niomic, 25.7.2006 11:59:
Realization however doesn't grant us any magical über powers to nurture the good earth and all its little beings,
No it doesn't. But that realization does grant us responsibility above all others. "With great power, comes great responsibility", I'm sure you've heard that before, and it's a sentence that holds true in this case also.
and it certainly doesn't make us more responsible than those of our animal kingdom that do not realize.
This I disagree with in the strongest possible sense. In practise what you're saying is, that we should simply forget about morality and common decency. That is just a lame attempt to escape responsibility for your actions.
By nature we are made to endure, reproduce, endure some more. If our species is able to develop means of sustaining such a natural cycle without any other living things on this planet, then we have truly become the masters of our space, but at the same time, we've become slaves to this new replacing technology.
I hardly think the human race is a natural part of nature anymore. The things we do are hardly part of the natural cycle of things. Polluting the air, destoying nature and such things are not anything close to what the word 'natural' means.
Even though I sympathize with you and on a lot of levels agree with your sentiments concerning mankind, I can't say that I personally believe that we should be doing any better than we are.
This I do not even begin to understand. Isn't it the basics of morality to always strive to be better than we are, and develop ourselves on an intellectual level to start acting as we _know_ is right? I understand that even you admit that we are acting in a "wrong" and immoral way? I can't believe that anyone would be so selfish and blind to not undestand that. I'm not saying you believe that, though.
Very much of our philosaphy is also based along these thoughtlines.
That would mean that we were somehow able to escape nature or subvent it as a whole. We might be gods special children like the X-men in all their might, but even the X-men can't save the world :(
Well, as individuals we don't have the powers X-Men have, but as a society, we hold much greater powers. And we're using them in the wrong way. Both towards nature, and also, our own kind.
The above was quite a weighted statement and doesn't take into account that we are at the same time the most empathic and caring of all animals.
I think this comes quite naturally to most, if not all, species. Just look at how mothers always care for their young. This is an instinct which does a lot of good, but with our understanding, or 'realization', we should seek to overcome those instincts which are harmful to both ourselves and others, even if we do not always succeed.
I would also imagine that you think that since animals aren't conscious about cruelty or sadism, they can't commit these acts in the same sense?
Yes, for themselves this is usually simply a matter of survival with no understanding of morality attached. And I do not know of any other species that commits sadism in the same way, or certainly, in the same scale.
Is it really worse to rip someones limbs out knowing you are causing the victim a lot of pain or simply as a utilitarian function? For the victim it's the same as long as the victim isn't conscious of this difference (like a human).
For the victim propably yes. But if you look at the things we do besides killing, like practically enslaving the animal kingdom, forcing them to live in unnatural captivity and things too numerous to mention beyond the cruelty towards animals, we as a race stand very much alone. Unlike other animals, instead of making their deaths a painful experience, we are also making some species' whole existance full of pain and misery.