Lets take a moment to consider the monkey & the scientist. The monkey is in a cage in a laboratory & the scientist who really doesn't mean the monkey any personal harm feels justified in his actions for the good of life in general & science in particular. What does the monkey feel? Unfortunately precious few would ever ponder this challenge to morality. On the other hand the scientist who doesn't at all feel that he is mean, cruel or sadistic continues to inject the monkey with an array of chemicals & foreign substances & subjecting him to a myriad of other experiments both physcial & often far worse, psychological. Then this "well meaning" scientist observes the subsequent reactions & then tragically enough runs even more experiments on the reactions of his first experiments! And for the monkey, shocks, tumors, cancers, nervous disorders, migranes, blindness & general overall sickness & of course the never ending aches & pains to say nothing of fear & confusion and inevitably & ultimately death & a welcome one at that for the poor monkey. Human justification: That the scientist is seeking cures for his own & other species such as cows, chickens, & others which man uses & consumes for the futherance of his own well being & comfort. That these experiments auspiciously done in the name of science indemnifys any & all taking part from any wrong doing. But the pathetic monkey doesn't give a damn. It certainly does not wish to go thru this personal hell & has absoutely no idea why he is there in that cage in the laboratory rather than in the trees where he knows he belongs. These most unfortunate helpless creatures, also gods children if you will, have to be sure had their rights most severly violated to say the least. That other creatures have rights is a concept that most humans just can't seem to come to grips with though they certainly are aware of the concept of violated rights! To know that they are all you have to do bear witness to what crybabys they themselves in fact are should they feel that their precious rights have been trampled upon however they don't extend this priviledge or courtesy to other forms of life. It's as though only humans are deserving of compassion, an immoral rule they themselves conveniently concocted. These monkeys have been subjected to irresponsible experiments drafted up by those with no personal stake in their outcome with absolutely no posibility of loss only that of gain & thats hardly a fair scenario. It's not at all unlike the politians, generals & munitions manufacturers starting wars & never seeing battle. I grant you this, if they did there would be no wars! Just another unfair, though justified & rationalized arrangement between man & all else & sundry on the planet. The end justifies the means. A venal & mercenary condition which once again infers that any action is ustifiable so long as the results are profitable. It would surely be a cardinal sin & folley to use 20th century man a gage of high standard & quality, a benchmark, by which all else was measured to determine its standing & thereby worth & entitlements. Why not ask for human volunteers for these experiments done for "the benefit of all living things." I'm utterly positive that there would be more than enough humans who would readily step forward & "sign up" for these experiments. First you'd have those purely mercenary types who are always prepared to do anything for money then you would have those maschochistic martyrs in it for the attention it would beget regardless of the personal price they might have to pay. Lastly I do believe there would be a miniscule few who actually felt they would be doing something worthwhile. The point being that it is sacreligious to force these immoral experiments upon other animals who have no say in the matter & no possibility of gain when there exist humans very ready & willing to volunteer. Of course the animals don't have to be paid, now do they, where as a human might. As far as I'm concerned the monkey has every right to hate the scientist & consider him his worst enemy! I'm also quite sure that the monkey doesn't tell his children in the adjoining cage to have faith & that the "hand of the scientist" works in strange & mysterious ways for a grand purpose be that purpose presently unknown & incomprehensible to them & that their suffering has meaning & purpose & it is not for them to complain or question why rather "simply" to grin & bear it. And that the thing for them to do is pray, love the scientist & that in the end they will go to a paradise, monkey heaven, & forever after live in peace, love & harmony with their father the scientist who loves them, amen! No! I'm totally convinced that this the monkey does not advise his children to do. Well then, lets say that for the sake of argument or a birds eye view we change the scenario a bit & that in the role of the scientist we insert god & in the role of the monkey we insert man & the script remains the same only the players change. Now we must also suppose that, just as the scientist, god means us no personal harm. In the meantime not unlike the monkey we suffer as god runs his experiments for what we never knew. The monkey has one up on us in that he has had "a revelation", he has seen the scientist, we on the other hand we have never seen god! The unproduced producer of everything that ever has or ever will be produced. What we have seen though is other flesh & blood human beings just like ourselves, most often for self serving reasons, telling us about "our god" & how we should should conduct ourselves.
chao/silk
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Nov 02 2000 - 13:29:14 EST