TWO WHO CRIED WOLF

                                      
What did pioneering social scientist Stanley Milgram and comedian Redd Foxx have in common?

Both cried wolf at least once too often.

In 1962/63, Milgram gained national notoriety for laboratory experiments that conned subjects into believing that they were administering electric shocks to other subjects to facilitate their learning. (The subjects on the receiving end of the juice were imposters; the shock machine only appeared to shock.) When the true subject, i.e., the shocker, had second thoughts about administering increasing voltage, a confederate of Milgram’s—an authority figure in a lab coat—would urge the shocker to continue. The experiments served up the shocking conclusion that Americans were excessively obedient in the company of an authority figure.

Milgram paid a price for the downside of his fame and his methods—Some colleagues and students were never quite sure when and if he might be putting them on.

Which brings us to a tale of disbelief at Harvard University on November 22, 1963. Here it is, according to Thomas Blass’ terrific book about Milgram, The Man Who Shocked the World:

So when . . . [Milgram] burst into Emerson Hall in the midst of a lecture by Talcott Parsons about the nature of the social system, and rushed to the podium yelling, I have horrible news. President Kennedy has been shot in Dallas,” he was met with outrage and skepticism. Barry Wellman, now a sociologist at the University of Tornoto remembers blurting out: You’re just doing another experiment on us.

And what about Redd Foxx? Scarcely an episode of the 1970s TV series Sanford and Son went by without his character, Fred Sanford, clutching his chest and crowing to his long-suffering son, Lamont, “Oh! It’s the big one; Elizabeth [Fred’s deceased wife], I’m coming to join you, honey!”

Years later (1991), when Mr. Foxx collapsed at a rehearsal on the set of his new CBS television series, The Royal Family, his costar, Della Reese, and much of the cast at first suspected that he was treating them to his signature routine. But they soon realized the truth: Mr. Foxx was down for the count at age 68.

Trouble in the Peaceable Kingdom

Several months ago, through reliable sources, I learned of two amicable ventures between species. The first involved a skunk cavorting with cats after dark in the Holy Cross College neighborhood of Worcester, Massachusetts. The second, revealed to a friend by a park ranger at Yellowstone, paired a fox and a badger [shades of Beatrix Potter], who on opposite sides of a slope drove moles into the middle toward an ignominious fate.

I’d forgotten those revelations until, in a doctor’s waiting room last week, I stumbled upon Unlikely Friendships (Workman Publishing), by Jennifer Holland, a well-meaning senior nature writer at National Geographic. The book collects color photographs of  47 unlikely interspecies dyads—a gorilla and a kitten, a sled dog and a polar bear, a cat and a rat—you get the idea.  Friendships even manages a few ménages a trois—including the extreme turn-on of a rhino, a warthog, and a hyena. (Visit this link for the full line-up of pairings and titillating photos.)

At first, these pairings proved beguiling. But in a Darwinian moment I asked,  Are  such longings for a “peaceable kingdom”  in our best interest? Who are we kidding  by celebrating liaisons between species—many of them natural-born predators—that have evolved as separate but not equal? It's no mystery who's in the fool's cap--it's Homo sapiens, of course.

As usual, Grandville got it right.

Our failure to respect interspecies boundaries (excepting, of course, co-evolved, domesticated ménages) can lead to mayhem—with humans frequently getting the worst of it. Recall the disfiguring 2009 attack in a Connecticut household by Travis the Chimp, who decided to show his owner who was boss. Or Timothy Treadwell, a.k.a., Grizzly Man, whose overconfidence with ursines in the Alaskan wilderness got him and his female companion killed back in 2003.

The Wig & Pen jury, then,  is in:  Think thrice before allowing aesthetic delight, seductive cuteness, or aspirations for a world-peaceable kingdom to erode hard-earned interspecies boundaries. They offer a modus vivendi that is usually a better deal for all. In the very least, then, Jennifer Holland’s book should sport the warning label, Don’t try this at home or, for that matter, on the road!

The W&P Jury Is in.