"Lower" Beings

"As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love"

-Pythagorus

I usually have to turn off articles like this, and videos like this, immediately, when I recognize what they are - and the thought of it usually sits on me for the rest of the day and several days after.

They may be fakes, it doesn't matter. I think that they're the extension on kids shooting birds with BB guns or running over squirrels with cars. At what point in our development do we learn that the suffering of something else is entertainment?

Maybe it's a relic of our carnivorous past, and since the size of our prefrontal lobe still isn't large enough in comparison to our adrenal gland. Because gladiator battles and their modern day U.S. equivalent - violent movies, are no doubt descendants on the same vein. And I'm not condemning violent movies or UFC. The difference there is that all participants are willingly subjecting themselves to such treatment. I'm also not saying that given a choice to save a dog or a baby, you should choose the dog. The capacity for suffering has to be taken into account.

It's when another being that has no capacity to give consent is subjected to suffering for our enjoyment that it becomes sick, and barbaric, and warped. And those that haven't yet, need to reprogram themselves to see it as it is - cruelty in the purest sense of the word.

Slaves to Laws

I think that we, as Americans especially (maybe it's true for all of humanity, I don't know), have to be really careful that, in the wake of something that makes us feel insecure or unsafe - like a tragedy - we don't see our mistakes as more than they are, and push too far the other way.

After 9/11 we said, "never again," and then came the patriot act.

Now, after the VATech shooting, some people are looking at creative writing as indicative of potential violence. But if stuff is happening like what's in the link up there, it needs to stop. Good god, if violent writing meant violent behavior the writers of Saw, Fight Club, and Braveheart should be mass murderers - we need a little perspective.