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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/18/2007 9:51:20 PM   
dcnovice


Posts: 37282
Joined: 8/2/2006
Status: offline 		Since this thread's been hijacked for a while, I'm gonna take it further with one of my half-baked theories.

That is that tops are drawn to dogs because they like the idea of collaring something and leading it around on a leash, whereas bottoms are drawn to cats because pouring ourselves out for a creature that seldom deigns to acknowledge us half the time feels perfectly normal.

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/18/2007 9:53:44 PM   
dcnovice


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quote:

We are their everything,the best part of their day,and their provider.


Reminds me of the old joke about the difference between dogs and cats.

A dog looks at its owner and thinks, "He feeds me, he cares for me, he must be God."

A cat looks at its owner and thinks, "He feeds me, he cares for me, I must be God."

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/18/2007 9:54:49 PM   
CuriousLord


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Status: offline 		Bah, she's 15 lbs.  Lil scamp does love to eat.  Then again, if left to her own devices, she'd be running all over the place, so I suppose it's not so much her diet as the forced lack of excerise.  Luckily for the squirrels, though, she's a house dog.

80 lbs, though?   Such a dog would hardly strike me as a threat, nor have I observed the implied claim that one left to lax measures of training would be necessarily hostile.  Extended family members have a fair number of larger dogs, all of which are rather docile and loving despite their freedom.

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/18/2007 9:56:06 PM   
Owner59


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From: Dirty Jersey
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quote:

ORIGINAL: dcnovice

quote:

We are their everything,the best part of their day,and their provider.


Reminds me of the old joke about the difference between dogs and cats.

A dog looks at its owner and thinks, "He feeds me, he cares for me, he must be God."

A cat looks at its owner and thinks, "He feeds me, he cares for me, I must be God."


<Laughed out loud!>

Got`a make a note of that.My mom will love that one.

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/18/2007 9:56:46 PM   
TheHeretic


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Status: offline 		       Could be, DC.  I'm a Switch,  I keep a wolf-hybrid with wonderful manners, and a cat with none. 

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/18/2007 9:58:23 PM   
dcnovice


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Status: offline 		I was doing an article on the circus once, and I was incredibly amused to learn that the animal trainer, who could dominate a ring full of tigers, couldn't keep his own cat off the table!

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/18/2007 10:05:33 PM   
TheHeretic


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Status: offline 		        And here, perhaps, is a chance to steer this back towards the topic.  We might find anecdotal evidence of other primates taking a pet (ever get the email of the gorilla and her pet cat?) but we are so prolific with such things that we have domesticated entire species.

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/18/2007 10:07:03 PM   
Owner59


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quote:

ORIGINAL: dcnovice

I was doing an article on the circus once, and I was incredibly amused to learn that the animal trainer, who could dominate a ring full of tigers, couldn't keep his own cat off the table!

My  vet told me to give`m a squirt with a water-pistol when they jump onto the table.They used to climb the screen door, till we learned about the squirt-gun trick.

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/18/2007 10:07:23 PM   
dcnovice


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Status: offline 		True. Though there are ants that herd aphids like cattle. They drink a fluid (called honeydew, I think) that the aphids produce.

As Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up.

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/18/2007 10:08:09 PM   
Owner59


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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

       And here, perhaps, is a chance to steer this back towards the topic.  We might find anecdotal evidence of other primates taking a pet (ever get the email of the gorilla and her pet cat?) but we are so prolific with such things that we have domesticated entire species.


Yup.

Or in the case of cats,they`re taking us as pets...

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/18/2007 10:17:09 PM   
laurell3


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quote:

ORIGINAL: dcnovice

I was doing an article on the circus once, and I was incredibly amused to learn that the animal trainer, who could dominate a ring full of tigers, couldn't keep his own cat off the table!


My cat's name is Sir Pudgy, he is very clearly the Dom of this house and he knows it.  It's honestly not worth the effort to train him, he's a himalayan with an attitude and can scream as loud as a small child when he doesn't get his way or his water bowl is more than 1/4th empty.  I did try for weeks when he was young to listen to his incessent bitching, and trust me it is most definitely bitching and just gave up defeated.  He has also learned to hit the off/reset button on the pc to get attention.  Cats aren't all that stupid and I'm happy my cat TRAINED ME to do what he wants, it's much more peaceful here.

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/18/2007 10:37:00 PM   
TheHeretic


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quote:

ORIGINAL: dcnovice

True. Though there are ants that herd aphids like cattle.



          Oh yes, the ants...  Back to the need to preserve our knowledge, I guess.

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If you lose one sense, your other senses are enhanced.
That's why people with no sense of humor have such an inflated sense of self-importance.


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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/19/2007 1:27:57 AM   
eyesopened


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quote:

ORIGINAL: CuriousLord

We're just animals.  Stupid animals with whatever characterstics.  There's no great spirtual bit in us (unless one counts his own delusions).



Having read the entire thread i have to comment.  A dog knows only what it is like to be a dog.  It is a pack animal that requires a pack leader.  When the human owner does not behave like a pack leader the dog will assume that role.  The dog only knows how to be a dog and does not understand what it is like to be a human.  A dog can become neurotic and exhibit "bad" behavior because it doesn't want to be the leader but feels it has to because its human owner doesn't exhibit leadership in a dog's way of thinking.  It expects US to know how to be a dog but too often we expect the dog to know how to be human.

So maybe THAT is the difference, that we can imagine or know or learn what it is like to be a dog or a gorilla or a zebra.  None of the other animals can know what it is like to be other than themselves.  Empathy.  That may be the answer.

However, from reading CL's posts over the period of time i have been here, i can understand that someone without empathy for others could easily see that there is no difference between humans and other animals.  Lack of empathy then would tend to prove my point.  If you can't imagine what it is like to be something or someone else, then i suppose one is just a stupid animal.

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/19/2007 3:09:51 AM   
RealityLicks


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Status: offline 		Four days after the Pentagon and the twin towers were attacked, the novelist Ian McEwan wrote [in the Guardian]: "Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion, and it is the beginning of morality."

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/19/2007 3:14:08 AM   
meatcleaver


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Vendaval

What is the essence of being human?
 


The ability to fart and blame someone else.

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/19/2007 4:04:47 AM   
FireWithin


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Status: offline 		I tend to think we our two things molded into one thing, spiritual and the body. in the sence of the body, we are no different then any other animal on earth, but the spiritual side gives us a sence or choice on what is right and wrong, good and evil, create beliefs systems, art, choose lifestyles, warship, imagination and so on. these spiritual things animals dont have, there only of the flesh or body only. 

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/19/2007 8:33:28 AM   
charmdpetKeira


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Status: offline 		Man is the Rational Animal, so to speak. He alone can say “I” – and can contemplate his own existence and behavior, and actively seek to effect change. This is called independence.

-         Allan Watts

…man differs from the animal by the fact that he is a killer; he the only primate that kills and tortures members of his own species without any reason, either biological or economic, and who feels satisfaction in doing so.

Only man seems to take pleasure in destroying life without any reason or purpose other than that of destroying. To put it more generally, only man appears to be destructive beyond the aim of defense or of attaining what he needs.

-         Erich Fromm

My thoughts on this; it is not so much what we do that makes “Man” different, as it is why we do it – the ego.

k

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/19/2007 9:18:48 AM   
RCdc


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Status: offline 		Animals inflict pain on each other to experiment, destroying life, enjoying it.  They create war.
They have sex for sex.  And they procreate.
Some also have thumbs.
Others are sentient.
Animals are aware of death, fear and pain.
They also have ego.
They make and use objects for tools.
They have language.
They laugh and cry.
They have spiritual awareness, athough not to the extent of worship,as far as I am aware.  No building of temples or holy places. So maybe what makes us human is our worship of 'invisable' idols.
 
the.dark.

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/19/2007 9:23:36 AM   
Raechard


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Darcyandthedark
 No building of temples or holy places. So maybe what makes us human is our worship of 'invisable' idols.

 
Bee Hives, Ant hills. Maybe it's just us humans that call it the queen bee though.

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RE: What is the essence of being human? - 11/19/2007 9:27:51 AM   
RCdc


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Status: offline 		Animals 'worship' each other, just as humans do - especially on a sexual level.  Queen bees, stags, alpha wolves... etc. 
I was specific and said 'invisable'.  Ant hills form a purpose other than to worship.
 
the.dark.

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