What are we?

What are we?

        A really long time ago, there used to be an infinitum of nothingness and then occurred a Bigbang. A Universe if formed with galaxies built up of millions of stars surrounded by planets. Well… At least that’s a theory of humans who are among billions of species sharing a small planet in one of the solar systems of one of the galaxies in this enormous universe. We live in a planet which is only planet supporting life as far as we know.

        Talking about humans, who we actually are?... Humans are a form of life. And every life form sustains with energy. Plants take it in form of basic elements like water, soil, sunlight, etc. while animals take it in form of food. And humans being omnivorous, we along with carnivores hunt to survive. We kill other creatures either to fill our stomachs or to protect ourselves.

        We stand at the top of the food chain. We are the so-called apex predators. We decide life and death of all creatures in the biosphere. And in this food chain, all creatures evolved themselves to be able to defend them selves or attack. For carnivores, claws and fangs. For herbivores, staying in groups of large numbers or their large size. But for humans… It’s our intellect. Our intellect makes us the most powerful beings known to us till date.

        We developed from early stages to modern civilization with this intellect. We extended our boundaries of knowledge to vast extent. But where did this take us? If we think about it, we are back at square one. We are still the same animals. We directly or indirectly kill other animals to survive. But do we need to kill other animals to survive? Even if its not, we do kill them for our comfort. Sometimes, news is filled with articles on animal attacks on human colonies… But we are forgetting that we are the one who are in their domain. We are occupying what is theirs…. We kill other species for our comfort.

        Imagine if we are not the apex predators. Imagine if there exists another species which feeds on humans. We call them monsters or beasts. If they are beasts, what are we? Who are we to decide whether a specie must be alive or not? We are the only creatures in this whole solar system which kills indistinctively. If you observe a forest ecosystem, predators and prey co-exist. No lion kills when it’s not hungry. Do we ever realize that humans alone are the species responsible for extinction of various species?

        Books tell us which species are endangered or extinct. But no one admits that we are the sole cause. We are the only species who eat for fun rather than to survive. We need meat to party. We need meat to enjoy. We even make our own poultry to get that much meat. But even these man made hybrid chicken suffers when we kill it. We forget all that and enjoy its leg piece!! We forget all that and find comfort in the shoes and belts we wear which are made out of skin of other animals. We like leather wallets and leather bags but we never realize that it’s a corpse of some life form.

        Why do we need chicken to party? Why do we need leather wallet to keep our money safe? Why do we need leather shoes to keep out legs from getting dirty? Why do we need leather belt to keep our pants from falling down?? Is any of the above reason good enough to kill a life form? How do u feel if you are killed to be worn as a footwear? We are not being selfish. We are being psychotic. We call ourselves humans and we think we have humanity. But it’s clear that humans are the closest creatures to be called as beasts. Monsters. If humanity is keeping all humans safe and killing all the other creatures, it’s better to not have such a quality. Why can't we put our unique intellect in better way? Why can't we make this earth a better place not only for our future generations but also for all other species we are living with?

        All this makes good sense while penning it down. But I’ll be the same monster from the moment I leave this table. I eat meat, kill animals, use leather. I am after all a human. I am born as that monster. And all this is just an aftereffect of watching an anime. So, even I can’t take what I’ve written here seriously. By the way, that’s it for this entry. Please do share your views on what you’ve read…..