Hearts On Fire - Cut Copy
lyrics here
Awesome male + cute dog = collective “awww” around the world.
You will find that many girls, when asked what qualities they find attractive in a mate, will respond with ‘kindness to animals’. This is not because girls are naïve, fantastical beings who believe in world peace and fluffy kittens, but because the way in which a human treats an animal offers sight into ‘the abyssal limit of the human: the inhuman or the ahuman, the ends of man…the border crossing from which vantage man dares to announce himself…calling himself by the name that he believes he gives himself.” (Derrida 26) If anything, it is the best indicator of the compassion and sympathy within others, for the way in which a human treats an animal is an example of the adage "If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."
Lord of the Flies shows the depravity that can overcome the ‘human spirit’
Humans put themselves on such a high pedestal; we believe that our capacity for intelligence and emotions far exceeds those of animals, yet we turn a blind eye to the things that make us depraved and sick. We forget that as humans we are still capable of rape, torture, and murder. While the thought processes that go into making decisions of whether or not to act on these urges is attributed to humans, I believe that a decision to commit any of the three examples listed above lowers the human and makes them “no better than a brute” (X35), a “BEAST” (X35). We also forget the emotions such as jealousy, greed, pride, and hatred, that when acted upon, can really make us inhuman. As the Cheshire cat says, “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” (Derrida 24)
So perhaps what makes us “human”, what we define as “one of the ‘properties’ of man” (Derrida 22) is not our ability to think, but our ability to feel and to make a choice regarding that feeling. This, I believe, is what allows us to give ourselves the title of “being humane” (X37), because it is within us to act with “civility, courtesy, politeness, good behavior; KINDNESS, [and] obligingness.” (X37) When we are faced with someone in pain, we feel sympathy for them and “a desire to relieve it” (X41), but what truly makes the human being amazing is its ability to act on that feeling.
Baby chicks, not nuggets.
We then forget the feeling that is shared with the most fervor between humans and animals: love. For those who argue that a mother bear protects its cubs because it is hereditary, that the it simply has instincts to protect it’s genes, and that these actions are masked by the feeling of love, I say that the same argument could be made for humans, that any of our feelings are simply because they are “programmed” (Dick 59) into our genes, thereby making us no more than androids. As Bentham states, “the question is not, Can they reason? Nor, Can they talk?” (Bentham 47). We should not be asking questions about animals, but about ourselves. Do we have the capacity for compassion? Can we make rational decisions? The answer is yes, and because it is so, because humans are able to resist temptations and ignorance with wisdom and gather within a “community of feeling” (X43), then it is our RESPONSIBILITY, our DUTY, to relieve “the suffering or distress of another” (X41).
lyrics here
Awesome male + cute dog = collective “awww” around the world.You will find that many girls, when asked what qualities they find attractive in a mate, will respond with ‘kindness to animals’. This is not because girls are naïve, fantastical beings who believe in world peace and fluffy kittens, but because the way in which a human treats an animal offers sight into ‘the abyssal limit of the human: the inhuman or the ahuman, the ends of man…the border crossing from which vantage man dares to announce himself…calling himself by the name that he believes he gives himself.” (Derrida 26) If anything, it is the best indicator of the compassion and sympathy within others, for the way in which a human treats an animal is an example of the adage "If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."
Lord of the Flies shows the depravity that can overcome the ‘human spirit’Humans put themselves on such a high pedestal; we believe that our capacity for intelligence and emotions far exceeds those of animals, yet we turn a blind eye to the things that make us depraved and sick. We forget that as humans we are still capable of rape, torture, and murder. While the thought processes that go into making decisions of whether or not to act on these urges is attributed to humans, I believe that a decision to commit any of the three examples listed above lowers the human and makes them “no better than a brute” (X35), a “BEAST” (X35). We also forget the emotions such as jealousy, greed, pride, and hatred, that when acted upon, can really make us inhuman. As the Cheshire cat says, “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” (Derrida 24)
So perhaps what makes us “human”, what we define as “one of the ‘properties’ of man” (Derrida 22) is not our ability to think, but our ability to feel and to make a choice regarding that feeling. This, I believe, is what allows us to give ourselves the title of “being humane” (X37), because it is within us to act with “civility, courtesy, politeness, good behavior; KINDNESS, [and] obligingness.” (X37) When we are faced with someone in pain, we feel sympathy for them and “a desire to relieve it” (X41), but what truly makes the human being amazing is its ability to act on that feeling.
Baby chicks, not nuggets.We then forget the feeling that is shared with the most fervor between humans and animals: love. For those who argue that a mother bear protects its cubs because it is hereditary, that the it simply has instincts to protect it’s genes, and that these actions are masked by the feeling of love, I say that the same argument could be made for humans, that any of our feelings are simply because they are “programmed” (Dick 59) into our genes, thereby making us no more than androids. As Bentham states, “the question is not, Can they reason? Nor, Can they talk?” (Bentham 47). We should not be asking questions about animals, but about ourselves. Do we have the capacity for compassion? Can we make rational decisions? The answer is yes, and because it is so, because humans are able to resist temptations and ignorance with wisdom and gather within a “community of feeling” (X43), then it is our RESPONSIBILITY, our DUTY, to relieve “the suffering or distress of another” (X41).
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