The Human Superiority Complex or Conflict?

Trump Jr. with deer trophy kill, photo found as part of an interview at http://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/blogs/im-a-deer-hunter-donald-trump-jr

Source Free From Harm
By Robert Grillo

In discussions of animals exploited for food or other human benefit, we often hear the following statements: “I’ll always put a human before an animal” and “Humans are more important than animals.” But even if we believe or could prove to be superior to other animals, in however we arbitrarily define our superiority, the fact that one feels superior to others does not justify exploiting, enslaving, killing, and eating them. A leading brain surgeon is not justified in violating someone with lower cognitive abilities or less education than himself, such as a patient who suffers from dementia.

Even in cases where we may subjectively feel superior over someone else in competitions, there are strict rules to the game, and harming our competitors solely on the basis of feeling superior to them would be considered “playing dirty” and disqualify us. That’s because we do not base morality on how well someone scores on an IQ test or how great an artist they are. The only morally relevant criteria for how we treat someone is whether they can suffer. All nonhuman animals qualify, since they visibly demonstrate fundamental interests in staying alive and avoiding pain, suffering, and death — not to mention a whole set of other complex interests that would be otherwise denied them.

But there is a deeper issue to explore in the all-too-human obsession with feeling superior over other animals. Although we control the fate of the other animals on this planet, we still find it necessary to continually exert our self-professed superiority.

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About Robert Grillo

to truly grasp and comprehend
the equality of all living beings,
is to reach the highest
level of consciousness

Karen Lyons Kalmenson