1 year, 11 months ago
Who are the real animals?
So I was watching the news the other day and as always seen nothing but death and destruction. I began to think of all the horrible things the human race has done throughout the centuries; genocide, segregation, conspiracy, war....and it just goes on and on. And this made me think of how we sometimes call people who have done wrong by our moral standards animals, or beasts. Is that a true comparison though? Look at animal nature. There is no such thing as war, greed, envy, rape. It seems to me that the true animals are us. Why is it that human nature is so destructive, even self destructive?
Separate topics with commas, or by pressing return. Use the delete or backspace key to edit or remove existing topics.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$2 Answers
I think about this when I am watching most animals in nature, either on television or in my backyard, and I wonder about evolution. Humanity seems to think that because we are at the top of the food chain that we are the apex of evolution, the most evolved species, but in my reality I see many other species that seem to have a lot easier lives with far fewer things to subtract them or distract them from what is really important.. family.
I wonder if the self given divinity humanity has arrogantly bestowed upon itself has anything to do with this possibly ridiculous assumption that we, the dirty savage humans, are the best nature has to offer.
I saw a mountain goat on television the other day.. he lived in the MOST majestically beautiful, crisply clean, magically serene mountain landscape I have ever seen. He seemed to spend his time grazing, looking for a mate, and finding a safe place to sleep.. What a perfectly un-distracted life. Some of the other goats seem to have mates and were just walking around this truly awesome landscape just being a family of sorts.. in the most beautiful place I have ever seen.. again.. in the goat world .. perfection
.... in our world this landscape, family, housing, and food would cost huge huge huge sums of cash and expenditures that would have to be funded with the toils and hardships, lost time and distance form family, and the every day dangers and perils that we the dirty savage humans know as life and how to get more of it.. seems backwards doesn't it?
To the perceived "less evolved" goats I am sure if they had a choice they would pick the simple existence they have over ours in less than a half a second flat.
We seem to think that through evolution and time we will become more "civilized".. when our nature neighbors already are and they are considered less evolved? I do not think we have any more divinity attached to us as a species than any other organism on the planet, I do not think we are more evolved, I do not think we are civilized.
Mostly I hate.. absolutely hate that humanity has separated itself from nature with words like "Unnatural" when we are noting but natural, and words like "man made" when the bees do nothing different.. we both take our given intelligence and our environmental resources and create the life we live... yet what we make is "unnatural" or "man made" like it is better or more significant. Arrogance of species.
All of mans creations are natural as they have been created with intelligence and resources, exactly like the creations of every other animal on the planet.. there is no difference in method of production. We are as much animal as any other species on the planet and it is in my opinion that we are likely far less evolved that we wrongly and arrogantly think.. a couple of hundred thousand years away from civilization.
“I have found the missing link between the higher ape and civilized man: It is we.”
Konrad Lorenz
I wonder if the self given divinity humanity has arrogantly bestowed upon itself has anything to do with this possibly ridiculous assumption that we, the dirty savage humans, are the best nature has to offer.
I saw a mountain goat on television the other day.. he lived in the MOST majestically beautiful, crisply clean, magically serene mountain landscape I have ever seen. He seemed to spend his time grazing, looking for a mate, and finding a safe place to sleep.. What a perfectly un-distracted life. Some of the other goats seem to have mates and were just walking around this truly awesome landscape just being a family of sorts.. in the most beautiful place I have ever seen.. again.. in the goat world .. perfection
.... in our world this landscape, family, housing, and food would cost huge huge huge sums of cash and expenditures that would have to be funded with the toils and hardships, lost time and distance form family, and the every day dangers and perils that we the dirty savage humans know as life and how to get more of it.. seems backwards doesn't it?
To the perceived "less evolved" goats I am sure if they had a choice they would pick the simple existence they have over ours in less than a half a second flat.
We seem to think that through evolution and time we will become more "civilized".. when our nature neighbors already are and they are considered less evolved? I do not think we have any more divinity attached to us as a species than any other organism on the planet, I do not think we are more evolved, I do not think we are civilized.
Mostly I hate.. absolutely hate that humanity has separated itself from nature with words like "Unnatural" when we are noting but natural, and words like "man made" when the bees do nothing different.. we both take our given intelligence and our environmental resources and create the life we live... yet what we make is "unnatural" or "man made" like it is better or more significant. Arrogance of species.
All of mans creations are natural as they have been created with intelligence and resources, exactly like the creations of every other animal on the planet.. there is no difference in method of production. We are as much animal as any other species on the planet and it is in my opinion that we are likely far less evolved that we wrongly and arrogantly think.. a couple of hundred thousand years away from civilization.
“I have found the missing link between the higher ape and civilized man: It is we.”
Konrad Lorenz
source(s):
personal observations and experience
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/i_have_found_the_missing_link_between_the_h...
personal observations and experience
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/i_have_found_the_missing_link_between_the_h...
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
We are all animals. It is a very modern religious idea to say that we are better than animals and that they were put here for our convenience. This is not true, we are all beasts. A dog can smell better than me, a bear is stronger than me, a bird can fly, and I can think. We all have our strengths, intelligence has just turned out to be the trump card.
When we think of the past, it is much easier to think of the mistakes and misfortunes. Humans are not all bad, and a beast is a terrible term to call someone for being "bad". A beast can be a number of things, some good, some bad. Compare a lion with a craving for human blood, to a canine companion, both beasts but different.
If we are looking for a comparison between humans and other species the news is not an accurate portrayal of human kind, they are only recently trying to focus on positive things. It would be the same as watching "worlds wildest animal attacks" as a reference to how animals act. People love to hear about horrible acts and great accidents, its just in our nature I suppose. People are not self destructive but the media in the United States is.
There is war in the animal kingdom, also envy and certainly rape. The Siafu is an ant in Africa that wages war against the world. They will destroy anything that is in the way of their little highway for food, and have even taken down dogs and children. Also the only way a Siafu mates is through rape, the workers hold down the male witch is very large, cut off his wings and hold him captive for his sperm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29kErsFdC5w&feature=PlayList&p=6238806B42C2199F&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=57
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tHLVN-vUcI&feature=related
The males of a pack of wolves envy the alpha male who is the only one that is "allowed" to mate and frequently the lesser males try to mate with the females. The idea of rape is different to different people, some would certainly say dogs have a bad form of consent. Also they dont really have an age of consent witch is rape in the human world. Don't know to much about greed because for the most part they have no possessions, if they do they do not hold close to them. If they had the opportunity for greed I think they would take it. I can't imagine animals wanting to share food with a stranger and if they had a use for material possessions, there would certainly be hoarders.
When we think of the past, it is much easier to think of the mistakes and misfortunes. Humans are not all bad, and a beast is a terrible term to call someone for being "bad". A beast can be a number of things, some good, some bad. Compare a lion with a craving for human blood, to a canine companion, both beasts but different.
If we are looking for a comparison between humans and other species the news is not an accurate portrayal of human kind, they are only recently trying to focus on positive things. It would be the same as watching "worlds wildest animal attacks" as a reference to how animals act. People love to hear about horrible acts and great accidents, its just in our nature I suppose. People are not self destructive but the media in the United States is.
There is war in the animal kingdom, also envy and certainly rape. The Siafu is an ant in Africa that wages war against the world. They will destroy anything that is in the way of their little highway for food, and have even taken down dogs and children. Also the only way a Siafu mates is through rape, the workers hold down the male witch is very large, cut off his wings and hold him captive for his sperm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29kErsFdC5w&feature=PlayList&p=6238806B42C2199F&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=57
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tHLVN-vUcI&feature=related
The males of a pack of wolves envy the alpha male who is the only one that is "allowed" to mate and frequently the lesser males try to mate with the females. The idea of rape is different to different people, some would certainly say dogs have a bad form of consent. Also they dont really have an age of consent witch is rape in the human world. Don't know to much about greed because for the most part they have no possessions, if they do they do not hold close to them. If they had the opportunity for greed I think they would take it. I can't imagine animals wanting to share food with a stranger and if they had a use for material possessions, there would certainly be hoarders.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Ahhhh Ezra Pound my absolute favorite American poet and absolutely the original "outside the box" American thinker to say the least. I'd say that quote applies pretty well here .. "over-complication" (our thinking brains) is all to often seen as a step forward in evolution when it is just as likely that our ability to think is an evolutionary mistake.
"Tenzone" is my favorite poem by Pound
"I beg of you, my friendly critics"
"Do not set about to procure me an audience."
Well stated buddawiggi.
I've always enjoyed this quote, which in its own way pertains I think;
"Man is an over-complicated organism. If he is doomed to extinction he will die out for want of simplicity."
~Ezra Pound~