I was reading an article the other day about self-esteem and it talked about happiness as being man's ultimate goal, that self-esteem is crucial to happiness and that self-esteem all begins with the feeling that you are worthy of living.
Yeah, sure, like bugs all feel worthy of living and they've been around millions of years longer than we have and will probably be around for eons after we have extincted ourselves. But we're not bugs, you say? Oh, no? What then are we? We walk around this planet like we're big shots for awhile and then -bingo-we're gone forever. For eternity, no more. Nothing. And what are we when we're here? Even some of those who claim to have insight say that we're nothing but dust, from dust we came, to dust we shall return. That should give us a pile of self-esteem. Yeah!
And we are so dishonest. We have this very special brain, we say, with a way of thinking that's better than than every other living species' way of thinking. There are maybe 30 millions of species and we are numero uno, we think. That's where we've placed ourselves. Top of the heap! Why not? Can any other species solve algebraic equations? O recite an alphabet backwards? Or fly to the moon? We must be great!
But let truth be known...we don't know one thing more than the tiniest bug with the tiniest brain about life itself: What's the point of it all? How'd we get here? Who sent us here? Why are we here? Where do we go when we leave here?. We just love thinking about all these "deep" things, when truth be told we don't know know know the answer to any of them. Not think or believe or imagine or dream, but know know know.
And with regard to this wonderful brain of ours:
* it gives us the power to choose, and we frequently choose not to use it
* we often confuse facts with fiction
* we make logical flaws and fallacies, errors and mistakes
* we believe beliefs=reality
* we think because we want it to be so, it is so
* we live as if all of the above are not true.
Animals, on the other hand, except maybe for a lemming or two, are evolutionarily programmed to always do what is the right and best thing for them to do!
We study philosophy and psychology and sociology and theology and most of us wind up in mindless, uninspiring and unsatisfying work, suffering from despair, disappointment and disillusion. Happiness is our professed goal but it is the rooster that crows each morning.
We've come up with open heart surgery and kidney transplants and drugs drugs drugs for every human ailment, disease and condition, real or imagined, and our life expectancy is 75 years...the turtle's is 100 (do they have shell transplants?) and it's a whopping 220 years for the deep sea clam. We wouldn't last ten seconds in a fight with a big cat, a polar bear can smell its prey 20 miles away and we can barely tell which way the wind is blowing. And despite pesticides of deadly force, it is the cockroach that is winning the war...and it and not us that would survive a nuclear holocaust. Some numero uno!
We talk up a good storm about justice and virtue and decency but in fact no two of us would define any of those terms the same way, nor agree how they should be applied, nor in fact do we usually think of them when making decisions in our lives. We often say one thing and do another. Power corrupts, we say, but we want it; money is the root of evil but we'll do most anything t get all we can; we preach humanity but when push comes to shove, we often treat humans like... like, bugs.
It's all a joke, isn't it?
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