Stephen Kaufman, M.D., Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)
What Humans’ Views about Animals Tells Us about Humans
A recent guest of the On Being podcast was John Powell, who made the
interesting observation that what Whites think about Blacks tells us little
about what Blacks are really like, but it does tell us a lot about what
Whites think about what it means to be white. When we see ourselves as
different from other groups, the perceived differences relate to what we
think is important or distinctive about ourselves.
It follows that the attributes that seem to distinguish humans from
nonhumans are those that humans do not want to attribute to themselves. This
helps explain why humans have tended to project viciousness or lack of
sexual restraint onto many nonhumans. Humans not want to see themselves as
violent or sexually inappropriate. In truth, many of us are prone to
violence (that is, hurtful force exceeding that needed for defense), most of
us have violent fantasies directed against those we believe have wronged us,
and nearly all of us have sexual desires that, if publicly known, would be
disapproved by a significant fraction of our communities.
People often condemn nonhumans for being “stupid,” evidently because humans
want to see themselves as special creations. In truth, animals are well
endowed with the mental abilities they need to survive, and we can only
marvel at some of their skills. For example, homing pigeons can travel up to
1100 miles to return home, guided by sensors that orient them to the earth’s
magnetic field, and elephants can track up to 30 absent members of their
families.
Mischaracterizing nonhumans has facilitated massive abuse of innocent
creatures. It is also harmful for humans. I will explore this in the next
essay.
Go on to: Harmful
Misunderstandings about Animals
Return to:
Reflection on the Lectionary, Table of Contents