I was on facebook earlier and I saw a group about "puppy mills." Over 40,000 people are in this group, calling for an end to the cruelty. Puppy mills are apparently just what they sound like. Factories for puppies. Of course, an idea like this is grounded on cruelty, and the dogs are under terrible conditions and such. Just to put it out there, I'm all for animal rights. In fact, I believe that equality and at least consideration and tolerance are the most important things that this world could have and needs. All these thousands of people are revved up and ready to do something, whatever they can about this problem. I read someone's post that said that if such cruelty were happening to human babies, it would be stopped right away. Hold up now. They talked about the SPCA's commercials being an example of the cruelty and neglect these animals are put through. But aren't these commercials aired in the same time, marketed in the same fashion as the UNICEF commercials for sponsoring starving and neglected children in impoverished countries? I am not condoning cruelty to animals, but how can people be horrified at the plight of these animals, yet seem not to notice that things like this and worse are happening all the time to members of our own species? An object of our fascination seems to hold more value over ourselves. These lost dogs souls and matted fur, while I don't want to downplay this cruelty and the human's lack of rights to do this to these animals, what about the human souls, and mangled flesh? I was about to post something on the group wall to this effect when I had another thought.
What gives us the right to go around destroying everything in our wake? We can leave footprints without leaving a warpath behind us. The overwhelming cruelty in the world, it all stems from humans. We take killing, pain, greed, everything beyond the point of natural order and necessity to where it is simply wrong. There are no words to express the feeling I get when I think about everything. You can only know what I am talking about through experiencing it, and the only word that I can use is just plain wrong. What happened that would make me value the life and the pain of one of my own species over another's? We are all creatures, animals, inhabiting this planet. What makes us better? So lets say that natural selection has evolved us into a species with a higher brain capacity, etc etc. So what? Does this give us the right to commandeer the resources and environment that so many others use? Just because we believe ourselves to be smarter, or superior? Isn't this the same thinking that so many people responsible for the genocide we condemn have used? We gripe about dogs being kept in cramped and filthy environments for the sole purpose of harvesting their offspring. The same is done with fish, but we care less about fish. How did this hierarchy of importance come into being? Do we have the right to put such a thing into place, to decide the fate of other species? Perhaps this race is superior. Perhaps we were meant to be the so called "rulers" of the earth. This still does not excuse our behavior towards the rest of the earth, not only to the animals living in it, but the physical earth we depend on, yet take for granted. It's no wonder that religion was invented, because it is such an easy cop out from all these questions. It's terrible what we're doing to this planet. Its not just destroying what we need in order to live. Our advancements, waste, carelessness all go beyond the natural order in which we kill and destroy only when necessary, only to survive. It sickens me, whenever I think of the earth, I get this image of the lushness and prior natural glory of the earth gradually being paved over, destroyed, built up into a concrete and titanium jungle of a globe.
Even when accepting all the monstrosities we've done to things we consider inferior, how can we do so many cruel things to each other? All the fighting everywhere in the world, if you look at it, really look at it, its all so petty. From getting ticked off at your teacher boss or friend to the raging wars in the Middle East, it all seems so petty when you look at it. Really look at it. We're all so wrapped up in our mindset, we don't ever stop and just look. Whenever I am irked by something in my life, some minor annoyance that many people would let ruin their day, I look at myself from above. I see through myself, but then I begin to see around me. It doesn't take much of a zoom out to see how petty things are, even just within a single community like a school. Often times it feels like our own individual problems are the most important in the world, and no one else can know what you're feeling. But when you think about it, that's not true in the least. Zoom out from your bubble even just to the people around you, or to the people in a building, and everyone feels the same way. Everyone has all these problems. Society trains us to portray this perfect picture of how we wish to be, so each individual feels alone, like they are the only ones who are not this perfect statuette we all long to be, in billboard love, perfect, smiling, and airbrushed. The reality is that everyone feels this way. Its just a matter of looking. I'm not trying to say that people are not important or their feelings aren't. I'm merely saying that none of us are alone. Zoom out and see your house, neighborhood, city, state, country, and perhaps you too will see the world, a globe with its cement virus slowly creeping over its skin, infecting and taking hold. Perhaps I am conceited to think that I myself am thinking more highly than a lot of our own population. But is it so wrong to think this way? It all makes sense, its all logical. Even if you don't understand or misinterpret what I've said here, the ideas are all here, they're all sound. The only problem would be my writing, and the true ineffectiveness of words to convey ideas. How can you make someone see like you do? You can't, you can only hope they gather what you want them to from what you write, paint, or whatever you do to communicate the ultimate ideas.
I am not even necessarily backing any of these specific things; humans may or not be superior, gods may or may not exist, and all of this may or may not have been meant to be. I just think the world would be a much better place if people just stopped and thought about things like these. Why do we do all this stuff that we do? Just stop. Look. That's all I'm asking. Consider these ideas. I'm not even asking for approval or any kind of opinion, just consideration. I truly believe that if one in every hundred people did this, just considered, the world would be a very cliché, but much better place.
