Animals

Those who know me will be familiar by now that I regard the majority of humans as animals. That is, as creatures that live primarily by their base urges and instincts rather than conscious thought. When thinking about the animals in the arena of statecraft and particularly economics or public policy, I find the label particularly apt. The average human is predominantly obsessed with their day to day existences and "survival", and thus leave no room for considering the wider world that affects them no less. I have raised this issue with friends, who have pointed out that poorer people have no time to consider such things as they're too busy trying to stay alive and feed their families. The suggestion gave me pause, because it seemed plausible. However, I quickly recalled where we stand right now, standing on the shoulders of the geniuses who have built up the high technology that we take for granted today. Surely these people had to have thought beyond their everyday lives to bring humanity forward step by painful step. Surely these people didn't start off in a world of plenty the way we are today. Of course, I should qualify what I mean by world of plenty. True, there is certainly hunger and extreme poverty all over the world. However, considering the incredible populations we have this day and the fact that we're feeding a goodly bit more of them than we did back in the day is indicative of the progress made towards sustaining the population. Despite this state of humanity, we do not see a sudden flourishing of amazing new developments and the spontaneous emergence of new philosophies that serve the betterment of humans. Instead, all I see is the blind pursuit of material wealth by animals. Is this the boon that wealth brings, now that there is a great big group of people who no longer fight for survival and have the capacity to ponder greater things?