On the 'Take' - part one

1502: 

Edited by CJ Tointon

Three questions:  What is life?

                              What is my role in it?

                              What part do humans (in general) play?

If the answers contain any suggestion of  'human superiority', they may be unsuitable answers for the Age we're in now.

Many of our biggest problems today come from being convinced we humans are special.  We insist we are!  "Just look at all the things we've achieved"!  We seem to be so very different from every other living thing on the planet.  'Advanced' - we call it.  It comes with a sense of superiority, which persuades us that we may take, take, take!  We take because we can and we take because we want things.  It seems that whatever we have, it's never enough, so we need a special 'little helper' - superiority.  This superior-thing 'entitles' us to take more and this reinforces the need for our hierarchy principle - keeping humans on top and the rest below. 

But we've moved from being chief predator to becoming chief jailer.  We keep them captive, whether it's peoples' minds or animals' bodies.  Humans invented the hierarchy principle to ease the guilt and justify theft and abuse.  If you're at the top-end, you can benefit from hierarchy. Sometimes the benefits are great and eventually we get used to having it all and we can't see why it should be any other way. Why change if it only leads to inconvenience?

But 'we've' got trouble on all sorts of fronts.  I say 'we' and I suppose I mean the majority of people.  The majority are in trouble, because what is staring them in the face has been ignored for far too long.  The majority attitude is still strictly laissez-faire. "Why change it?  It's basically alright as it is.  Don't rock the boat".

This predominant view is based upon hierarchy. We're either controlling others or submitting to control.  The 'animal thing' seems to bring all classes and creeds together - in a morbid sort of way.  The majority are on the same wavelength regarding killing animals. The contortions associated with 'trying not to think about it', lead many people away from any deep philosophical musings.  They get to be content with 'the ordinary'.  It's called 'getting on with life'.  Not having to think about anything significant at all.  But if we do, our thoughts might sound like this:

Q.   "How else can I deal with this chronic condition, this glitch of ethics, this 'crime' festering in me?"

A.    "To survive, I've got to bundle it all into one basket.  Whatever I feel about 'all this', I  have to stay quiet.  Avoid talking about it.   And certainly avoid any talk of taking".

Taking is the problem here.

"But I don't want to change the system. It works, and it works for me!  If it ain't broke, don't fix it. 'Taking' suits me well. It brings me many material things.  Trendy things. I just have to be cool about it".

Well, in fact, we have to be cold about it. This matter of 'taking' isn't a matter of seeking permission, as in "may I take?", nor is it a statement of uncertainty as in "I might take".  When we humans take, we take with a vengeance. We don't ask permission.  And when we take, there's no uncertainty.  The taking is done almost unselfconsciously.  Entitlement, too, is assumed almost unselfconsciously.  Because this is the way we feel - superior - we feel entitled to take. We think of ourselves as kingpins.  We regard ourselves as being indisputably 'great' and because history reminds us that 'The Great always Take,' we ordinary people emulate The Great.  We (indomitable humans that we are) take anything of value, anything that's unguarded.