Philosophy 101, Roxy Stylee
My mother is just so...evolved. She's a person who operates on a higher chakra-level. I'm so rooted at the, well, root level that I can't really see more than glimpses of meaningful things.
I have this theory. Okay, people are born with certain tendencies, human tendencies. We might even call them The Human Condition, with capital letters and all important-soundingness, right? Anyway, we all, or most of us, have these human weaknesses or strengths or whatever they may be. One of the more relevant examples in regard to my mother happens to be the fallacy of our fated "dominion over animals." The Bible speaks of this, and it pisses me off. I'm not as familiar with the New Testament, and I am pretty sure it's a bit less fire-'n'-brimstone. I am quite acquainted with the Old Testament, and pretty much have Genesis memorized. Anyway, dominion. We're kind of born thinking we have dominion over animals (I'm not sure whether this is cultural or whether it's inherent--if anything is indeed inherent, aside from pure instinct. That raises a lot of other, more God-based philosophical issues into which I'm not quite ready to delve). We can shoot them, eat them, pull on our puppy's ears when we're small. All of this is a given. We have omnivore bodies and teeth, although we definitely lean more toward the herbivore side, what with our ape-ish anatomy. So we grow up thinking we can use animals in any way we wish. Not "use" in all bad ways. Use as therapy, as pets, as workers. There are so many ways we use animals that we don't even think of it. They are used in advertising to pull on our heartstrings. Children's shows and candies and toys. Medical testing. Everything. We seem to think that if it doesn't talk, we can do whatever we wish to it, as long as it benefits us somehow--even if it just makes a better product to prevent aging, or satisfies our morbid curiosity.
But I want to argue that these feelings aren't pure. We feel a little squeamish about them. Everyone does, at some point, question hunting for leisure. Or medical testing. All of it. And if we begin to feel tuggings of "something's not quite right," then we should run with it. Maybe not drop whatever we've done and swear off it forever. But we should certainly accept the discomfort and unease--because if we don't, life becomes something too cushy and it eventually evolves into being taken for granted. This is unacceptable. But we should certainly explore these feelings of unease, and take necessary actions. Because I feel that we are born with these conditions, and we must not simply accept them as God's will, or as science's will, or Nature's will. We must realize that we are maybe born imperfect, or be become imperfect on the road to adulthood. If we practice acceptance of our own imperfect souls, then we become jaded and "stuck."
Some people, maybe in other lives, or maybe in this life, acknowledge (whether consciously or not) that there is a "wrongness" in their makeup, and they change. Like my mother, who recognizes that humans can and do dominate animals, but that it is not the way.
I have this theory. Okay, people are born with certain tendencies, human tendencies. We might even call them The Human Condition, with capital letters and all important-soundingness, right? Anyway, we all, or most of us, have these human weaknesses or strengths or whatever they may be. One of the more relevant examples in regard to my mother happens to be the fallacy of our fated "dominion over animals." The Bible speaks of this, and it pisses me off. I'm not as familiar with the New Testament, and I am pretty sure it's a bit less fire-'n'-brimstone. I am quite acquainted with the Old Testament, and pretty much have Genesis memorized. Anyway, dominion. We're kind of born thinking we have dominion over animals (I'm not sure whether this is cultural or whether it's inherent--if anything is indeed inherent, aside from pure instinct. That raises a lot of other, more God-based philosophical issues into which I'm not quite ready to delve). We can shoot them, eat them, pull on our puppy's ears when we're small. All of this is a given. We have omnivore bodies and teeth, although we definitely lean more toward the herbivore side, what with our ape-ish anatomy. So we grow up thinking we can use animals in any way we wish. Not "use" in all bad ways. Use as therapy, as pets, as workers. There are so many ways we use animals that we don't even think of it. They are used in advertising to pull on our heartstrings. Children's shows and candies and toys. Medical testing. Everything. We seem to think that if it doesn't talk, we can do whatever we wish to it, as long as it benefits us somehow--even if it just makes a better product to prevent aging, or satisfies our morbid curiosity.
But I want to argue that these feelings aren't pure. We feel a little squeamish about them. Everyone does, at some point, question hunting for leisure. Or medical testing. All of it. And if we begin to feel tuggings of "something's not quite right," then we should run with it. Maybe not drop whatever we've done and swear off it forever. But we should certainly accept the discomfort and unease--because if we don't, life becomes something too cushy and it eventually evolves into being taken for granted. This is unacceptable. But we should certainly explore these feelings of unease, and take necessary actions. Because I feel that we are born with these conditions, and we must not simply accept them as God's will, or as science's will, or Nature's will. We must realize that we are maybe born imperfect, or be become imperfect on the road to adulthood. If we practice acceptance of our own imperfect souls, then we become jaded and "stuck."
Some people, maybe in other lives, or maybe in this life, acknowledge (whether consciously or not) that there is a "wrongness" in their makeup, and they change. Like my mother, who recognizes that humans can and do dominate animals, but that it is not the way.