On
Being Human
Man is the most amazing of animals.
There are perhaps finer animals with better forms and nobler
structures like the horse, with finer muscles, lion, with finer sense of smell
and greater docility and loyalty, like the dog.
Better vision like the eagle or the better sense of direction like the
homing pigeon, with greater thrift and discipline and capacity for hard work
like the ant, with a sweeter temper like the dove and the deer, more patience
and contentment like the cow, better singers like the lark, and better dressed
beings like the parrot and peacock.
Still there is something in a monkey, that makes me prefer the monkey to
all these animals, and something of monkey curiosity and monkey cleverness in
man that makes me prefer to be a man.
The human dignity consists of four characteristics of the
scamp. They are playful curiosity, a
capacity for dreams, a sense of humor and a waywardness and incalculability of behavior.
I am a magnificent idler.
On Playful Curiosity
“The Rise of Human
Civilization”
The assumption of an erect stature and the consequent emancipation
of the hand had extremely far reaching results.
It brought about the rise of tools, the sense of modesty, the
subjugation of women and the development of language and finally the instinct
of exploration.
The human female was more consciously and constantly a female animal
– then negress more than the tigress and the countess more than the lioness.
The tiger attacks, the tortoise hides and the horse runs away – all
for survival. Love or beauty and the gentle cunning of womanhood had than a
survival value. The man probably had a
stronger arm, and there was no use fighting him, why not, therefore, bribe and
flatter and please him? That is the very character of our civilization even
today. Instead of learning to repel and
attack, woman learned to attract, and instead of trying to achieve her goal by
force, she tries her best to achieve it by softer means. After all, softness is civilization. Therefore, I think human civilization began
with women rather than with man.
Woman played a greater role than man in the developing / development
of chattering called language. Early men, I imagine were quite morose, silent
when the first male anthropoids were away from their caves dwelling hunting and
two women neighbors were discussing before their calves whether Kane was a
better fellow than able and how Kane was distinguishably amorous last night and
how easily he could be offended.
If the liberty of thought is the highest activity of the human mind,
than the suppressions of that liberty must be the most degrading to us as human
beings. Slave is a man who has lost his
liberty of thoughts and opinion.
Every autocratic government has tried to confuse literature with
propaganda, art with politics, anthropology with patriotism and religion with
worship of the living ruler.
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