RE: Adam Smith on Capitalism: My Review of "The Wealth of Nations," Book 1, Chapter 2: "of the Principle which gives Occasion to the Division of Labour"
Just took a look at your last post (Chapter1) and then came to this one. I think you are once again setting the trend here. This is the first chapter by chapter analysis of 'Wealth of Nations', that I have seen here on Steemit. Proud to be able to comment here.
I watched the video links you posted and they are pretty amazing. Then at the end of the post I found the part where Smith mentions the talent in animals (being present but not economically channeled). It reminded me of a story my father used to tell me as a kid.
My great grandfather used to offer afeem (dried latex of poppy) to a female monkey who would then show an entertaining dance (antics) to the people for it. She stopped coming for several months and when the next time she came, she had a baby on her back.
She assumed her usual branch where her prize was usually brought to her. When it was brought and she took it from the hand of a man, her baby also reached out. Seeing this, she not only dropped her prize to the ground but also slapped the hand of the human away and left. She was never heard from again.
.................... weird? Yes it is but this is the version that I heard from my father several times. In fact this is a pretty common story in my fathers old neighborhood.
If this story is assumed to be true, then this would call a lot of presumptions into question. Not only was the monkey trading her talent for the opium but in the end she also chose not to let her child be exposed to it (perhaps the use of wisdom for advantage of another).
Thank you for this comment! That seems like a very interesting story. I wonder if she was trading a talent or if she was going through something like withdrawl and became really desperate for the drug. Either way, it demonstrates a peculiar human-like quality. I am almost positive that animals are talented in more than just survival, this is demonstrated when they are trained to do incredible things (like Shamoo, dolphins, or even dogs trained to detect bombs for combat). Thank you for sharing this story!