Jed Yoong

For many reasons, Man has convinced himself that he is different from and even better than other animals because of “consciousness” and “intelligence”.

But has it ever occurred to Man that these attributes may just be mechanisms in the greater scheme of things. Being aware of self — consciousness — and able to evaluate decisions — intelligence — may not be attributes of a more evolved being. On the contrary, we may be an aberration of nature.

For while other animals blend in while playing its part in the self-balancing ecosystem, Man has stepped out of it to impose his artificial ORDER on nature. Along the way, morality — a sense of right and wrong — has been used to justify actions which may have no moral bearing whatsoever.

In the animal kingdom, there are herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. A zebra is food for a lion. When a lion kills a zebra for lunch, is morality involved? Interestingly, other zebras don’t gang up to plot revenge. The most common reason that Man gives for this is that zebras, like other animals, are “unconscious” and hence, have no moral code. I would argue that they are on a higher plane of consciousness as they seem to have understood the maxim that “an eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind”. Other considerations may be the specie’s low IQ, compared to Man, but looking at the state of Man’s affairs, I would say that IQ is overrated.

Worse, Man is now the new moral guardians of the animal kingdom with some campaigning for animal rights. Perhaps it is Man’s intrinsic need for power over others, whether Man or anything it seems now, that leads to his pained philosophizing of moral values. The animals were living quite happily till Man and his need for Order and Power. It was Man who caused the deforestation that displaced many animals, like the poor spotted leopard found in a city here, and the extinction of other crucial plants.

Man just can’t seem to mind his own business. Some has imposed “civilisation” on groups who lived in the jungle. Modernity is suppose to solve all our woes — get educated, a job and be a productive modern slave for some multinational. These self-appointed moral warriors, who may suffer from chronic God delusions, said that headhunting was inhumane. Only to rationalise these days that killing women and children in the Middle East to “wipe out terrorism” is a necessary moral imperative.

It should also be pointed out that Man is slowly causing Earth’s destruction from global warming, disease, war and trade. Far from being a hippy, I question the modern economic idea of specialisation for efficiency to maximise utility, economic jargon for satisfaction from consumption. Briefly, the classical theory of trade suggests that if country A produces X most efficiently, it should focus on it. While it can buy Y from country B, who produces it most efficiently. That’s why we have over-production and wastage. The need to control trade has also led to silly wars. The need to sell our goods have also led to more wars. The need to to have the fuel to produce our goods has also led to wars.

Most in the modern world are caught in this modern economic model of work, more specifically the idea than Man’s main purpose here on Earth is to be productive and “earn a living”. Isn’t it absurd that we now have to “earn” the right to live when before we can plant our own food, not that hard, or live as nomads? For really, what do Man really need to “live”? Is the pursuit of knowledge living? After our Health Minister’s resignation, I would say that I rather be FREE than powerful. Why move away from our previously self-sustaining model where we can hunt for food? Does being a corporate drone appeal so much more than FREEDOM?

However, even in the animal kingdom, some Man-like behaviours are observed like territorial claims, “monogamy”, need for affection and hierarchy. But it is Man, with his “intelligence”, that brought the whole power game to a whole new level, demonstrating an acute passion for war. In this sense, war may not be good or bad but simply a behaviour that stems from Man’s nature, a need for power or to feel powerful which is mostly rationalised by some sort of moral argument.

Is there right or wrong in the animal kingdom? Is there right or wrong in our World? It all depends whether you believe in a Creator, if not who is another human to tell another, what is right and wrong?