smokingboot (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
smokingboot) wrote2006-04-21 10:18 am
smokingboot) wrote2006-04-21 10:18 am
Serious seriousity
I am still wound up after yesterday, mainly kicking myself; typical of me to moan about animal testing and add a long quote from Blake rather than anything actually helpful. Here is something more useful:
http://www.spiked-online.com/articles/0000000CADCA.htm
For those who wonder how I feel about the animal liberation groups who have terrorised people, I detest them. I hate bullies, but I must be honest, I loathe cowards too. The law is supposed to protect us from having to be cowards. It must do its work and then, so must we.
And that should be enough.
Sometimes I look up at the sky and wonder about humans and humanity; see, it's all about us isn't it? Everything has to have a human face, and the closer it is to looking like the person in the mirror, the more important it is. If souls exist at all, they can only exist in us (I have forgotten which Christian luminary declared that animals don't have souls)
This view, born of Xstian hatred of matter and the world herein, lived on into the mechanistic age. Much was discarded after the death of God, but the disdain for other species and all forms of nature unconquered remained. Trained in the belief in less worth, in soullessness and usefulness without respect, men became abusers, animals became tools.
Consider the anti-Jewish propaganda escalating from calling Jews liars and poisoners to films comparing them to rats. Remove their humanity, make them animals. Well, in and of itself, this should always have got a massive 'How fucking dare you?' On another level, one reply could have been 'These are not rats and even if you could somehow make this lie true, they would still be my equals and my kin.' But for that level of empathy with all beings we would need to be in the presence of Avalokiteshvara the Tibetan buddhist embodiment of compassion.
The abuse of the planet, the abuse of other living things does not stop at the edge of humanity, like a flood that stops at the doorsteps of a house. When cruelty becomes acceptable, it spreads to contain any being who is Not Like Us. Our compassion becomes like a fish eye lens;
On the periphery are things that can make their pain known to us.
Closer to the centre of our focus are creatures that are cute and make us say Aww, maybe even mimic us.
A little closer perhaps are those creatures who stand on two legs and have minds like ours, but have different skin tone to ours.
Closer perhaps are those who have the brain/two leg/right skin combination but a different cultural background.
Closer perhaps, though this is very questionable and perhaps needs to be kept nearer the edge are those who have the right two leg/brain/skin/cultural background but different genitalia.
At the centre, clearly seen, precious forever is the reflection of the self; the one whose desires must be fulfilled, the one who must be preserved at all cost.
Evolution indeed.
I believe in souls but I don't believe that every chimp descendent is imbued with one. And I seriously do not see why the face of the divine must be human. For all I know, if God/Goddess exists at all, maybe s/he/it likes to take the shape of a giant banana dangling out in Space; or a very small banana hiding in a tree on the Gilbert isles. It would make a damn sight more sense than a lot of the stuff I hear now.
And if there is no god, no soul, no anything, compassion does not become less important but more so, because this is all we have; and without it we really are creating Blake's tiny little chambers of smiling apes.
Right, enough already, I have poured out enough strange stuff from my head. My next post will be a meme or a dream or something to make me laugh.
http://www.spiked-online.com/articles/0000000CADCA.htm
For those who wonder how I feel about the animal liberation groups who have terrorised people, I detest them. I hate bullies, but I must be honest, I loathe cowards too. The law is supposed to protect us from having to be cowards. It must do its work and then, so must we.
And that should be enough.
Sometimes I look up at the sky and wonder about humans and humanity; see, it's all about us isn't it? Everything has to have a human face, and the closer it is to looking like the person in the mirror, the more important it is. If souls exist at all, they can only exist in us (I have forgotten which Christian luminary declared that animals don't have souls)
This view, born of Xstian hatred of matter and the world herein, lived on into the mechanistic age. Much was discarded after the death of God, but the disdain for other species and all forms of nature unconquered remained. Trained in the belief in less worth, in soullessness and usefulness without respect, men became abusers, animals became tools.
Consider the anti-Jewish propaganda escalating from calling Jews liars and poisoners to films comparing them to rats. Remove their humanity, make them animals. Well, in and of itself, this should always have got a massive 'How fucking dare you?' On another level, one reply could have been 'These are not rats and even if you could somehow make this lie true, they would still be my equals and my kin.' But for that level of empathy with all beings we would need to be in the presence of Avalokiteshvara the Tibetan buddhist embodiment of compassion.
The abuse of the planet, the abuse of other living things does not stop at the edge of humanity, like a flood that stops at the doorsteps of a house. When cruelty becomes acceptable, it spreads to contain any being who is Not Like Us. Our compassion becomes like a fish eye lens;
On the periphery are things that can make their pain known to us.
Closer to the centre of our focus are creatures that are cute and make us say Aww, maybe even mimic us.
A little closer perhaps are those creatures who stand on two legs and have minds like ours, but have different skin tone to ours.
Closer perhaps are those who have the brain/two leg/right skin combination but a different cultural background.
Closer perhaps, though this is very questionable and perhaps needs to be kept nearer the edge are those who have the right two leg/brain/skin/cultural background but different genitalia.
At the centre, clearly seen, precious forever is the reflection of the self; the one whose desires must be fulfilled, the one who must be preserved at all cost.
Evolution indeed.
I believe in souls but I don't believe that every chimp descendent is imbued with one. And I seriously do not see why the face of the divine must be human. For all I know, if God/Goddess exists at all, maybe s/he/it likes to take the shape of a giant banana dangling out in Space; or a very small banana hiding in a tree on the Gilbert isles. It would make a damn sight more sense than a lot of the stuff I hear now.
And if there is no god, no soul, no anything, compassion does not become less important but more so, because this is all we have; and without it we really are creating Blake's tiny little chambers of smiling apes.
Right, enough already, I have poured out enough strange stuff from my head. My next post will be a meme or a dream or something to make me laugh.
no subject
no subject
Re my earlier post, in Britain we have a problem with certain animal rights activist groups who have taken to singling out workers in animal research and threatening them/digging up the bodies of their dead relatives/kidnapping them and branding them/representing them as paedophiles.
This is of course, disgusting, and they are clearly mad. But people are getting their anger with these groups, and the underlying issue confused.
Somehow this has become, not about animal experiments, but about an anonymous petition pro well regulated research using animals. And it's all about how shocking it is and how scared we are of these awful nasty people, and no-one is actually looking at the animals. How did this get to be about us again?
You are very right about sentimentality getting in the way.
no subject
no subject
*whispers big secret*
I want people as individuals to speak out, be happy, do their own thing, be unashamed to be who they are.
But en masse, I sometimes think I don't actually like them very much:-(
Oh well. Here's to the weekend!
no subject
no subject
I know next to nothing about this sort of thing, but isn't this true of all animals? Don't dogs, say, divide the world into dogs and not-dogs; Sharks into sharks and not-sharks; with sub-groupings for things that I hunt, things that hunt me etc?
I'm not saying that makes it right, but I don't see how it can be attributed to Christian teachings. That behaviour seems to me to be the standard for the animal world. And possibly plants to if it turns out they're sentient: a world of carrots and not-carrots. *grin*
no subject
there was a strong belief that the fall of Humanity in Eden was compounded by a parallel fall in nature, a degradation of matter, a dirtiness in it; Certainly the christianity of Byzantium would be considered very ascetic by todays standards.
These were teachings where despisal of the world was seen as going hand in hand with elevation of spirit, and they did permeate common Xstian lore. I am aware that I should now add sources, but I hope you will forgive me being slack, I'm a bit put upon this morning... it is a recurring theme and not hard to find in Christian teaching. But to balance the scales, of course there are great examples of Christian kindness to animals like Francis of Assisi, and St Jerome, who, despite loathing women and blistering the ears of rival bishops, was very kind to seals.
Re animal instincts, we don't really know what dogs and sharks see, we presume we are the ones with the most complete sense of the big picture; as such, we're the ones with the responsibility; we only want to be animals when we are predators, top of the food chain. When someone else preys on us, we want a protector, and that is a distinctly non-natural requirement. So are we animals or not?
Behold!
http://www.buzzle.com/img/articleImages/71029-5.jpg
Re: Behold!
*bows down and worships*