When was the last time you went to your local state zoo or aquarium? Well my last time was not too long ago. It was my local aquarium. (I am fond of marine animals, especially dolphins)
Anyways, as I was making my way through I saw sea turtles, manatees (I live in Florida), and, my favorite, dolphins. I am one who gets a kick out of putting myself in other living things shoes to see new perspectives and maybe even enlighten myself. In this case, I was lucky enough to be around the sea turtle tank at feeding time. It was astounding to me how lazy and spoiled the turtles were. The food was held out, they swam to it, and ate it. Afterwards, they went back to their busy day of floating around their aquarium or cage …
Like I said I like to put myself in other living things shoes and I learned a lot when doing so with these sea turtles. In fact, it wasn’t hard at all to see from their eyes because they really weren’t very different from me except for the whole reptile thing. My point is that I feel an animal in a cage at your zoo or aquarium is not very different from you or I. Instead of the turtles hunting for their food, they are fed 2 times a day by hand; we drive down the street and goto the nearest resturant.
We are wild animals just like any other animal. We were meant to be free to do what we want. To explore our territory, hunt to gather food, etc. Instead someone thought we were better than wild animals and stuck us in a cage and made it easy for us. Making us stupid. Society is our cage. We are in a zoo. Whether you see it or not. I am sure the turtles don’t think they are in a cage either. Why would they even care? They are being fed by hand! They just lounge around all day long and everything is done for them. I think this is the same for humans. Wild animals meant to be in a wild situation but are stuck in a cage called society. The government being the zoo employees … feeding us by hand (whether it food or propaganda), making us lazy and stupid.
We’re certainly animals. But we’re also humans, which means there are a few important differences: firstly, we’re conscious and able to communicate our conscious experiences via language. (But animals have communication systems, too, no doubt.) Secondly, consciousness implies voluntary action, that is, we are not simply blindly following our instincts, urges and desires. We are capable of intention, and thus we can be held responsible for our actions. This is something which it doesn’t seem to make sense (at least to me) to say about other animals.
About the freedom question: are animals free? Even the ones without cages don’t seem to have this capacity for voluntary action, to have an intention, to be able to be held responsible, etc. None of these things makes sense outside of human society: responsibility implies freedom implies consciousness. Humans are profoundly free in a way that animals cannot be.
Who, exactly? The substance of a society is described completely by the members of that society. Now, certainly some animals are social animals. But they communicate nonverbally and are not free to make decisions. Society is both an empowerment and a restriction, as you are pointing out. Society is not simply a cage built by others for us–that’s a prison–society is that cage which we build for ourselves. But I see the point you’re making… Thomas Paine said that “All national institutions of churches, whether jewish, christian, or turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”
Obviously not all the members. Just the most powerful ones. For example:
Not all members of the society have the desire to invent these ‘human inventions’, only the ones looking to monopolize power and profit. And who are the most powerful members of a society (zoo)? The zoo employees, obviously.
I am not against order, which I think is your misunderstanding. I look at the potential of an animal like a sea turtle in its natual environment and then I look at it in its cage. I look at the potential of a human being in its natural environment and I then look at it in its cage. I admit the natural environment of a human would be much more complicated than a sea turtle in its natural environment. That is why its cage is so much more complicated than the sea turtle. The point is we are in a cage. Whether you or I think it benefits us or not, we are still in a cage. Maybe being in a cage is what is best for us. We are very dangerous animals. I think the most dangerous on earth. Just think if we didn’t have our society, our cage. Scary thought.