Page 34 - Fables volume 2

“My friends, the ethical contradictions in Homo sapiens’ dealings
with each other and with us are glaring: why are they not evident to
this self-designated crown of creation? Let me return to a word I just
used: the soul. Americans in particular have bound their worldview to
religion; they cannot disentangle patriotism from glorification of
divine blessing, morality from interpretations of revealed sacred texts.
In short, we shall not advance our cause unless we can bend this
reliance on holy writ and superstition to our own purpose. As you
heard Pretty Boy the parrot explain earlier today, his task was to
research the American bibles for material we can use.”
Polite applause broke out for the scholarly avian perched next to
the podium, flustering him. He was unaccustomed to public speaking
and certainly no firebrand.
“He was able to discover the references we need. According to
their unquestioned text, the humans’ god created them last; they
interpret that as a sign of superiority. It is just as easily seen as that
deity getting everything else right before turning loose such a
destructive beast. But the first man, in this simple-minded
cosmology, was ordered to give names to all the animals there ahead
of him. Why? Shouldn’t the deity have named them himself, instead
of leaving it to their eventual dominator? This unanswered question
has allowed mankind to dispense names according to will and whim:
if you’re a pet or a member of a human’s preferred circle of other
humans, you get a good epithet. If not, you are fit for every sort of
torment and execution—dehumanized, as Pretty Boy said. And you
are given the other sort of epithet, putting you beyond the pale of
ethical or moral—ironically, what is called ‘humane’—treatment.”
The audience was growing restless. Sensing that, she sped up her
remarks.
“The humans’ religion also enjoins them to eat a vegetarian diet—
they ignore it. It urges them to ‘turn the other cheek,’ and not do
unto others what they would not want done unto themselves. It
preaches honesty, compassion and tolerance. But it also lets them
establish a movable line between animals worthy of those applied
virtues and those who are not, as it does within their own species.
Nevertheless, the stronger arguments in their own tradition are for
universal respect of animate beings.”
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