The remnants of a squirrel, run over in a parking lot, made me wonder on how much effort was actually required from the driver to avoid removing life.  I believe that in the majority of cases such events are avoidable. The occurrence of the events clearly shows that humans consider themselves to be at the level on the evolutionary scale that allows them to decide the fate of another living organism.  This arrogance is overwhelming.  There are many examples where a completely useless human becomes the voluntary executioner of a very useful animal. The order we have established as a species is the ultimate example of hubris and there is absolutely no reason why this particular order should not be pertinent within our own societies.  Yet, in order to protect ourselves from our own aggressive and predatory nature we cleverly established a system of laws and regulations that allows us to skillfully bypass the evolutionary process.  The system confirms our dominion over the rest of the species occupying our planet and in addition it allows for the unnecessary and wasteful loss of life in the form of entertainment. The artificial and almost always hypocritical concept of equality serves as a line of defense from us but purposefully inserted mechanisms allow for the equality to remain relative. In essence all humans are equal but not all of the time. The central hypothesis is that human life is sacred and all human life is of the same weight.  This notion though noble is terribly inconsistent. What makes human life sacred? Why would human life carry more value that the life of a lion? Both are equally complicated organisms that can only be created through a natural process that continues to remain unknown. For example, the squirrel, which served as the inspiration of this little monologue, cannot be repaired and returned to its previous state.  The lack of respect towards animal life signifies, in my opinion, a lack of respect towards all life –and the lack of respect towards all life denotes the lack of civilization and the inability of humans to escape our primal beginnings. Our technological evolution has greatly surpassed our spiritual evolution leaving us in a delicate stage of existence in which, thanks to nuclear weapons, we are flirting with our own annihilation.

Fivos R Drymiotis 12/12/2005