgender” on the “naughty list” of words in CDC grant proposals.

Another high point of 2017 was the Miracle in Alabama. Whew! Thanks to African-American women voters and a few other concerned Alabamans, America dodged the Roy Moore bullet and gave Trump’s smugly reactionary face another good slap.

Bonobo Pussy Revolution

Who can forget the day after that dreary little Inauguration, when over two million rather bonoboësque Americans mobilized the Women’s March, the biggest protest in American history, fighting this epic pussy-grab in part by wearing cute, pink, handknit “pussy hats” that “bite back.”

Many snickered, including the Snickerer-in-Chief, but the pussy, the cat or “le chat” (en français) has been a symbol of female sexuality, power, curiosity and independence for millennia, since the ancient Egyptians first domesticated felines and honored them as great goddesses like Bast and Sekmet. Using the word “pussy” as a term for female genitalia came later, sometime between Gregorian England and Access Hollywood.

And so, as the leaves began to fall on 2017, the sweet pussies of the #MeToo “Reckoning” pounced like lionesses (or Egyptian goddesses) on powerful men with grabby hands, many of whom were fired from their lofty corporate positions or publicly disgraced for their nonconsensual, pecker-driven peccadilloes.

Meowwww! These pussies have teeth.

Unfortunately, #MeToo couldn’t bring down the Pussy-Grabber-in-Chief, even though he’s been accused by 19 women (none of whom appear on Time’s #MeToo “Silence Breakers” Person of the Year cover, which also managed to miss Tarana Burke, the creator of #MeToo in 2006)… at least not in 2017.

But 2018 awaits the Pussies’ Revenge and, in any case, #MeToo has been an astoundingly powerful and rather bonoboësque movement. It may not be a coincidence that Ashley Judd, a bonobo conservation supporter and popular Women’s March speaker, was one of the first major celebrities to tell her sexual harassment story, encouraging others to come forward in a flush of female power and sordid sexual revelation. 

Many men and some women are appalled by this vivid show of female strength that might seem, to them, “unfeminine” and “unnatural.” This reaction may lead to a terrible misogynistic backlash, or a subtle, not so blatant series of backlashes.

Considering the potential for backlash, it’s important to note that the gender-egalitarian bonobos are the perfect paradigm for female empowerment, proving that it is quite natural for great apes (like us), as well as good for the greater community. This includes bonobo males, who experience far less stress and stay youthful longer than their common chimp counterparts.

Solidarity, Sexuality & Femocracy

Like the #MeToo movement, female solidarity helps to create the foundation for female empowerment among bonobos. Stand up for your sisters, as well as the younger, weaker males against the more aggressive guys. This is all the more extraordinary because a typical bonobo male is bigger and stronger than a typical bonobo female, and he has fangs (which the females lack), so he could easily overpower a bonobo female if she were alone. That’s where female solidarity comes in. If a bonobo male, even the alpha, is so bold as to nonconsensually “pussy-grab” even the lowliest female, her lady friends will jump on him. They won’t kill the naughty male, but like a team of #MeToo’ers or a platoon of FemDoms, they will teach him an unforgettable lesson that will sharply curb that urge to grab a bright pink pussy without the pussy owner’s enthusiastic consent.

Therefore, bonobo males share power with the females, generally “allowing” the ladies to pick their sex partners, as well as get first dibs on food, lead most group activities and dole out discipline for infractions like harassment of the weak.

Bonobos show us that this type of “femocracy” is not just a pie-in-the-sky feminist pipedream that will inevitably be defeated by backlash, but a real, viable way of life, practiced successfully for many thousands of years by humanity’s closest genetic cousins.  It may even have been practiced for millennia by our prehistoric hunter/gatherer human ancestors.

Why do bonobo gals support each other so consistently and so passionately, in contrast to their common chimp (and human) counterparts who usually ignore their sisters’ cries of pain when they are being bullied, harassed or even raped by males?

One reason is… SEX. That is, bonobo females have sex with each other, at least as often as they do it with the guys. Sex brings them closer together, physically and emotionally. I’m not saying that we humans need to have more gal/gal sex (though that’s not a bad idea), but I will say that it’s a positive sign for the future of peace that bisexuality (or at least, admitting to it) is on the rise.

Both male and female bonobos show us that being “gay” or bisexual, as well as polyamorous, is as natural and good as being “straight” for the health and well-being of the individual and the community. I don’t mean that everybody has to come out of the closet about their sexual orientation; our right to sexual privacy should be respected, especially in our slut-shaming society. I do mean that harsh repression of same-sex desires is a breeding ground for violence.

Bisexuality and polyamory can be confusing, especially if you identify as totally straight (or gay) and monogamous. But if you can find your groove, it can open you up to greater abundance, inclusion and more ways to share the love. Contrast this with largely straight communities where a male/female ratio imbalance in terms of “desirability” spurs jealousy, competition, the isolation of (some) women and the violence of (some) men.

Hollywood Apologies & Alt-Right Refusals

In 2017, we learned that Hollywood and the Left at least have some shame regarding sexual harassment. Inadequate as their apologies tend to be, at least they are apologizing, and the admission of wrong, however fumbled, sets precedent and enacts bonoboësque change. Not so for the Religious Right, the alt-right, the nationalists, the Nazis, the KKK and Fox News. Just after settling a sexual harassment lawsuit for a whopping $32 million in early 2017, Fox extended right-wing anchor Bill O’Reilly’s contract for five years at $25 million a year, before letting him go when the New York Times released the story. Talk about enabling! That‘s practically pimping.

“You know, am I mad at God?” whined O’Reilly, responding to fall-out from his sexual harassment settlement. “Yeah, I’m mad at Him. If I die tomorrow and I get an opportunity, I’ll say, ‘why’d you guys work me over like that?’”

Indeed, O’Reilly and the Right often flaunt common chimp sexual assaults as part of their old-school, “manly” doctrine. Ironically, they are ashamed of their own deep-seated sexual feelings, their need to be loved “unconditionally,” their desire to be looked at, their fears of inadequacy, and their deep, sincere longings to be sissified, controlled or dominated that I hear about every day as a sex therapist with a large Red State clientele. Meantime, while they’re secretly wearing frilly panties and jacking off to interracial cuckold porn, many of these men are proud to display their bigotry and misogyny like a flag, sometimes through workplace harassment or just voting for fellow bigots and misogynists. In the face of such twisted patriarchal tyranny, the brave women and men who are calling out and standing up to their sexual harassers are bonoboësque heroes.

Female Empowerment & Male Well-Being

Yet, there’s a key element to the Bonobo Way that the #MeToo movement seems to be missing—at least, in 2017. While most #MeToo’ers imply that good men should simply zip it up and shut up, bonobos show us that female empowerment among Great Apes is closely linked to male well-being.

One vital reason that sexual harassment and rape are relatively rare (and murder and war are non-existent) among bonobos is that bonobo males get laid… often. This is partly because bonobo female are not shy about proposing sex with their chosen males, perhaps because they know they won’t get slut-shamed. Horny bonobo males also have the option of having sex with other horny bonobo males (remember, bonobos are all bisexual).

This erotic abundance appears to cool them out, lowering their hormonal levels of “toxic masculinity” and elevating their aptitude for love.

 #MeTooWhatNext: Decriminalize Sex Work!

Thus, when people ask #MeTooWhatNext? I say decriminalize and destigmatize sex work. It’s not a complete solution, but as ecosexual artist and former prostitute, Dr. Annie Sprinkle, along with my Counterpunch colleague, David Rosen, and many others have asserted, the time is right to legalize the world’s oldest profession when practiced by consenting adults. “Findings of a May 2016 Marist Poll,” notes Rosen, “reported that nearly half (49%) of Americans felt that commercial sex between two consenting adults should be legal whereas just over two-fifths (44%) opposed it.”

So, let’s go bonobos in 2018 and free the hookers! Let’s get our menfolk laid and/or encourage them to jack off in front of someone consensually. My guess is that many of their wives don’t feel like doing that “job,” and if they don’t want to (even after couples therapy), they shouldn’t have to. Of course, their interns, assistants, aspiring actresses, waitresses, flight attendants and farmworkers should certainly not be pressured to do it either, as has apparently been practiced for as long as there have been casting couches and farms.   

But to shut down male (or female) sexuality with no options is also wrong. Okay, it’s not as wrong as engaging in predatory sex. However, the effects of Puritanical sexual repression are extremely hazardous to everyone’s health, contributing to the psychological desire for predatory sex. Unless we want to live in a society where we keep all the guys in cages (which is femocratically kinky, but ultimately impractical, unconscionably cruel and destined to backfire should they escape), we ought to consider our social relationship with sex and sexuality.

Sexual repression also plays into the right-wing agenda, which may result in the Pence Rule in the workplace, ostensibly to “protect” the delicate ladies from those beastly men. Boys vs. Girls “Panty Raid” fantasies aside, this would be disastrous for female empowerment. As we all know from Jim Crowe, separate is never equal.

For many guys, the easy accessibility of decriminalized and destigmatized sexual services would curb their needy, gropey hands, but for others it wouldn’t. These men are aroused by the power play and risk involved on the job. They would certainly benefit from sex therapy, not for so-called “sex addiction,” as so many rush into expensive clinics these days (like “fallen women” used to be rushed into the convent), but for dealing with their darker, taboo feelings. These men are not “addicted to sex.” They’re turned on by nonconsensual, high-risk, real-life activity, and they need to learn to acknowledge and handle these desires without harming others.

To keep #MeToo viable and thriving, let’s add “male well-being” to its bonoboësque imperative of female empowerment.

Hope in Mistress Ravensong: A Trump Voter Repents!

In our Bonoboville community where we broadcast The Dr. Susan Block Show, a recent guest, Mistress Ravensong, confessed that she voted for Trump in 2016. My studio audience gasped with shock (but no awe), and my prime-mate, Capt’n Max, began to rage and thunder against Nazi Nationalists. However, Ms Ravensong insisted that she had seen the light, complaining that she voted for Bread and Circuses, but all she got was a very scary clown.

Everyone quieted down, but still, the big question remained: why did she vote for the “clown”? With great courage, like “Daniella in the Liberals’ Den,” she gave a short list of reasons, Numero Uno being her desire for “big changes” in Washington and a hope that a “successful businessman” could fix our country’s financial problems.

But hadn’t she heard that Trump was a lousy businessman who got a big splashy start with his KKK-loving daddy’s millions, and only aggrandized himself and his family while he blithely bankrupted several companies, stiffing (and not in the good way) many contractors, and (interestingly) the government of Puerto Rico in the process? No, she hadn’t heard about that.

Didn’t she know that Trump was a racist as well as a rapist? No, she said she had no idea.

Hadn’t she heard Trump bragging about forcing himself onto women on the infamous Access Hollywood “grab ‘em by the pussy” tape?

No, she hadn’t heard about that either, at least not when she voted. She knows now, she said, and she finds these behaviors unacceptable in anybody, including the president.

My studio audience tittered with disbelief. How could she not know these things that were and so far still are broadcast all over the news—fake and real? Talk about scary! Are all Trump voters this extraordinarily unaware?

Obviously, some are. This is frustrating to us information-obsessed libtards. It’s kind of like back in the days of the Iraq invasion; I couldn’t understand how anyone would think that Saddam was involved in 9/11. But many did, or said they did.

Therefore, these turncoat Trump voters give me hope. So many Trumpanzees don’t seem to care what their big squalling man-baby says, does or tweets. The more you apply logic and reason, the more they relish being illogical and unreasonable.

Trump voters like Mistress Ravensong who have turned against Trump in 2017 show us that a portion of his supporters still have some belief in reality (as opposed to Reality TV), and can be swayed.

As Capt’n Max says, “The ideal is the enemy of the real.”

Mistress Ravensong admits that she idealized Trump the Businessman Savior, but as reality took hold, she’s changed her mind. Folks like Mistress Ravensong give me hope for humanity…and maybe even America.

Besides, forgiveness is The Bonobo Way. They are the masters and mistresses of make-up sex.  Bonobos may make peace through pleasure, but they’re no angels. They’re animals, like us. Sometimes they fight, but they always make up.

Save the Bonobos

I’m trying not to gush, but bonobos are my crush! We all have our special causes, and mine is saving these amazing creatures who are so close to us and can teach us so much, yet who are highly endangered due to the devastating effects of human war, deforestation, mining and, especially, poaching. Therefore, I resolve to make 2018 the fourth consecutive “Year of the Bonobo,” continuing to do what I can to help save them from imminent extinction.

Bonobos show us that peace, inclusivity, compassion, good consensual sex, female empowerment and male well-being aren’t just #MeToo, snowflake fantasies, but are integral to our primal nature. These bonoboësque qualities may even link us to our primitive, pre-agricultural, hunter-gatherer, “fierce egalitarian” past, a part of our primate heritage with which the bonobos never lost touch. Can we open up to that part of ourselves that integrates “ecosexually” with nature?  Can we release our inner bonobo… before it’s too late? 

I don’t know, but I do know that in order to do that, we should keep the real bonobos alive. That’s my resolution anyway, and the resolution, as well as the revolution—and the resistance—start with me.  And you.

Since you’ve read this far, I hope you’re encouraged to join me in helping save the bonobos through donations to:

1) Lola ya Bonobo (Bonobo Paradise), a bonobo “refugee” sanctuary outside Kinshasa in the DRC operated by Claudine André,  where “orphans” of the devastating “bushmeat” trade are rescued, cared for, and eventually released back into the wild.

2) The Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI), founded by my old friend, Sally Coxe, developing a Bonobo Peace Forest that supports the villagers who live in the bonobos’ area by providing food, medical care, school supplies and jobs protecting their precious and vulnerable wild bonobo populations from the unscrupulous or tragically ignorant poachers who would murder them.

3) The Bonobo Project, helping to spread the word about bonobos, their amazing culture and their precarious plight.

Less Chimp, More Bonobo!

In the time of the Trumpus, the Great Celebrity Sexual Harassment Outing and Mass Murderers Gone Wild, the message of the Bonobo Way of peace through pleasure, female empowerment and male well-being needs to be embraced before we destroy everything on earth that makes it habitable for humans… which we’ve been doing for millennia, but which has accelerated like a rocket ship under the command of this most blatantly unbonobo of Presidunces, who seems set on doing anything to get and keep his name in lights—the more blatant, the better—even if the light blazes up from an inferno of human agony.

Trump’s unbonobo blatancy doesn’t make him less dangerous. But it does make him—and his corporate overlords and co-conspirators—easier to see… and resist.

Doomed we may be, but we should try. And we should definitely have a lot of fun trying. It’s the Bonobo Way.

#GoBonobos in 2018!

Special thanks to Camille Rosebud & Mita Altair for editorial assistance and to Clemmy Cockatoo for making the featured image.
© December 28, 2017. Susan Block, Ph.D., a.k.a. “Dr. Suzy,” is a world renowned LA sex therapist, author of The Bonobo Way: The Evolution of Peace through Pleasure and horny housewife, occasionally seen on HBO and other channels. Watch The Dr. Susan Block Show live every Saturday night from Bonoboville. For information, call 310-568-0066.