Sammy/Lori and I are having a lovely debate and he said
that nature is this and this and this, thus human beings are also
this and this and this…making no distinction between animals
and human beings…
as a liberal, I hold that there are substantial differences between
animals and human beings…so, to create context between animals
and human beings, we must first of all, place them into context…
we hold similarity between animals and human beings in
our needs… we both need to gain the biological needs…
we both need food, water, shelter, air, the biological needs of
all living things in fact… the connection between animals and human
beings lie in this connection of our similar biological needs…
but there are some differences in needs from animals and humans…
we human beings also need, as a biological needs, education and health care
but we humans also have psychological needs that animals don’t seem to need…
that one of the primary psychological needs of human beings is safety/security
and a sense of belonging, which brings us to the curious case of love…
it is quite clear that many animals love their mates and their children…
even to loving members of their tribe…as do humans… so, in regard to
love anyway, we seem to be quite similar…
but, we human beings, by virtue of being human, have other aspects
of being human that animals don’t seem to have… we are social creatures,
and some animals, some are also social creatures, but not all animals
are social creatures as we are…
but the really interesting part is that by virtue of being human,
we rise above animals in many diverse ways…for example,
we can communicate with words, symbols, abstract ideas…
in ways that animals cannot…
Sammy/Lori is taken with this idea of the survival of the fittest
as being both animal and a human characteristic… but this is
clearly not true…human beings did not arrive at this point in
our existence by the survival of the fittest method… recall,
we are social beings, we must cooperate to survive… we cannot
survive alone, apart from other human beings…
a human alone is a dead human being… its that simple…
I didn’t get to be 64 by the survival of the fittest method…
I got to my age by my cooperation with and for the society/state…
Hobbes gave an excellent description of the ‘‘state of nature’’
and its failings…in fact, Hobbes stated that the natural inequalities
between human beings are not so great as to give anyone clear
superiority and thus all must live in constant fear of loss and
violence… and to avoid this ‘‘state of nature’’ we create a
‘‘social compact’’ in which we give up some freedoms for our safety
we are safer with each other and not in opposition to each other…
our very nature prevents us from existing in a ‘‘state of nature’’
which is in opposition to Sammy/Lori beliefs…
the very basis of human society is by the cooperation of people,
not a ‘‘state of nature’’, but within cooperation with each other…
and within this cooperation, we avoid the problems that Sammy/Lori
suggests that all human beings are not created equal… we don’t
have the same facilities and ability…we are unequal…
and that makes a difference in a state of nature, but it doesn’t
make a difference in a society or state…for my weaknesses
are covered by your strengths and your weaknesses are covered
by my strengths… it becomes irrelevant if we have different
abilities and facilities if, if we co-exist within a society/state…
as I am old, I am in greater need of the state/society than I was
when I was younger… I have gone to the emergency room several times
over the last several months… due to different reasons… and it is within
the cooperation of people that has created ER or hospitals or even
the ambulance system…I may or may not have survived without an
hospital, but I certainly did survive with a hospital within a ten minute
drive… and the hospital existed because of human cooperation…
not a ‘‘state of nature’’ situation, but with our collective cooperation…
the very existence of the state/society nullifies much of what Sammy/Lori
says about the nature of inequality that exists for animals, but not so
much for human beings… my own disability of being deaf, is nullified
by the existence of the state/society… in a ‘‘state of nature’’
I most likely wouldn’t last that long… and therein lies the beauty of
the state/society… it allows us human beings to overcome
any or all possible disabilities we might individually have…
and those inequalities that Sammy/Lori are so insistent on,
don’t matter much in a society/state existence…
for we can overcome our own inequalities, disabilities inside of the
state/or a society…but we cannot overcome by the ‘‘state of nature’’
theory… we die in a ‘‘state of nature’’ existence…
Kropotkin