Today's Random Website Tip Next Random Tip WEATHER CONTROL It's happening right now as you read this and it affects everyone. Data4science is performing extensive research this topic and a major report is being compiled. New information not on the web will be revealed. Check back soon!

© 2008 Ted Twietmeyer

While traveling back and forth to work each day I pass by some very large dairy farms. Cows saunter along at a fixed pace as though directed by an unseen hand. These animals have learned exactly when to return to the barn for milking and when to go back outside. It is as though they have a watch and know the time. They live a peaceful existence, with their health watched with their every need taken care of by the farmer and his farm hands.

Large New Mexico dairy herd feeding (photo credit [1])

These quiet, gentle animals do not know when the final day will be for them to walk to the barn. Upon leaving the barn they will be loaded into a trailer for a final one-way trip. Their sedentary existence will end in terror as they the watch the cow ahead of them receive a bolt from a pneumatic stun gun… the first slaughter tool used that quite often misses its mark.

Just what is it that separates us from monkeys and chimps, to make us believe we are so superior to them? Is it a lack of all that extra hair or that we’re considerably taller? Is it intelligence? Not having a tail? It is our technology? Or that we can build spacecraft, boats, ships, trucks and cars? Has our bloody and terrifying history proven humans are really superior to our primate friends? If we consider the immense misery and death human beings create on a daily basis, that superiority remains doubtful.

Monkey in deep thought. (photo credit [2])

Here’s a scary thought – whether there will be a good future, a bleak future or no future at all for life on Earth is dependent on the greed, arrogance and power wielded by a select few. No matter how remote any region may be on our planet, decisions of life and death, war and peace made behind closed doors inevitably decide the fate of all.

So why does it have to be this way? Why can’t life in the new millennia be peaceful, kind, respectful and nearly idyllic? We may have invented advanced technology but socially there is actually little change since our early ancestors that lived in caves. These same primitive emotions still exist within us, but have taken on a different form or facade. People of low moral standards that lack self control will always seek the easy way out whenever possible, and grab anything they can get for free. Or they will take advantage of others in their hour of need. These people do not realize the implications of giving into these weaknesses and how devastating it will ultimately be until it’s too late.

It makes no difference whether someone is down at the bottom rung of life’s ladder where the only direction is up, if they are a multi-billionaire or somewhere in-between. The primitive emotions of our ancestors are still present in all of us. In general we could call it “The gimmee disease.” This is frequently heard among the X generation and even older adults that should know better. When they see something they want, they will whine and cry “I want it right now! I shouldn’t have to wait for it!” And out comes that little piece of plastic generously (and foolishly) given to them by a bank to help them dig their existing hole a little deeper.

Each generation has increasingly manifested the symptoms of the gimmee disease. Our entire civilized world has become increasingly focused on instant gratification. The internet has thrived almost exclusively because of it. Yet in many third world countries this problem is almost non-existent. They continue to live in the same way as their ancestors did for thousands of years. In fact, primitive people not touched by western society exercise more self control than those living in today’s modernized countries. Technology is a double-edged sword.

In an earlier essay I briefly talked about the concept of planning and waiting for things so that the yoke of debt can be avoided. A reader thoughtfully wrote to me saying, “I’ve never thought about it like that before. Now I know why I have such problems!”

If everyone had parents that taught good principles on handling money, many of society’s problems would not even exist. Yet this education-by-example of children does not occur in every household. Neither should this be taken for granted. Parents blindly depend on public schools to teach their children how to handle money wisely. No, this task is the parent’s job.

Does evidence exist for all of this? Witness the packed shopping malls during the absolute worst economy and unemployment since the depression that we are experiencing right now, which will get worse. Witness the abuse of credit cards en masse, with their owners having no regard for the large bill that will inevitably arrive in less than a month. Even changes in bankruptcy laws requiring payback of debts whenever possible appear to have gone unnoticed by these endless spenders.

These same people smugly believe that their jobs are secure and their homes will always be there. It allows them to mentally justify their irresponsible behavior. Historically there has usually been a smiling banker ready to help these people dig their hole deeper. But with the economic crash bankers aren’t smiling very much anymore. Recently some bankers have been forced to retire their shovels and start lowering ropes.

In the news there have been images of stock brokers carrying out their office belongings. These people arrogantly lived the high life every day as though it could never end in sudden unemployment. Now at home, they are terrified to open their mail each day, watching their high life slipping away through their fingers. The price of greed is far from priceless.

How many people who have lost their homes because of a few cents worth of plastic in their wallets, which tempted them to spend money that wasn’t theirs and which they will never be able to pay back? Few talking heads in the media ever mention this form of “The gimmee disease.” Are they largely silent to prevent alienating some network sponsors like credit card companies?

There is a credit card company that frequently tells viewers in their commercials that spending money for unnecessary things is “priceless.” It will not be priceless if people incur a bill for something they never really needed in the first place. More like weight-belt like that scuba divers use, the additional debt will always be pulling them ever downward. Few people even live by the simple principle of not buying anything unless you they are certain it can be paid in full in 30 days.

Even the Nazis and governments world-wide today all know the simple principle that if you tell people the same message over and over again, no matter how outrageous the lie, eventually people will believe it. Creating a lie about terrorists was a fundamental reason why the German government was able to have the population voluntarily register every firearm - which cleared the way for all of those firearms on those lists to be confiscated later.

So are we superior to dairy cows, primates and other animals?

Consider these facts - not a single animal on this planet has ever died owing a single cent to any other animal! No animal has ever committed mass genocide or engineered diseases!

Of course, animals do not have the creativity or all the abilities we have. But they still manage to get along quite well, remain happy and do not start wars with each other.

Animals of all species have outnumbered all the humans that ever lived. All that our technological and scientific advancements have brought to the human race, by and large, is suffering and misery in countless forms. Puppet-masters behind closed doors have cleverly constructed countless facades to hide it all from view. There will always be another lawyer, bank, bill collector or just plain evil person just around the corner out of sight. These people will be waiting for the chance to take advantage of someone’s errors or misfortune to make things worse.

War using guns and bullets is quickly becoming antiquated. Now there is a new silent war which has been fought for years, deep inside the wallets and minds of the unwary. Countries without child labor laws off-shore create profit margins that nothing can beat, except by using robotics. Robotics technology has quite a ways to go for it to be economical enough to manufacture everything we require.

Another war takes place on the mind, to effectively brainwash people into thinking a certain way during their first 18 years of life. This will insure that as adults they will fit into society. The Chinese people have a saying, “Don’t be the nail that sticks up out of the floor.” This subtle image immediately conjures up yet another image, of someone coming along with a large hammer and pounding them back down flush with the floor if they dare become that stubborn nail.

To recall the words of an Apollo astronaut – from space, the Earth looks like a big blue marble. Must we let the hammer fall upon that marble?

In the final analysis do the deeds of humans show we really are superior to cows, chimps and monkeys? In many respects we are, but far from being so in all things.

Yet we already have the potential to be superior in all things!

Will we accomplish this goal by overcoming our base primitive nature before we destroy ourselves - along with all the other life around the world?

For a wide variety of essays and reports, please visit our categorized essay page at www.latestreport.info

Ted Twietmeyer

Data4Science.net

PHOTO CREDITS

[1] - http://www.nmenv.state.nm.us/swqb/CAFO/CAFO.jpg

[2] - http://sellgrandrapidshomes.wordpress.com/2008/01/12/a-parablethe-tale-of-the-monkey-the-peanuts/