PREDATORS

One might consider the human condition.

One of us humans might consider it, anyway. Who else / What else would care? Have you ever considered the parrot condition? The moray eel condition? The Vulcan condition?

Well, perhaps you have. Now I'm starting to wonder about them myself. But back to business.

We are the dominant species of this planet. Why?

We don't have the horrible crushing jaws of the shark, or the stealth and power of the tiger, or the breathless speed and piercing vision of the eagle. And yet they are endangered. By us.

How?

Intelligence? It would be nice to think so. But you can't turn on a television and still feel that way for long. Britney Spears? Anna-Nicole? George W? Pul-eeese! It's not that they exist. The horribly disgraceful thing is that ANYONE IS PAYING ATTENTION TO THEM!

I think the strength of humanity is in the "we" part of humanity.

"We" are stronger, smarter, and more capable than any single one of us.

"We" can do things no other species can, because we remember much of all previous human experience and build on it. Isaac Newton said, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." He was a clever dude. He taught himself calculus. By inventing it.

I believe that our greatest strength as the human species is that we can work together, and that we can learn from each other. That is what has allowed us to develop vaccines by learning from the French (Louis Pasteur) , and to create computers by learning from the British (Alan Turing), and to send men to the moon by learning from the Nazis (Werner Von Braun).

But there is a fly in this ointment.

There is a predatory streak in human nature. Of course, this was a good thing when we were hunting wild boars and buffalo. But it is a bad thing when we are being predatory towards ourselves. And, unfortunately, we make good targets.

Slavery? Imagine that you stick a pistol in someone's ribs and take his wallet. That's bad. But imagine you overpower him and demand everything he ever owns, everything he ever earns, even his children. That's slavery. And that's the kind of crap that the right wing Bible Bangers are on record as supporting.

Don't believe me?

Hey look at this:

http://www.landoverbaptist.org/news0401/answers.html

So we have a problem.

Some people believe that it is acceptable to be predators of their own kind.

This, of course, is treason for any decent, patriotic American.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

That's us. That's Americans. That's from our own Declaration of Independence.

But that's not the ideal that right wing degenerates are living by.

For them, divisiveness and hate are a way of life. And when it comes to Us versus Them, public floggings and lynchings (pre-desegregation) and (lately) Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and CIA renditions are just a normal part of their perverse belief system.

They are unashamed enemies of mankind, of decency, and of what is best about humanity.

They are predators.

But "We" are stronger, smarter, and more capable than they are.

"We" are going to defeat them.

After all, even Jesus said "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. "

Goodness will prevail.