Keep it simple and stupid. That’s how the saying goes, but if we take this advice and really examine our everyday human interactions, you’ll find that no matter how intellectual we are, no matter how wonderfully complex we are, when it comes down to it, we really are just intelligent animals. .

Our urges, wants, and needs trump distractions (think careers, technology, MONEY) that are both self-imposed and imposed on us. One of my philosophies that I can share after a few concoctions with friends is simply this; In the physical sense, we are located on this planet for one reason and one reason only: to have sex. We are connected to our core to want it and need it, and most of what we do can come back to that.

Although Sigmund Freud is the most recognizable psychological mind of all time, he is highly criticized by some for his theories. I won’t bore you with a lecture about it, but it basically says that from birth, we develop into psychosexual stages. Through these five stages, we satisfy our sexual urges. To be clear, this does not mean that your baby has a stash of “baby pornography” (I am concerned about the feds knocking on my door after writing that sentence alone), but rather that we are born with libido, and that it manifests itself in different ways. as we mature. Basically, you go from having an oral fixation and manipulating attention by being cute (baby), to falling in love with your parents through the Oedipus and Electra complexes (little boy) to having real sexual feelings, expressed with genital awareness and masturbation. , to real relationships. and have sex.

You can look at these theories and choose how literally you want to take things, but the fact is, at our core, sex and “animal” drives dominate every part of our lives. We intellectualize things a lot and try to be politically correct, which is good in one sense, but in another sense I think we make fun of ourselves.

I had a beer with my co-workers recently, and those of us who are married get into the inevitable “How did you meet?” stories. Without fail, each and every story started with strong physical feelings (I guess you can call it lust), which happened unexpectedly and opened the door to meet that person. Many people have laundry lists of what they want in a partner (height, weight, hair color, number of titles, salary, etc.) hidden in their back pocket, and they go out into the world with that list and start Looking for Love. It doesn’t happen that way.

Now, just to be clear, I’m not saying you should polish and wait for love to happen. I’m mainly saying that you are likely to find love in a more animal or primal way than you think, even if there is no sex immediately involved. Attraction comes first, and then you make the decision to act or not as you get to know each other. Although my ideal woman is smart, funny, and attractive, her resume listing her comedy titles and credits won’t even hit my desk if she looks like Precious. Just being real.

Folks, this goes both ways. Pop culture tries to sell us on this PC notion that the ideal boy cries as much as his wife, shares his feelings endlessly, and doesn’t prioritize sex. In fact, the 2011 man is taught that having sexual urges makes you one of “those guys” and that all his friends and acquaintances are “good girls” who would be repulsed by such thoughts or actions. This generates a large number of men who can provide the comfortable feelings that women enjoy, without the carnal urges that are needed for a healthy union between woman and man.

To be honest, the “friend zone” is nothing more than a guy who wants more but is afraid to make a move. SHE doesn’t put you in, you put yourself. While you are the friend of all Americans, she allows you to be the cuddly, cuddly shoulder to cry on, while she, ahem, gets her needs met for the guy she inevitably ends up crying over with you. Why? Because you ignored the animal in you and made fun of yourself thinking that you are above that kind of thing. Because you have become a man of the new millennium and you are above those primitive things.

Okay, enough sex talk. In times of natural disasters, when our infrastructure collapses and the distractions we’ve created fade away, you’ll find our primary needs come to the fore. All that matters is collecting food and water and feeding your family. I’m not talking about the NBA or NFL player “needing” a bigger contract because “I have to feed my family.” No, I mean REALLY feed your family. Wayne said it best in one of his mixtapes a few years ago: “No one is safe when it’s for the good of the kids.” I’m not advocating crime, but if the system crashes and you’re in survival mode, well things tend to quickly get less PC.

We buy our food in nice little packages at Wal-Mart, but we still buy raw meat, sometimes with blood, that needs to be heated and eaten. We have come a long way so that instead of going out and looking for the slaughter of the day, we can use our Kroger card and get discounts on gas while we shop for the slaughter of the day and eat it in our comfortable condos.

We’ve evolved (as we should), but don’t believe for a second that those traits that put cavemen through tough times are no longer true today. When things get real in your workplace, relationship, home, or ANY situation in your daily life, think about the ways the animal in you could beat the whole, intelligent human and help you get through that situation. You would be surprised.