Common sense tells us human beings are the dominant species on the planet. We’ve terraformed the world to our liking, put other creatures into zoos for our pleasure, while leaders over centuries have dictated the land boundaries we’ve come to define as countries.
We’ve ascended to this position through our emotional and imaginative intelligence, a quality which makes us believe we’re smarter than other life forms. This however isn’t necessarily true, other animals simply have different skills and instincts adapted to their own survival. Dogs have an incredible sense of smell, bees are built for pollinating plants, food crops and creating honey, while the chameleon can change skin colour to suit their mood and situation.
For all our perceived superiority, we’re actually quite unremarkable. Art is arguably our greatest asset, whether through monuments, music, buildings or anything else. When we’re sitting atop the food chain, it’s easy to forget we’re driven by the same survival instincts of any other animal. We want food, shelter, sex, and something to do on the weekends. It’s the natural cycle of desire and survival, spinning on rotation until we’re dead.
I find comfort in acknowledging our basic urges. We pretend we’re sophisticated; clinking glasses at cocktail parties and laying napkins on laps while eating at restaurants. All the while, we’re pissing and shitting in cubicles the next room along. We do our utmost to prevent spillages while eating braised lamb shanks, yet a sweaty hump in the early hours has no such etiquette. Everyone is trying to look respectable when we just want ice cream and fucks.
Our needs, like rainfall, are the perfect equaliser. Anyone I admire or idolise, I envisage them taking a massive dump to slap my fascination back into normality. This human being isn’t a talented god but a skeleton stuffed with fleshy organs just like me. Sebastian Stan, for all his chest, has probably accidentally pissed on the bog seat and messily cleaned it up. We’re all one and the same.
I write this as a message of reassurance. We’re going to encounter people throughout life we find intimidating, despicable, attractive, or perceive as better than ourselves. Throw all that to the wind and imagine them at their most primal. You might find empathy along the faecal brick road.
StarkTreatment 