I was listening to a podcast today and an interesting point was brought up. They were talking about killer whales (orcas) and how brutal they are when they kill whales for food. They will swarm the whale and just chew on it and eat off of it until it opens it's mouth in pain and then one orca will basically dive into it's mouth and chew on the tongue, since apparently that is the "good stuff" of the whale. It is a very barbaric tactic.
These animals (killer whales) are such intelligent animals. They have their own languages, dialects, families, and social structures. It was being discussed that they were such savages for being that intelligent and still killing in such brutal ways. However, the point was brought up that, well yeah, of course they are because they are such large animals that all they do each day is look for food to sustain themselves and reproduce. That's it. That's all they have time to do in order to survive. They don't have the time to sit down and ponder the actions that they are taking and if they are proper or not. They have never been able to contemplate their actions. Just like early humans didn't prior to large societies that alleviated the need to constantly search for food sources.
We as human beings can take the time to ponder the great mysteries of the universe and morality and proper behavior because we are so far removed from the true ways of the world that we can step outside of that barbaric structure. We created agriculture and other institutions that provide these basic services for us automatically and at our leisure. We have walled ourselves off from the darwinian nature of the world. So of course we are able to think and do things that other animals and organisms either don't have the capacity to do, or don't have the resources to afford that kind of behavior.
I found that very interesting and it kind of puts things into perspective as a human in this time period. If society were to break down, all of those luxuries and niceties that we have built into our civilization would be gone. People would panic and revert back to survival of the fittest. Don't trust your fellow man outside of your inner circle (your tribe or pack). Once food becomes scarce and we would need to hunt all day to sustain ourselves, bet your ass that if it meant eating a big juicy steak, we would be butchering a cow, or a dog, or whatever we come across in the wild to keep ourselves alive. I think it is very important to keep that in mind as part of our culture so that we never forget what the world is like outside of the walls of our civilization.
These animals (killer whales) are such intelligent animals. They have their own languages, dialects, families, and social structures. It was being discussed that they were such savages for being that intelligent and still killing in such brutal ways. However, the point was brought up that, well yeah, of course they are because they are such large animals that all they do each day is look for food to sustain themselves and reproduce. That's it. That's all they have time to do in order to survive. They don't have the time to sit down and ponder the actions that they are taking and if they are proper or not. They have never been able to contemplate their actions. Just like early humans didn't prior to large societies that alleviated the need to constantly search for food sources.
We as human beings can take the time to ponder the great mysteries of the universe and morality and proper behavior because we are so far removed from the true ways of the world that we can step outside of that barbaric structure. We created agriculture and other institutions that provide these basic services for us automatically and at our leisure. We have walled ourselves off from the darwinian nature of the world. So of course we are able to think and do things that other animals and organisms either don't have the capacity to do, or don't have the resources to afford that kind of behavior.
I found that very interesting and it kind of puts things into perspective as a human in this time period. If society were to break down, all of those luxuries and niceties that we have built into our civilization would be gone. People would panic and revert back to survival of the fittest. Don't trust your fellow man outside of your inner circle (your tribe or pack). Once food becomes scarce and we would need to hunt all day to sustain ourselves, bet your ass that if it meant eating a big juicy steak, we would be butchering a cow, or a dog, or whatever we come across in the wild to keep ourselves alive. I think it is very important to keep that in mind as part of our culture so that we never forget what the world is like outside of the walls of our civilization.
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