Whoever did this knows how to dream right.
Which isn’t to say that intelligent people can’t look to heaven as a reward for good deeds. Just that, if that’s the only thing that makes you think good deeds are, in fact, good, you’re doing it wrong.
On Pets
The subject of animal abuse is one I take very seriously. The act is something I have a difficult time understanding but, given my naturally inquisitive/analytic nature, I seek to understand everything completely and correctly. This has led me down more than a few treacherous rabbit holes in the past, and investigating the nature of animal cruelty has been no different. However, there is one bit of understanding that I have now, but didn’t have in the past. One of the biggest problems with abusive pet ownership is the very phrase “pet ownership”.
I was talking to a co-worker of mine in the recent past, and while discussing football (which I hate), he mentioned Michael Vick. That’s a name that will garner hate from almost ALL pet lovers, regardless of his ability to throw and catch a ball (Ironically, not unlike a well trained dog). I avoided bringing up Vick’s dog-fighting past because, while I certainly enjoyed my co-worker’s company, he was very clearly on Vick’s side in the discussion at hand. Any mention of dog-fighting would have brought me into a debate with him, and I always try to follow the first rule of debate: choose your opponents wisely.
It wasn’t long however, before he brought up the dog-fighting himself, complaining that Vick’s professional career was hurt (unjustly, my co-worker claimed) by the controversy surrounding the crimes. My first response to that was “yeah!” because if I were convicted of so much as a marijuana possession charge, my entire career would be tarnished by having a criminal conviction on my record. Every single job I’ve applied for has asked whether I’ve been convicted of a crime on some HR form or another. If you are convicted of a crime, especially one involving such a high degree of violence, your professional life will suffer, to say the least. But that was really an entirely different issue (specifically, the cult of celebrity in America).
What really blew my mind, (and helped me to gain at least a little bit of understanding on the subject of animal cruelty) was when he said, almost as an aside, that “they’re his dogs, so he should be able to do what he wants with them.”
At this point, the only thing I could think was “what the fuck”.
This to me is at least a part of why some of the persons who abuse animals don’t find it morally reprehensible to do so. The concept of “pet ownership” is grossly misapprehended by many of the people who are allowed to “own” pets. To a large number of individuals, “owning” a pet is no different than owning a stereo or a computer or a brand new sofa. It is an object. It is a possession. The manner of use and treatment of that object is left entirely to the owner’s discretion.
This is just plain false.
Pet ownership is not stereo ownership. Pet “ownership” is not even a thing. One can have a pet, but one cannot own a pet any more than one can own a human. The relationship between a pet and its caregiver is similar in nature to the relationship between a parent and child. You do not own a pet any more than a parent owns a child. To say that you “have” a pet is the same thing as a parent saying they “have” a child. This is obviously not the same thing as saying you “have” an iPad. The child or pet is not the subject of your possession. That’s not what you “have”. Instead, what you have is responsibility for that child or pet.
If a parent believes the relationship between them and their child is one of ownership, and not that of a caregiver and ward, that relationship is subject to dysfunction and abuse. The same is true of “pet ownership”.
“Pet ownership” is not ownership. It is a responsibility for the well-being a sentient creature with the capacity for emotional experiences and, most importantly, suffering.
A blunt, witty, ass of a character that everyone loves because he’s always right. I knew that sounded familiar.
Things like this remind me that there are good people in the world who are passionate and talented and intelligent. This video is amazing.
I would love to see Disney take on this franchise and turn an adult-oriented, epic fantasy story into something light-hearted and fun, for the little ones (much like they’ve already done with Hercules).
First, this looks like the library in Beauty and the Beast…. Second, I want this in my house. Seriously.
On Philosophy…
I’ve spent a considerable amount of time defending the merits of a Philosophy degree. Mostly because, for a while there, that was all I had going for me. I was getting a degree. And it happened to be in Philosophy. So naturally, I had to respond to a whole hell of a lot of “What do you plan to do with that degree?” because fuck people. (Seriously, nothing annoys someone who’s getting deeper and deeper into debt, because Society told them they had to, more than probing them about what they’re going to do with their degree while simultaneously implying that there is nothing they could do with their degree!) I got really good at defending the damn thing because I’ve always believed that a solid background in Philosophy is a good thing for anyone to have.
Philosophy students (or at least, most of them) don’t spend their time learning about famously esoteric questions and the proposed answers to them because we genuinely believe we’re going to solve these seemingly unsolvable problems. We do it because trying to solve an unsolvable problem is a really good way to learn how to solve a problem. That’s what I always tell people. That it’s not just a degree in Platonic dialogues. It’s a degree in problem solving, and it’s just as practical and useful as any other Liberal Arts degree. Whether or not a Liberal Arts degree is practical in and of itself is an entirely different question, but my point is that a Philosophy degree is no less practical. Critical thinking and writing skills are incredibly practical. And that’s all a philosophy education is. It’s an extended exercise in critical thinking, and comprehensive reading and writing skills. I’ve always known these are useful skills and I’ve always told people so.
However, it never really occurred to me the extent to which my Philosophy education would be an asset in my life until today. I’ve been working as a software engineer for a few months now, and when I first got to my job, I was trying to overcome an unbelievably steep learning curve, with no one on-hand to help me out with it. For the first few weeks, all I did was read. I would show up for work, sit down at my computer and open up PDFs of textbooks on everything I would need to know for this job, and I read. Finally, after a while, I started to take on projects. Small ones at first, but I was turning them around in no time. Soon, major feature implementations were showing up on my to-do list for the week and I was tackling them faster than my boss could write up the specs for me. Meanwhile, a co-worker of mine, who started with the exact same level of experience as me (in fact, he was quite a few classes farther along in the Computer Science curriculum than I was), was making no progress. On anything. For the last two weeks, every time he’d be given a project, he would work on it for a few days, and then pass it off to me, and I’d turn it around that afternoon. Finally, in a fit of frustration, he yelled at me “How do you know how to do this stuff? I don’t understand why you can figure this out and I just hit a wall!”.
Without even thinking, without even looking up from my computer, I replied “Because I’ve learned how to learn.”
That was it. I didn’t realize how valuable my ability to think critically and approach a problem efficiently was until I watched someone try to solve a problem without a Philosophers skill set. There is a world of difference. That’s what my Philosophy education has given me. I can walk into any environment with no experience and, given the right resources, I can learn. Quickly. Many people leave college without that skill, and that’s a damn shame.
