We Assume Too Much

Link Posted on March 21, 2014 Updated on March 21, 2014

We Assume Too Much

Our greatest failing as a race is that we assume too much.   We believe that it is we and only we who can feel.  We believe it is we and only we who can think, plan, comprehend, speculate, wonder, play, weep, and express joy.  We believe these things because it helps us to keep the universe simple.

But the universe is not simple.  The universe is wondrous, and amazing and limitless, and very very complex, being filled with infinite diversity and combinations!

Soon, we will come to terms with our myopic perspective of the world around us, and the universe.  When that happens I expect there will be a great weeping, for the burden of our many abuses upon this world is massive.  We have visited so very much evil upon the Earth and her many inhabitants; a thousand years might not be enough to redress all the wrongs we have committed in the name of our religion, our science, and our many many assumptions.

For we assume too much.

What then, can be learned from experiments such as these?  Is there some degree of responsibility that comes from knowing that rats show compassion before self-interest?  Is there some special duty that comes from understanding that “Beasts of Burden” like cows can grieve for days or weeks at the loss of a calf, or that they feel unmistakable joy when they are released from their dairy cells?  Do we actually DO something with this knowledge?  Or do we simply deny it, pass it off as something fascinating and proceed with the illusion that has become our lives?  What is to become of us if this is our choice?

For in truth, we know better.  For we know, we assume too much.

–ZMHB