I often wonder how much distress and pain goes on in the world at any given time. Incalculable. Some of you will know by my posts I have an affinity with any creature big or small, whether it be a half squashed snail in distress, a fly in the web or more important some African kid with a terminal tumour in her brain. If speech was universal amongst other animals then human perception would be very different. Hell I even pulled into a side street to let a fly off the windscreen today ....Hi Mothy. I would let the fly off my windshield too .... but only so that some spider might have it for dinner. If I find spiders in my home, I catch and release them outside. If a bird gets them, then my work is done. Not hindering a spider's or bird's food supply is good. I would no more attempt to prevent a lion from catching a gazelle as I would prevent a spider from catching a fly. But I wouldn't gratuitously kill (even a a nasty) fly or spider. Nor would I kill a gazelle, unless there wasn't enough alternative food supply. The lion has no choice; the spider has no choice. But I do. If there was not enough plant protein to sustain me, I would kill that gazelle too as I would have (if I had), no other viable choice. The suffering in our world is incalculable and sometimes pain is a necessary part of life. But most of the suffering on this little planet is unneccessary and , IMO, a result of ignorance.
Your comment about language is interesting. Animals do not have language and human babies also don't have language. For a long period, doctors would turn a baby upside down by its feet and hit the poor thing! because they had the mistaken belief that this was the way to get babies to breath when they were first born. One wonders who the "dolt" was that first decided such a thing was necessary, especially since babies had been coming into being on a regular basis for centuries and the era of hitting newborns was relatively short lived .... a fad. Thankfully we don't do that anymore but the idea of hitting a newborn came along with the belief that newborns, not having language, must also not feel pain. This is still a widely held belief because even though we no longer hit babies, we still circumsize newborn boys as if they can't feel it. And they are just newborns! What a way to introduce a person to the world!
Two of my pet cats were recently poisoned to death. Acute renal failure by possible antifreeze. Hidie and Tigs. Yes they caused distress amongst the mice and bird kingdom in their short life but they didn't have the ability to empathise like us humans can, and yes I fed them meat. Macdonalds had their busiest weekend in their history. Cats are carnivores and must eat meat as they have no choice. We can empathize and we do have choice and we do have highly evolved brains and the ability to discern. Yet our ability to discern has been overshadowed by ideas and beliefs which really have no place in the here and now.
I just wonder whether I have got it wrong in my overall perception and empathy of reality or whether the majority are right. Accept certain animals must perish for our stomachs or believe life is a miracle and all life be sacred. I don't think you have it wrong Mothy. There's not really a dichotomy here. Certain animals must perish. It's true. There is already something sacred in that fact alone. Some animals must also perish for "our" stomachs, and that has to be okay sometimes because how else could it be? But life is sacred and is itself a miracle. Being a human is a miracle and having such evolved brains is a miracle, and it also gives us the power of discernment. We have no choice but to use it.
Then comes the question why did God create spiders to make the web thet will catch the fly. Was Ghandi greater then God when he says all countries can be judged by the way they treat their animals. I'm not sure what you (or anyone) mean when you speak of "God". The spider exists because it does. It has its own intelligence - it spins incredible webs in order to have food and to propogate. Maybe the fly knows this on some level. I don't thing Ghandi was greater than God or even believed in God. I think Ghandi was very aware of the sanctity of all life (which is probably why he didin't eat animals and also foughT for the rights of the colonized, subjugated, oppressed Indian), and I also see that people's ignorance can be "judged" by the way s/he treats animals. A country is made up of individuals. Society isn't out there somewhere .... but it is HERE, with you and me and every individual.
A story I particularly like about Ghandi was when a woman took her child to see him concerning he was eating too much salt, Ghandi told the woman to bring the child back in three weeks. Three weeks came and the woman duly brought the child back and asked why. Ghandi says that he himself had been eating too much salt and so he would not be guilty of hypocrisy he abstained from salt for the three weeks and told the child not to eat so much salt.
In memory of my pets and other animals that have got a raw deal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU3Xeo0k ... 4B26C0327E
God bless those in distress, those that inadvertantly cause distress and psychopaths that know no different.Here, here! But many are considered sane who hold religious beliefs or beliefs about nationhood, or are stuck in some kind of ideology, some of which are obvious but most of which are subtle. Rooting out the subtle beliefs is a bit more challenging than rooting out the more obvious ones. Yet most haven't even begun to root out even the obvious ones. I'm not complaining or judging really ..... just an observation.
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