Mankind - Big Deal!

A thought came to me the other day while watching discovery channel. It was showing some documentary on animals survivability and also a special on how efficient sharks are in the oceanic food chain. The question that came to my mind is "Are we the most efficient, smartest, top of the food chain and king of the earth when compared to animals as well as plants? I think not...." Let me explain or provide my opinion as follows in 3 stages.

The first of course being our birth :-

As a human being, we are burdened with the responsibility of Life. Life in human terms is being determined by a complex structure of rules, cultures and systems. When we are born, we burden our parents with the responsibility of raising us. Exasperating them often with our immature antics. Antagonising them with our ridiculous request for attention and love. And lastly exhausting them of their own means for survival - Money (Is this the smartest invention mankind ever discovered? I think not!! Another issue fr another post).

Whereas, as compared to other species on earth such as plants and animals, the birth of such creatures would often require a far simpler structure. For many, it is a matter of giving birth to thousands with the odds stacked at the survivability of a couple of hundreds (Hopefully). For most animals, the moment they are born, they can run as well as walk and seemed armed to the teeth with the necessary tools for their own survival. As for plants, drop a seedling or spread some spores and it's que sera sera. Parental responsibility? For some creatures yes, often times it is never longer than a few weeks or months just to ensure the infant creature can/is ready to fend for itself or are not devoured too early in their vulnerable form (egg form/nuts/planktonian/larvae etc. form). As for plants, again it is que sera sera.

The second stage - The Formative years

After the first stage in the life of a human being, the next stage would be the formative years where again, mankind have somehow managed to find more and more complex/complicated ways to educate and arm the young ones to the realities they will face when they hit the last and final Adulthood stage. They are being put into herds whereby they are taught the ways to conform and be accepted by society at large in the beginning. They are also taught ways to communicate with proper complex words and sentences to describe the multitude of expressions and ideas that a human being is supposedly capable of. (Which to me, the only use only arises in complex human system structures. But if one is to strictly adhere to the basic needs, which is food and shelter) there should be ways to make it simpler.

Again, let us take a look at the creatures around us, the plants and the animals. For plants, as far as we are concerned, they dont communicate vocally or expressively like us but as a species they still seem to be able to go forth and conquer 2/3rds of Globe way before the arrival of mankind. As for animals, believe their communication is purely instinctive as far as we can see/tell without getting too complex as how we humans often get when talking/expressing ideas/thoughts amongst ourselves.

For the animals, if they are hungry, they hunt and there is no argument on when to hunt, how to hunt, how to share the spoils and what not, they just do it. Like Nike. As for us Humans, we will end up talking, debating, fight, reason and seek justification, for all our actions so that it is deemed acceptable and reasonable by Human standards and customs. The animals are simpler, hungry eat. Tired, rest. If challenged and beaten, leave quietly. A perfect system and a perfect hierarchy. Survival of the fittest. As for humans, we justify our defeat, we brag about our successes, we become greedy, we complicate even the simplest of issues and we are always seeking the ultimate reason for existing be it fame or infamy or power or money. The sad thing is, humans are never content with what we have.

For plants and animals. The exist merely to exist as nature intended them to do and share an almost perfect symbiotic bond between all lifeforms on Earth in perfect harmony.

The third stage - Adulthood.

For humans, when we reach adulthood we will be bogged down with career choices (which is mainly to sustain our basic needs plus a fantastical amount of wants!! ) as well as life choices in terms of finding a suitable mate/companion and somehow sow our seeds to ensure that we have continuity for our species. After all, we humans often think that we are the masters of this planet. Hence, we trudge along, arming ourselves with the knowledge to land ourselves with fat paying jobs in order to have a huge bank account in order to buy the ferrari or the beach front bungalow and wear expensive designer clothings and accessories. We continue to expand our already very complicated/complex system further by creating extensive supply chains for our wants as well as thinking of ever new demand for stuff which at the end of the day we dont need. And so the cycle continues.

For the plants and the animals, they dont bother themselves with such nonsense and they are comfortable as they are (no fancy cars, no need to make clothing or house) and everything they need is provided to them at birth. Efficient no?

They live to eat, sleep and pass on just as nature intended. No complex system and no complex wants. They live in perfect contentment as they are. Of course, I know some of you reading this may think that it is because animals and plants are lesser life forms who does not have our intellectual skills and possess our brain power to enable them to evolve to who we humans are. But the question is, is it necessary??

Are we, Mankind, getting the long end of the deal here on Earth or the short end? Are we too arrogant to see ourselves as the most superior species on Earth thus blinding us to the fact, which as simply stated above, that we are actually the opposite. Food for thought?