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WHY IS MICKEY MOUSE?
To reproduce a human being much more than DNA heredity is required, much more than an egg and a sperm. Human babies, even, are only a short way along their paths to becoming human beings. All human cultures have different Make-A-Human-Being kits, by which they turn babies into people. All of these, surprisingly, involve animals, from the familiar Teddy Bear, and Mickey Mouse, to the cunning fox and the wise owl. Our nursery animals, and our nursery stories about animals, genuinely construct our minds. Some peoples use totemic animal models to which different people in the tribe have affiliation, and we too use animals in our heraldry, even in the Stock Market. When the Grimm brothers altered our fairy stories, they altered the Make- A-Human kit - we are different from our ancestors in the ways our minds work. |