Human violence

We humans know how to use violence for our own ends, but once violence is released does it then control us? Is this how we lose our power? For instance, we think we are superior to animals, so anything they do is equated with inferior or weak behaviour. And yet they could teach us a thing or two about non-violent interaction, equableness and peaceful co-existence.
Instead we stay violent and continue to exploit animals, and non-violence is sidelined. The pressure of the competitive market ups the ante for the producers, specifically animal farmers, and forces them to be ever more violent, to stay ahead of the game. For both producer and consumer the way animals are being treated is obviously obscene and anyone in their right mind should want ‘out’, but it’s an impossible dream - those of us who want to stop ‘The Violence’ still haven’t resolved our own violence. So, surely, humans can’t liberate animals until we liberate our own violent natures. Until we address that, the whole sorry business will just continue.
The animals: what we do to them is bad enough, but it’s not surprising. The way we treat each other let alone how we treat animals is the reason we shouldn’t be allowed within cooee of animals. Fact is, we aren’t yet in a position to help the animals even if we want to, because we don’t understand the reason why they are as they are. . We don’t dare to see behind the peaceful nature of the animals themselves, because we’re programmed to exploit them. Which means we don’t understand how deeply our violence is embedded in us.
We assume animals don’t think or speak, nor that they’d have anything important to ‘talk’ about if they could. They just graze and doze. But we know well enough that they interact with one another and with great sensitivity. They can become passionate over sex and territory, and also show remarkable wisdom in other ways that humans should (and could) learn from. When animals communicate and fight, what does it amount to? They face up to each other, they make their statement (they don’t usually violate or kill each other) and then back off. Their aim is not to defeat or eliminate, but to lock horns. They don’t ‘do’ gratuitous violence as we do. They usually don’t have to resort to violence to get something or save-face.