thou shalt not node (545 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 0.66 on 9 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by <Art> (View user info) at 2008-07-12 20:51:49 EDT
Everyone is curious. When you're young, and seeing everything for the first time, this curiosity buys you experience. One of the first things we do is compare and contrast. We see things as similar to and different from that which we all know best; ourselves.
Consider your first trip to a zoo, meeting all of the animals you've seen in books and cartoons, baking pies and going on family vacations, reduced to flinging shit at each other and licking their balls. Any child, whether aware of their competence or not, will begin to ask questions, some seemingly validated by our adult minds, and others so far out there you couldn't see them with binoculars.
Animals don't talk, go to school, or live in houses. Isn't life a bitch? We eventually accept it, and as we yank their tails and perform random acts of psychological warfare coupled with physical violence, appreciate animals for what they are; peers that can't complain or tell on you for implementing your sadistic plans.
Personification was never in my vocabulary when I was young, which is a real shame, because as a child reality revolves around approximately six to eight hours of cartoons a day. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.
I remember killing ants on my old porch with a hammer on hot summer days, that was, until I saw "Honey I Shrunk the Kids". You know the part I'm talking about. After the kids are shrunk in their own yard they encounter a scorpion, and would've been killed, had it not been for an ant that protected them and was killed in the process, reducing the entire audience to tears. It's really easy to forget it's a fucking ANT. Anyway, after seeing that scene I didn't kill a single ant for at least two weeks.
When we impose human qualities on animals, whether it's giving ants the ability to love, or sending a family of bears on a fishing trip, we give kids the idea that there may be more substance behind these simple creatures than there really is. Is that a good thing?
For the curious and naturally destructive nature of most humans, I could see this early empathy resulting in a common respect for other creatures. When you're a child skyscraping over a world of spider webs and anthills it's easy to feel a destructive surge of power that you may not even be completely aware of, something akin to what god must feel every time he steps on one of us.
On the other hand, ants are pests. A lot of bugs are pests. Even some mammals, like squirrels, raccoons, and skunks should be naturally avoided, but rather than question an approaching rabid squirrel, most kids would try to feed it an acorn, and pet it, and perhaps develop a lasting bond with a new best friend. Kids are stupid, and that's why they get bitten and end up with rabies.
As far as my understanding goes, there is a Buddhist principle that sanctions all life as precious; this basically entails that humans shouldn't kill any organic being, whether it be an elephant or a grasshopper. Some people don't need a philosophical doctrine to tell them that killing is bad, but as for rest of us, we tend to pick and choose as we grow. Puppies and kittens are to be loved. Squirrels are to be tolerated with a watchful eye or picked off by your dog, and there are many more that are either to be (A) avoided or (B) killed, depending on ones cavalier spirit.
So what about you? Do you go out of your way not to kill anything? Maybe you have a mental list you unconsciously abide by, or a trunk full of high school girls.
Who am I to judge?
User Reviews
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2008-07-16 05:03:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
"I remember killing ants on my old porch with a hammer on hot summer days"
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I like how you sound like a dangerous sociopath.
Submitted by billrhine (user info) at 2008-07-14 20:12:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
belch.
Submitted by AshyLarry (user info) at 2008-07-14 16:40:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Kids are stupid, and that's why they get bitten and end up with rabies.
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That should be on a tshirt.
Submitted by icarus1987 (user info) at 2008-07-14 14:57:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
In junior year of college I had this lit proff who had a love affair with words like 'cardamon' and 'turgid', and she employed them in her writing as often as humanly possible. As a direct result... well, ever been to an old lady's house, maybe an aunt's, and had to use the toilet? And even though the room wasn't cleaned terribly often, and there's a yellow, Australia-shaped rim around the drain, it still smells like the five or six baskets of potpouri she's put out?
That was the way she wrote. And this comes across about the same. You have to stop straining to use pretty words and just write the way you speak.
Unless of course this IS the way you speak, owing to the fact that you're a pompous douchebag and all.
In which case write the way someone ELSE speaks.
Submitted by F.J.Bell (user info) at 2008-07-14 12:00:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Bart: What religion are you?
Homer: You know, the one with all the well-meaning rules that don't
work out in real life, uh, Christianity.
Homerpalooza
Submitted by i_can_get_you_a_toe (user info) at 2008-07-13 18:09:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
a couple of nights ago my flatmates cat bought a rat into the house. It was still alive so my flatmate thought he'd make friends with it.
Then the rat bit him and he crushed it to death.
Submitted by Ltap (user info) at 2008-07-13 09:04:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
"Maybe you have a mental list you unconsciously abide by, or a trunk full of high school girls."
I'd prefer the latter.
Also, I've never had any problem with killing anything - when I caught a mouse that was eating my food, I bashed its head in with the bottom of a water bottle. People see me as coldhearted, but it was either my food or that mouse.
It's funny how principles about how "life is precious" are abided by during good times, but when there's famine and starvation it's thrown to the wind and everyone eats anything that moves. Just shows where reality lies.
Submitted by Chroniclysm (user info) at 2008-07-12 23:23:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I hope the animal kingdom eliminates us.
But the smart money is probably on the Protists.
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2008-07-12 21:32:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
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