by Astley Brown Ii

Created on: August 22, 2009   Last Updated: August 23, 2009

First we must examine what cruelty really is. I see a large portion of the "No" side mentioning things that en effet are just how life is. Life is not "cruel". Life is marked by many options for many different sentient beings, and some who are not so cognizant. This breeds chaos. Chaos is not cruel. Chaos is nameless, faceless, thoughtless, therefore it is benign in nature. Whatever entropy caused by chaos is merely a by-product, not cruelty. Cruelty is purposeful acts done to negate or harm with malicious intent.

Now, the use of animals for sustenance and clothing is not cruelty. It's simply meeting need. You can say we have the capabilities to make synthetic fabrics, but if you really think about it, someone will suffer from the factories being built (as nature is destroyed to build them), the pollution caused by the usage of unclean and nonrenewable energy, and even the underpaid workers who are often used by companies...is this unfair? For sure. Cruel....no, unless the man sitting in his big window view office commanding the actions is sitting in his leather chair petting a fluffy white cat and cackling.

I believe humanity can live a cruelty free existence. The mind of a human being cannot refrain from bad thoughts, it is given options, and our faculties for thought have no discipline whatsoever. But we have to ask, what is the better question: can one person live in this world the way it is cruelty free? Definitely not. There are cruel people and there are people who are cruel out of negligence and lack of heart just amassed together, often overcrowded-which can make humans even more neurotic and more cruel than they would if they lived in a place that wasn't as industrialized and enslaved to agriculture and an anfractuous, intangible concept we like to call "economy".

However, if things were different, if we were to start anew, all of us, as a race of animals (for we are in the animal kingdom) could live in peace and harmony. Would it be easy? No way. It'd be difficult to start over, to adopt and practice the vital tennets of a lot of the most peaceful of the races (which are often the indigenous ones we as agriculturalists have eradicated for the most part either by influence or genocide), the various faiths of the globe and even revamp how we teach our children from infancy upward. this all would take time and the changes would take generations and generations to fully set in, and some would fight it initially, but haven't we all been fighting the most petty battles thus far? It'd be worthy and worth it in the long run. Not just for us but even our mother planet.

I have always thought that man was in such a rush to create civilization that we totally by-passed the "being civilized" part.

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