alt Hacker NewsThe system is in complete harmony. Sometimes the predators are in the ascendancy, sometimes the prey. Our science has little comprehension of the grandeur of the totality of Nature's balance, simply because the willful ignorance of the vast majority of the human race keeps us so out of balance in its destructively selfish competitions.
We are the only creatures who can choose to manifest a selflessly compassionate ethos, instead of selfishly cruel indifference. When we choose compassionate service to all (including the Earth, herself), we not only improve the lives of those around us (and foment our own internal peace and happiness), but we also clariy our perception, allowing us to more deeply grok Nature's intricately beautiful systems that provide our sustenance.
Only in caring for each other, we will learn how to properly care for our blessed mother Earth.
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We are a part of this chaos, not its masters, nor its caretakers. To say we are the only creatures capable of compassion is to elevate ourselves on a pedestal Nature does not recognize. The crocodile may carry its young gently in its jaws, and the antelope may pause to nuzzle its dying calf, but these acts, too, are not born of some selfless ethos but of impulses evolved to ensure survival. Compassion, even in us, is no purer than the physics of a falling tree crushing the undergrowth beneath it. It is Nature's practicality dressed in the robes of morality.
This notion that by choosing compassion we align ourselves with some grand system of interconnected beauty—this is human hubris disguised as virtue. When we care for each other, we do not rise above Nature; we merely enact one of its many mechanisms, one more strategy for persistence in the face of inevitable decay. The Earth does not need our care. She has endured extinction events that wiped out almost all life and reshaped her surface with volcanic fire and freezing ice. She will endure us, too, with the same impassive grandeur.
To truly perceive Nature is not to grok some intricate beauty but to confront the void, the merciless indifference, and to marvel at how, against all odds, life writhes and endures within it. Compassion, then, is not a gift we bestow upon the world—it is a small defiance, a trembling candle held aloft in the endless darkness. We do not save Nature; we survive it. And that is enough.
The vast majority of the human race plays just fine with nature.
It is the extremely few extremely rich humans that are abusing nature.
You appear to have an unassailable belief in your own moral arbitration as to what is compassionate.
> Sometimes the predators are in the ascendancy, sometimes the prey.
This statement has been modeled as the "predator–prey model":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotka%E2%80%93Volterra_equatio...
Why are we the only creatures who can choose that?
Does a crow have no agency to be the first to food and challenge the leader or the scout who keeps watch for the others while they feast?
Can a dolphin not choose to align more closely with play than rape?
It seems to me that animals have much more agency than we choose to believe / allow.
> We are the only creatures who can choose to manifest a selflessly compassionate ethos
Many cetaceans' brains showcase extremely complex and large insular cortex and neocortex regions of their brain, even when compared on a relative scale to their rest of their brain compared to human brains. Additionally, the complexity and granular size of their folds are much more than human brains. It is inconceivable that some of these cetaceans are not capable of the emotions of humans. In fact, it's even a pretty strong argument that these cetaceans possess more intelligence and emotional regulation than humans.
Just because we have not discovered an underlying reason behind our compassion yet does not mean it is selfless.
This is an antiquated view and it would do all of humanity a great service if we could leave it behind. Humans are not the only ones capable of selfless compassion. Any emotion you may have, animals also have, and there are many examples of animals showing compassion without any benefit to themselves. We have examples of plants showing selfless care for other plants in need, sending them nutrients. This whole idea that humans are somehow special is silly. It used to be a widely held belief that we're the only intelligent species, but these days we know better. Animals have emotions just like us, but sadly we largely haven't shaken off our human centric view here yet.