Respecting Life

In our materialist society, life is often disregarded.  We are entrenched in our own lives and care little about the life of anyone else.  This is a path of self destruction.  We should work at regarding all life.

In the recent tsunami tragedy in Japan we have seen over the internet some images of people and animals who became stranded and in need of rescue.  One particular heartbreaking image was of a dog trying to care for another dog.  Even in such touching scenes, I came across comments to the effect of "but its just a dog".  Tonight I heard reports of rescuers who have rescued a dog off a pile floating debris in the Pacific Ocean.  In other similar rescues, I've seen where some have questioned why were money and resources wasted on such a feat.  What is your life worth?  Is it worth going to work, eat, sleep day after day to one day die by any number of known diseases or any of the unknown diseases without a caring about another life form?  A character like Ebenezer Scrooge would think in such a way.  Someone who hoards money and resources for their own comfort would also think in such a way.  Some may think that rescuing an animal when humans are in danger is irresponsible.  This is not the case in rescuing efforts.  In rescuing efforts you rescue what you can when you find it because your racing against time.  There is an old spanish proverb that says a bird in hand is worth more than a thousand flying.  You cannot rescue what you cannot detect.  Why not spend some resources on rescuing life, any life, that is in danger?  Were only going to spend it on something else of lesser importance.


What does it say about us if we disregard life that needs help?  Astronomers, space explorers, and space biology scientists have not found conclusive evidence of life on any other planet than Earth.  There are also extinctions of species documented in our history.  Should we take for granted the life that surrounds us on our fair planet?  If there is life on other planets, of which I am hopeful, then we should consider how unique life on this planet is.  We have conquered the Earth.  We are its masters.  We have responsibility to the planet and all its life.  If they are extinguished we have no one to blame but ourselves.  This is our legacy from the great explorers and the technology innovators.  We can alter the weather, but like toddlers trying to be gentle we crush and bumble around having little control over our weight.  We also have learned to create environments like the International Space Station.  If we disregard life and our other responsibilities we are stupid.  We are stupid because we have let the very thing that allows us to live die.  We must regard life for the very simple reason that it helps our very existence.

Respecting life is more than just respecting life.  We eat an enormous amount of meat, beef in particular.  In a New York Times article, Mark Bittman describes how meat factories use many resources and are detrimental to the environment.  There is also a health concern with the eating of factory breed meat.  The Mayo Clinic's Dr. Martha Grogan notes that grass fed beef is leaner than the corn fed factory meat.  The reason why we have these factory style cattle farms is that they produce a lot of beef compared to traditional farming.  With the concern of cholesterol and fats giving us heart disease, the corn fed beef has a bad effect on human beings.  The reason for the need to that volume of beef is the demand for it from the public.  So the large demand of one food type makes for bad health and bad environment.  This is bad and its our fault.  We have to fix it.  If people stopped eating so much meat dinners and started to incorporate all vegetable meals, then the demand for meat will drop.  Then we could go for the more nutritional beef as a delicacy rather than as a staple.  One way I have been able to make easy vegan dishes is to substitute meat with some beans, it happens to be cheaper too.  Respect for cattle will result in respect for ourselves.  Its about resources and its about priorities.

In view of the bigger picture we really need to change our attitude towards animals and all life on Earth.  We are only flying through this space-time on a rock flying through the universe on an unknown trajectory.  Life, its all we got.  Let's respect it.

Ain't One Of Us

Have you ever looked at a person and found they are not like you?  Discrimination is a big problem in today's world.  People are being discriminated based on sex, race, age, disability, learning ability or a number of other categories.  Why does this occur?  We all do it or think it.  I theorize that the problem is based on our outlook as humans.  The source of discrimination is the attitude people get that says "they ain't one of us".  When people take no group ownership of other people this causes discrimination.  We need to change our outlook of what our community actually includes in this day and age of global economy and global communication.

Its a matter of preserving the group or village.  Humans are community based entities.  We structure our society based on our concept of who we know and how we interact with them, whether it be practical interaction or cognitive empathy.  We naturally consider anyone or anything outside of the community as a potential threat.  We also show a blind eye towards the shortcomings of those in our community.  Therefore we have bias.  One of the first things we do with potential threats is that we demonize them.  We talk among our community and bad talk the potential threats.  Thus, this is where discrimination starts, and it evolves into hate and violence.

Modern man needs to expand his outlook and understand that everybody on the planet is part of his community . He needs to change his mind, from a mindset of living in just a local community to one that matches the structure of a global community working for the same thing.  Humans across the planet are generally working for freedom, economic success, and peaceful life.  We have disputes and wars, but these only stifle our efforts for our posterity.  It takes intelligence to recognize this, but it takes courage to do something about it. What are we really going to leave our sons and daughters with?

We all belong to one big village, Earth.  Look at the stars and count them.  Thus is the old old challenge to people and kids.  If you look at the sky through pictures of many space craft and telescopes eyes, you can see wonders beyond belief.  Super Novas, Gamma Ray Bursts, Nebulas, Super Black Holes are just a few wonders that are vastly greater than our planet.  If you haven't done so you might want to check it out at hubblesite.org.  You get the sense that Earth is an oasis in a desert of blackness and wild energetic stuff.  We are small, yet we are alive.  Earth is our planet and the people on it are our people.  If we are to continue as a society we must embrace this concept.  We need see how useless our petty infighting really is.  We must own all humans, animals, plants on Earth as our community, and as our village.

The realization that our community has expanded over the last 40 years can change our attitude towards others.  Our community is big and beautiful and its name is Earth.  We have global travel with the advent of the Jumbo Jet, and we have global communication with the internet.  We need to get rid of discrimination.  The first step to do that is to include everyone on the planet as part of your community.  This way you can interact with others with empathy.  This does not preclude steps you need to take to protect yourself.  You can empathize and protect yourself at the same time.  Empathy is the way to go.  In the area of relating to others, if you empathize you can engage people in a constructive way.  The time to change is now.


Disclaimer: This post is based on my opinions only.