Anthropocentrism

This pervasive viewpoint that all life revolves around human life is the cause of so much suffering and destruction. Religion often backs this up. Was religious doctrine manipulated to support this convenient perspective? I believe so. Frightened of annihilation, homo sapiens have removed themselves from the circle of existence, remolded the circle into a pyramid and placed themselves at the top. 

This hierarchical thinking is the excuse for factory farming, animal abuse and the destruction of the planet. Everything is here for us, in fact, God himself ordained it so. This hierarchical thinking not only is a green light for abuse of all that is non-human, it creates suffering for humans as well. We consider ourselves loving, reaching towards a life of compassion and harmony, yet we constantly either ignore or justify cruel behavior. Therefore we exist in a state of underlying mental turmoil. Accompanying our daily lives and possibly invading our dreams, conflicting viewpoints clash within us. We fiercely love our pets, yet have no qualms about eating abused pigs.

It seems science is discovering more and more that non-human animals are a lot more aware than we would have thought. I feel I have intuitively always known this, at least it doesn't surprise me and I am sure a lot more discoveries are coming. For example, fish ARE intelligent and from what I understand fruit flies dream.

I wrote a very short piece depicting life from a non-human viewpoint. 

The view of extraterrestrial beings according to one

 Drosophila Melanogaster 

Belief in aliens was common. There were stories of those who had been abducted never to return. I didn't believe it, out there in the darkness was nothingness. Yes, we had enemies who attacked us, eating our young, but we dealt with them, we were powerful.

As I gorged on the delicious flesh. That sweet, enveloping scent. There was no room for any thoughts but satiation and procreation. Then a shadow fell upon the landscape. The blackened banana tilted and seemed to lift. Was that a space ship up ahead? The metal door opened and I fell, fell into darkness.

"Drosophila melanogaster is a species of fly in the family Drosophilidae. The species is known generally as the common fruit fly or vinegar fly."
 Excerpt from Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosophila_melanogaster

The Longing to Belong

So I offer you this piece as a starter.

Thanks for stopping by

Lisa  

I firmly believe that countries overwhelm our innate desire to live in an environment (small communities or rather tribes) that is manageable for our hearts and minds.

On the writing site PROSE. An excellent prompt was given. "What are Countries". And the following is my perspective.

Although, I'm sure I'm right. :)

The Longing to Belong

Countries are very, very large tribes.

Countries are a man-made concept that people wholeheartedly identify with. The country, its culture and politics become part of who they are, it affects their personality. People miss their country when away from it. And when away, they gravitate to others from the same country. People are emotionally bound to their countries, they will defend it, die for it.

It is natural to want to belong to something. We are inherently tribal. We yearn to identify and give loyalty. But this longing to belong deceives us into patriotism.

Countries are too large.

Countries need to be fed and then when satisfied made exclusive.

Countries do not occur naturally.

They are a meshing and mashing of related tribes (mostly due to geography) into one concept, one culture, one language, often one religion. Sometimes through colonization, other times through bringing together for political and financial gain. Power.

But does this combining of smaller parts lock easily into a smoothly functioning whole?

For example, in Germany Bavarians see themselves as separate from the rest of Germany,  different, better. The Basque fight for independence from Spain. In the UK there is the question of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland. In France there is Brittany. Its confusing and complicated, with some regions having some form of incomplete autonomy and others utterly disregarded by the centralized power. Even in the US with its grand mixing and discarding of European cultures, even there after the loss of European languages and ancestral ways, the West competes with the East, the South flies its own flag.

Countries are over simplified yet cause complications.

Countries are diversity of language withering under the threat of the pervasive hold of the enforced, national language.

Countries are one, official, well spoken language that people immediately drop as they revert naturally to the vernacular and colloquialisms of their home region.

Countries are diversity flattened into uniformity. Families binding together to form a tribe is about as much as our minds and hearts can and should handle.

As said, countries are too large, even the smallest country's political setup likely makes it difficult for the citizens to keep an eye on the leader. The head of the country becomes removed from the masses that make up the body, there is no personal connection to their  real needs and problems. This gives way to corruption and all its varied yet practically identical political ideologies, the isms.

Countries thrive on indoctrination not initiation. Thus manipulating allegiance.

Within countries we anyway break off into more manageable groups, we gravitate to groups that make us feel like we truly belong, narrow it down into smaller parts in this too vast land called country. We split off into groups defined by our interests, our profession, our sport, our team, our politics, our gender, films we like, music, style, status, race, sexual orientation. Our spiritual beliefs. We show allegiance to certain restaurants, cars, technology.

In Ireland the accent changes from village to village and rivalry thrives based on several miles and invisible but old boundaries. Identification brought back to the tribal.

Countries are usually based on racial bloodlines.

An illusion of purity.