Animals And Reason

A major disadvantage of being a rational creature is our determination to reason. We can’t avoid it. As far as humans are concerned, there has to be a unique reason for everything. This is all very well, in one sense, because it gives us security through meaning, but in another sense, it deprives us of that security.
For instance, what if we can’t find a reason for something? This is not possible in most cases because we only exist on the presumption of reason. So, if a reason is not immediately apparent, we will make one up and, obviously, it's going to be a rational reason, because we don’t know any other kind. What I’m getting at is, anything that we determine rationally is fickle, which means it is not set in concrete, so any reason we make about something can change, which makes for a rather tenuous and insecure existence.
Animals, on the other hand, can’t reason. This is fantastic because they will always be “happy” with the way things are and the outcome of things. There is never any doubt in their “minds” about the status quo or the nature of God or the nature of their own existence. It’s all for the “perfect reason”. Even as they are herded into the abattoir, they are not disconsolate because it’s all part of God’s plan. They can become a bit anxious, but this is instinctive if they get a sense of disquiet, through a dark cloud entering their consciousness caused by their instinctive awareness of unpredictable human temperament and consequent maltreatment. This has nothing to do with their “fate”, but only to do with their sense of the moment.

If, like animals, we knew the reason for existence, well rather, let’s say we had a perfect sense of it, we wouldn’t need to find reasons for all the things in life. If an all-encompassing reason or meaning for life was obvious and unquestionable, all the other day to day reasons would just fall into line with the whole, automatically. Whatever happened along the way would be integral to the overall reason for life, and whether we knew the specifics of why something happened or not, would be totally irrelevant.
This doesn’t work for us though, because we don’t have, or know, a reason for existence. As a matter of fact, that is about all we don’t have a reason for. And because of this major void in our awareness, we have to determine our own puerile justification for living and so far, none of us has been able to come up with a particularly consummate or unified conceptualisation. Just a lot of speculative prognoses.
And not only do we have to come up on our own with a reason, but meanwhile, in the absence of one, we have to make reasons up for every little thing that happens in our lives because without an overarching reason, nothing in life makes sense unless it is reasoned through in relation to all the other reasons.
Mostly, when it comes to the real reason, we rely on our belief system, but this short-changes us. Some of us know what lies in store for us after death, because we have chosen, or come to believe such. But it doesn’t solve the reason why we actually exist. The closest we can come to a reason for this, is that, God knows, and we trust Him. Yes, but in the meantime, WE don’t know God, so we’re not sure whether we should just “let go and let God” guide us through life or whether it’s better to play it safe and determine our own destiny, which is what every good, self-discerning rational entity does.
So, blessed and fortunate is the “lowly” animal. No sense of self, no rationale, and no reasoning. Just an absolutely, intrinsic awareness of the reason for all there is.

Animals

Animals aren’t rational and therefore are unable to discern themselves or anything around them, and from this follows that they are similarly not aware of time and space. Animals therefore, are never aware of their own fate. For instance, sheep are not aware they are living primarilty for human consumption. As far as they are concerned, when they enter the killing floor they are just as “happy” as when they are munching away on a field of grass. And because they are not self-discerning, they don’t even know that they’ve lost consciousness. Nothing has changed. I mean, for all intents and purposes, they weren’t conscious, in the first place.
Their consciousness is instinctive, but not instinctive as we think of ours, because our instinct is coupled with rationale, so when we instinctively comprehend something we are able to rationally interpret it in a meaningful context. An animal’s instinctiveness, like a humans, is inherent in the greater whole, and it is guided by this as being “meaningful”, but has no concept, of in what context. Putting a knife to a sheep’s throat does not register in it’s “awareness” as an indication of imminent death. It doesn’t know what a knife is or even what death is, after all, it has no rational awareness of death. The only reason humans are aware of death, is because we can rationally, conceptualise it. And we can also communicate our conceptual dread of it, even though, we have never tried it. This is a pity for humans because we fear death, even though there might be nothing at all to fear. In fact, it may well be a blessing. Meanwhile, animals just come and go with no awareness and, consequently, no fear whatsoever. Life and death to them is just a continuum within the whole.
The reason humans cannot easily accept death as a blessing (unless we are woefully debilitated), is because we know what we have now and can only guess what are we going to get in exchange. Better the devil you know that the devil you don’t. Plus, it is pretty much understood that the ego is eliminated at death’s door with no “body” to manipulate any more. That’s certainly a deplorable situation for any self-centred persona. So we can predominantly blame the ego for these abhorrent death innuendoes.

The Animal Human Myth

There is no way a rational mindset could ever think straight, because it is perpetually trying to make sense of itself. If it knew what it was about it wouldn’t have to do this. It creates a world and then rationalises what and why it is for, and how and why it works. This has the effect of tying itself up in knots, because it is not privy to its determinations until after they have eventuated, and which only do so to the extent that they are congruent with the whole. So in effect, it hypothesises its desired expression, and after it has manifested, tries to work out how it can best accommodate itself within it. What a human being conceptualises never manifests as expected, requiring the human being to perpetually readjust their concept of themselves to fit in with the manifest world, rather than the other way round. We think we are creating our own world, but only as far as we are “allowed” to do so within the configuration of the collective awareness. We put in our “order” and wait to see what the collective allocates us, and then have to conform to whatever that is. Accordingly, each consecutive “order” we place, will reflect our evolving conformity.
So we pride ourselves as far superior to the animal Kingdom, with our ability to think rationally and for ourselves, and its associated free will and facility to choose, but as usual, we are deluded. Certainly we have free will and are able to make our own choices and decisions, but what we are unaware of, is that those capabilities do not do what we think they do. On the surface they seem to work just fine, we choose a ham sandwich and that is what we get. But as far as experiencing the LIFE we choose to have, in this we are greatly deceived, because instead of making our OWN life in the world, the world is actually making a life for us.

Something Like This

The short explanation, is that what we think becomes our imagination, which in turn, becomes part of the collective imagination of humankind, which in turn, unfolds as our manifest world reality. Our thinking is deeply influenced by our desires, which obviously impacts our imagination and in turn, the collective imagination. But just because our desires become part of the collective matrix, does in no way guarantee that they will manifest, at least, not as we expect or would hope. Bear in mind, that there are seven billion other human beings with their own desires, all vying for their own respective manifest demonstrations, within the same world model.
We all know that what we desire takes time to become part of our life, and this is because the collective matrix has to accommodate seven billion other desires all vying for their own respective outcome, which requires a fair amount of shuffling to enable everyones desires to evolve into the world as a synchronous paradigm. However, as imagination perpetually unfolds into its manifest expression as our world, our world experience is being continually updated, and our beliefs and desires are evolving with it. So the nature of our desires a year ago is not the same as it is today, because as the world evolves, so does our concept of ourselves. And herein lies the deception. Our belief system is continually being updated as we experience the ever-changing world around us, which means the world is changing us rather than us changing the world.
Sure, we have some say through our imaginative input, but that say has to be “authorised” by the say of everyone else’s, and theirs in turn, has to be “authorised” similarly. So what our world looks like at any given time, is the combined desires of seven billion human beings, all “authorising” each other. In other words, you put your desire into the matrix, and the matrix determines what you actually get. Then you update your belief system to accommodate what is given you, whereby, your belief system affirms to you that you have the right outcome, at least as far as it goes. And you have no realisation that it is not the manifestation of your original desire, because whatever is inherent in your belief system at any given time, is all you know. And even less do you know, that the world is insidiously shaping you, by modifying your belief system on-the-fly, to fit the evolving paradigm of the collective.
Okay, so what does all this have to do with socialism and the animal Kingdom?
Well the animal kingdom works the same way, EXCEPT, animals aren’t rationally aware so they are not deluded. They just accept whatever is, is. The trouble with humans, is we think we are designing our own world because we can think, and animals would probably feel the same if they could think. But as I’ve outlined, we are just as obedient to a collective agency as animals are, only we are deceiving ourselves, they are not, because they don’t care to “think” about it. And it’s because we are egocentric it is imperative that we consider ourselves in charge of our own destiny, even though this is just wishful thinking. In the end we are the same as animals, in that we don’t have control over our destiny, or even over our own sovereignty, but we differ to the extent that we think we do.
Now when it comes down to day-to-day activities, the perception of our ability to choose as being effectual, is more definitive. We survey a variety of food items and choose a ham sandwich That seems pretty proof-positive of our ability to choose, which is at the core of our deception. Out of six items on display I actually the one I asked for. And I didn’t have to go through the collective matrix for approval. However, that decision stemmed from my belief system, which in turn is formed for me via my experiential interactivity with the world, and as mentioned, out of my control. But it is in the immediate reality of getting what I choose, which validates my ego’s wishful thinking, that because it gets the exact ham sandwich it chooses, it extrapolate that to it getting the life it chooses.
When we look at the animal Kingdom, it appears that they have the ability to choose, because when you put a plate of broccoli in front of a cat, it will “choose” to leave it alone. Yes, animals do choose, but they do so instinctively, based primarily on what is healthy or harmful. They have a belief system also, but it’s not in so many words. Theirs is more akin to an innate knowledgebase, specific to a particular species within its environment, which instinctively and faultlessly, guides them through their kingdom, and which they obey unconsciously and unerringly. So there is no way an animal can be duped, because it doesn’t even know the meaning of such a premise, let alone any concept of itself in terms of delusion.
Humans on the other hand, are also guided by a knowledgebase, but ours is a cognitive one, and which we also obey to the letter, albeit in denial, but which is neither faultless nor immutable, but capricious. And so we are self-deluded into thinking we are making our own decisions and creating our own living space, whereas, the animal kingdom is guided by an immutable principle.