While Were At It Let's Revisit Anthropomorphism Altogethor

[socrtwo]

In college we studied an example of what was supposed to indicate
instinct. Squirrels were taken out of their native habitat and placed
in metal cages without any decoration or comforts of the real world
altogether and what do you know the squirrels went through the motions
of bury in imaginative nuts and other behaviors they normally engage
in., in the wild but which were amusingly irrelevant in the sterile
environment.

Now let me ask you, if you were brutally and traumatically taken from
your natural environment and suddenly placed in a metal cage, might
you exhibit mental illness? Might this illness show you engaging in
"instinctive" behavior that is acting like you normally would interact
with object in your environment but inappropriately because the
objects are not there. Might you act "nutty"?

Lets give all animals some credit for self awareness and thinking and
see if perhaps after all we have been missing understanding some
things in the classical way science misses the boat because of
preconceptions. That is missing things that are plainly there because
of our preconceptions. Perhaps the idea of instinct is overly applied
to organism, to allow us to feel less guilty about doing whatever we
want and exploiting them as we please rather than give them more
respect for what they often are, which thinking maintainers of the
balance of life in the environment.

[Nora22]

Every time I see photos of people with their pets, and the dogs are
smiling too, I realize all over again that there is no difference
between people and animals, or between animals and plants, for that
matter.

I just hope that whatever evolves to take over the role we humans
currently occupy at the top of the food chain on this planet develops
better insight and empathy than we demonstrate. . .