Why is it that
1- humans think they are at the top of the evolutionary ladder?
2- humans think they are better than everything and everyone?
3- humans think that it’s best to be humans?
I beg to differ. Only humans suffer from such things as “bipolar”, “schizophrenia”, etc. Going down the evolutionary ladder one notch- apes, chimps, monkeys- they can exhibit things like fear and depression too if they’ve been abused. Some rock back and forth, just like humans do in solitary confinement, or in psych wards. Go down one more notch to dogs. Lots of dogs get put down every year because the ones who’ve been abused act out violently. Dogs and cats can also get depression (lots of studies on that, you can google it).
But what about a tree? Let’s go with the mainstream assumption that trees do not have consciousness. Well, every day the sun is shining, sometimes there’s rain, and sometimes some random dog pees on you, but hey. You’re a tree. You don’t get depression. You don’t wake up every day wanting to die or questioning your existence. Sounds like being a tree would be great!
tree > humans
(or pick any other organism- flower, bee, bird, ant, etc)
5 comments
I’d love to be a rare exotic bird, I could fly in the sky all day, never worrying about money, bills, cars, I could just fly high in the sky and enjoy my life. And hey, if I die whatever.
Yes, when I was a kid, I’d always wished I could turn into a bird instead, and fly far and away from humans. Some bird that has big wings and can fly far and fast.
Hmm. Well, I’m all for being humble, but the reason we generally consider ourselves at the top of the evolutionary chain is because we undeniably are, at least in terms of intellectual capacity and ingenuity, and the ability to manipulate our environment in our favor. This allows us to put systems into place that result in high productivity, which in turn allows most humans these days to individually seek pleasure, contentment, and fulfillment rather than simple survival.
Not too bad a deal in my opinion, compared to being a bug buzzing around for a while, getting caught in a web, paralyzed and spun and getting your insides sucked out until death, haha.
I suppose it just comes down to a balance of possibility and lack of anxiety/thought. Other animals don’t get all of the possibilities that we do, but they also don’t get most of the stress and responsibility, and don’t have to contemplate the harsh truths of the world. Of course there is a certain appeal to having no sophisticated worries. Ignorance can be blissful.
Mental illness is the price we pay for superior intelligence. With complexity come problems. One way of looking at it is … we think we’re solving problems by constantly thinking about stupid shit when we’re really only creating more problems by thinking. To give you an analogy, look at machines/computers … why do some people still opt to do things on paper as opposed to on a computer ? Because, while the computer can do more, it can also fuck up a lot more (maintenance/malware for instance).
Animals, on the other hand, spend more time just *being*, not thinking. That is why their lives are far simpler and they seem to enjoy life much more than humans. Want proof ? Just look at a dog, and it stars wagging its tail, ready to celebrate life at the slightest excuse.
Simplicity is the reason that animals enjoy life way more than we do. Eckhart Tolle speaks about this subject in depth.
We are not necessarily lower on the evo ladder, we are still on top, but how we use our intelligence is really the problem. With power comes responsibility. With complexity come problems.
Good post, _darkness !
We’re top of the food chain (pretty much what TheRiver wrote).
In the other hand, we are wrecking the environment we depend on to survive and possibly thrive.
We are so conceited. Whenever someone talks about Man being the master or whatever else, or animals being simple or atupid, I want to punch them for a) not realising we ARE animals, and b) managing to combine ignorance and arrogance in one small brain.