It is about the littlest things

Ah yes, we all breath. The will to survive is strong in all living creatures. You may not "wish" to suppress (sic) others, but if vital resources become scarce, you will do frightful things for food, water and even shelter. Actually, the more common view probably is the unrealistic notion that one will blithly choose to sacrifice themselves rather than struggle for a morsel of food, a drop of water, or one more frantic breath of air. Faced with the reality, most will steal, betray, or whatever it takes to survive. Ask the survivors of the Death Camps what good, devout humans are capable of when survival is at issue.

You don't have to be ashamed to be human. We are just as capable of rising above those animal instincts I just spoke of as not. Those who do choose sacrifice, or to incur great personal risk we call heros, and we honor them. We are capable of visualizing a future that is better than our present. Alone of all the sentient beings on the planet, we can control our environment to some extent. We can learn from the past, and develope means to mitigate problems. We can defeat many diseases. Our species can travel great distances in little time, and communicate at the speed of light. We have stepped off the planet and are even now acquiring knowledge about distant stars.

You say that "humanity is not something we are a part of", then you are a either a fool or a monster. We are a part of humanity. You can not just resign from the human race, because you are what you are. You can not be a dog, nor a horse, nor a song-bird no matter how you try. If you try to divorce yourself what will result is a twisted sideshow freak.

I very much agree with Asherman here. We are not gods in the universe, we are simply another species of organism...there is no right and wrong or should, our responses in situations are as natural as the responses of any other organism. You can choose how to live your own life, but don't be surprised at how other people choose to live their lives.

Re: It is about the littlest things


This becomes a tough one, depending on where we draw the line. Extending "suppressing others" just a bit into the animal kingdom...what about eating meat? Gain a hamburger by suppressing and killing a cow.

Talk about "Its the Littlest Things": Some people take the avoidance of suppression of others to the extreme. Some of the Jains wear cloth masks so as to not accidentally breathe in and kill bugs or microscopic organisms. Yet try as they might, even these folks most likely unwittingly cause the death of other organisms.

Part of existence in this universe appears to involve a strange paradox. In order to exist, we must consume other living things (even if they're just plants). Try as we might, we are destroyers. We have been issued some immutable rules: consume other living things, or die.

I find that Odd.

I applaud Hinduism, Buddhism, and other religions that strive to help humans find ways to reduce suffering in this existence.

Still, the fly that was accidentally killed on my windshield alarms me from time to time. It appears that part of the price we pay to exist is to be destroyers, like it or not.

And on another level, we specifically are mammals. Social Darwinism. The strong survive and win, the weak lose and crumble. The strong usually suppress others to win. We have more in common with the mammal world than we care to admit. The male who is a "dominant winner" in society will have his choice of a veritable group of females, much like...elk or walruses. Women are often attracted to the tall, dominant mammal in the group. Attractive female human mammals will have their choice of young bucks who fight one another and bring her nice shiny things to win her attention. Yes many women & men are apparently immune to this mammalian stuff and some strides have been made, but in my experience, it holds true often enough to note.

But I digress. What truly interests me is that even if we rise above all that mammal stuff, we're still left with: we must consume and kill other things or die.

Am I the only person that finds this a to be a bit of a strange setup?

What kind of bizarre god would devise a setup where living beings must consume other living beings to survive?

I'm aware of the vegetarian argument and I agree its a big step in the right direction.

But still we're left with living beings consuming other living beings to survive. And we're right in this food chain. We are given this immutable rule: Kill to live. Thats it. There's no way around it.