Understanding Animals and Humans

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I went to a zoo.  I went there to study animals.  Soon, I became confused.  How could I study animals when there were so many kinds of them?  There were lions and tigers, zebras and antelopes.  There were reptiles and arachnids, apes and monkeys, and birds of every feather.

Realizing that I could never understand animals by visiting a zoo, I decided instead to study humans.  After all, I am a human, and other humans must be just like me, so what could be difficult about that?  So, I visited large cities, small towns, and rural areas.  I was sure that by doing so, I could come to understand humans.

I was wrong.

Scientifically, there is only one species of human, but otherwise, humanity is a menagerie.  There are wolves and rabbits, snakes and insects, robots and meat grinders.

True, I am exaggerating, but there is a madness to my madness.  The animals in the zoo are, at least, rational.  Lions eat antelopes, not out of cruelty, but hunger.  Antelopes run from lions, not because of cowardice, but because survival demands it.  Reptiles and arachnids do not contemplate their actions beforehand, they strike at the first opportunity.

Humans victimize other humans out of cruelty.  Cowards run from danger for the same reason they run from truth.  Predators of the human variety constantly seek their next victim, and strike at the first opportunity.

Perhaps each human has, within him, the entire animal kingdom.  Perhaps an artist is a spider, but one who can appreciate the beauty of a web, glistening in the morning dew.  Perhaps a scientist is an ape who can build better tools.  Engineers are bees who can construct ever more complex hives.  Some of us are worker-bees, laboring for our brief lifespan in service of the queen.  Criminals are insects, unfeeling.

The big difference is that in the animal kingdom, the snake is forever a snake, unable to change into a butterfly.  Humans, however, can examine their own condition, learn moral values and apply them.  That so many of them do not, portends the existence of Hell, if not a Hell of fire and brimstone, then the eternal darkness of an empty soul.

Society today is riven by strife.  Passions are aroused by politics, religion and ideology.  To excerpt William Butler Yeats, from his poem, The Second Coming:

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
. . .
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

I was wrong.  I am returning to visit the zoo.

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