i love animals!!
2003-01-06 - 1:11 p.m.
OK, evidently I am the only one among my vast circle of friends that gets incredibly pissed off at the arrogance of humanity for assuming animals are just stupid. LFM has had this discussion, and not one person has bothered to join in. Not one person has bothered to respond to my thoughts in this diary (not like that's a change).
COME ON PEOPLE!!! Are you really so threatened by the ideas that animals can think, and can do so on a fairly complex level? Are you really so threatened by the idea that a large part of the love and familial feeling you have for your family is instinctual? It doesn't make it your love any less real to admit that it is hardwired into most of us, and denying that fact sure as hell doesn't make it any less true.
I really fail to understand the reluctance I'm sensing among people to discuss this issue. If you disagree with me, tell me and tell me why (as LFM has done ably, in his defense). If you agree with what I'm saying, a little support would be gratifying.
My premise is the following: Animals, especially higher primates, are capable of significantly complex cognitive thinking and of making moral choices (choices that have nothing to do with immediate or short-term survival). People have this ability too--because a large large large part of this is instinctual. Our close connection to family, our desire for a relationship wtih our mate, our sense of fair--all instinct. Refined, surely. But let's not ignore the roots.
To wit--there's not a whole hell of a lot of difference between human and animal--it's a sliding scale, not a chasm of separation.
Thoughts are welcome. And if anyone uses the phrase "descended from monkeys" or any variant thereof, you loose the game and must immediately proceed back to Evolution 101.
�
Die Entfuehrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction From
the Seraglio).
Which Mozart Opera Does Your Life Most Resemble?
brought to you by Quizilla
