Part 3 - Nature Creates Necessary Tension

1423:

Edited by CJ Tointon

Nature has had to create necessary tension, in order to test the potential of the human.  To this end, she has recruited willing participants (and this has to be seen with the broadest imagination possible) to cooperate in bringing the bigger picture into focus.   Animals playing a main part in the awakening of human consciousness.

However it might be justified, this stage in the planet's development involves the so-called 'domesticated' animals performing an unenviable yet essential role - to get humans past their sensate-only, brutish, carnivorous stage, to using plant-based foods only!  The eating of animals would need to be habituated first, however, in order to then be seen as redundant.  All the cruelty, enslavement and routine mass murdering done to animals is an essential element in the quickening of this realisation.  Nature's recruitment of certain animals to take on this grim role reflects the scale of transformation that needs to take place in this difficult process.

In a nutshell then, my (admittedly) unusual take on things is all about - sentience.  Seeing it as a trap when not understood and a springboard when it is.  Animals are sentient.  They feel, they can sense and they're aware, which makes the human use of animals so significant (in terms of this current millennial glitch in our evolution) and our abuse of them all the uglier.  Sentience provides all animals with a suitable amount of sensitivity and brain power to allow for their physical survival.  It is an essential part of the predatory nature of this planet, essential to the survival of all moving beings, some of whom may be into eating other moving beings!  But the acquiring of sentience is but one purpose.  It isn't all that humans can develop.  In their awareness, humans become conscious of consciousness itself.  We may be urged towards a greater intelligence, but we must first understand the reason why human intelligence must move on.

Humans should know that their potential has two faces - the possibility of either failure or success.  It must be made clear which route leads to which outcome.  This could take some considerable time and be measured in generations.  Which route is the best one for us to take in life is tantalising.   At first, we might hope to shortcut the deal and arrive at 'success' without making too much effort.  But the next stage of intelligence can't be reached by cheating or bypassing essential lessons.  This is the one big lesson facing us all.  And while humans are learning that important lesson, they are still very much in transition.  They are still juggling their options, still reluctant to give up what they have, still afraid of losing out and still would do anything NOT to be shown to be wrong.   But by making mistakes on a grand collective level (the most notable example of which would be the farming of fellow sentient animals) we learn what we have to do to make a break with what is holding us back. 

Meanwhile, back at the recruiting tent, volunteers sign up for Nature's kamikaze work, essential to bring the human to its senses, to bring that species to a point of decision, where personal ambition gives way to wanting to work for the greater good.  The kamikaze's job is to teach humans that their greatest mistake is the use and inevitable abuse of animals.  Only once this lesson is learned, can humans move on. 
At this point, it occurs to the first 'new humans' that there is something more important than just learning how to survive.  Most of us in the West have never been hungry for more than about half a day.  Not having to fret about hunger has allowed us to contemplate other important matters.  We can see in ourselves an awareness that seems at times boundless and if it does nothing else, it suggests the reason for moving forward.  From living a safe, dull, one-dimensional physical existence, we might go on to see something of broader dimension, encompassing survival, safety, growth, as well as an empathy directed at protecting both oneself and others.  It's rather like a parental role, guiding and nurturing the young.  All creatures guard the child until the child can take on the same parental role for their young. And so it goes, at whatever level the sentient being is at.  The route it chooses is confirmed when things are moving on sustainably and peacefully.  Things are noticeably NOT moving forward when there's violence or destruction or corruption or indeed mistakes. Mistakes are central to the learning process, just as long as one is learning from them ... and moving on.


Back to the recruitment tent.  Nature asks for volunteers - namely animals!  Their qualifications involve an ability to submit to the greater game plan, sustaining humans through their initial stages of limited intelligence and confidence then developing their sense of security.  Eventually a generation of  'pioneers' emerges to introduce an essential revolution of ethical thinking for the next stage in human development - bringing about and then guarding a healthier, brighter world.   The animals who volunteer for this onerous role, who become the main source of humans' strength of body and brain, earn their place in history.  They bring with them the Great Lesson, a selfish cycle, showing that "hurt humans hurt animals who hurt humans". From the warped human relationship with these animals (including animal based foods eaten so abundantly by humans) comes a clarity of purpose necessary before humans can strike out towards their perceived potential.  It's tragic that so many beautiful animals have to suffer slavery, abuse and the ugliest of deaths over a long period of time in order to jolt the human mindset from violence to the next mindset - kindness.