Are we really at the top of the food chain?

edited June 2025 in General

Having read numerous postings documenting disrespectful "boundary" violation behavior, I sometimes wonder if humans really belong at the top of the food chain especially, when comparing these behaviors to remarkable you tube videos highlighting beautiful inter-species relationships where animals essential form a bond saving each other.

Comments

  • This broke my brain. What does the "food chain" have to deal with disrespectful boundaries @dennis22554? I'd love to understand.

  • not looking to cause issues---especially with those that dislike me

  • I have written several posts discussing the importance of "respect". Some will never get the message--therefore the topic

  • edited June 2025

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  • edited June 2025

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  • edited June 2025

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    I'm sorry, this is just where my brain went to ... it is odd, I know (well, technically even) ... if you get it...

  • edited June 2025

    I think I see what you're getting at here, so I'll give my two cents.

    It's humans' intellect that put us at the "top" of the food chain. In unaided and tool-less hand to hand combat, we would lose to numerous species, but our strength is in our technology. Some animals, Crows come to mind, are able to use tools to accomplish tasks, but no other animals to my knowledge actually invent new tools. I think that's what sets humans apart from all other species on Earth. (Among other things, of course.)

    Now, assuming I'm off topic here, I'd like to ask for further clarification, and some specificity with what you're proposing as topic of discussion. Thanks :)

  • "belong" at the top of the food chain? I'm not sure that respect, consent, and boundaries correlate with being at the top of the food chain ... actually, come to think of it, the predator traits that put us there conflict with those things. And we learned those traits over tens of thousands of years as survival skills.

    The nice thing about being human is that we can learn behaviors other than mere survival.

  • edited June 2025

    Yes there are plenty of cute videos (and I do enjoy watching them) of the dog and the dolphin, the cat and the dog, dog and the cow, etc. that form inter-species bonds, but there are plenty of cats that torture and play with their food before killing their prey, killer whales taunting seals before killing, and don't forget the extreme unsettling behavior that our primate counter parts can inflict upon each other and other species.

    Kindness nor the ability to inflict cruelty is uniquely human. We have elavated both to its own art forms.

    Since highschool and introduction to classical literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne's view of the world has always stuck with me. I'm paraphrasing but he basically says the first two things any new town needs is a graveyard and a jail.

    The book men behaving badly can be an interesting read to see how maladaptive behaviors may fit into the broader context of our growing from early tribal roots to current civilization.

    I do think the world is incrementally getting better but a painfully slow rate and for the foreseeable future there will always be those that will habe unsavory intentions, but I doubt they are bothering to read anyone's forum post.

  • @dennis22554 - your posts are being flagged for being pointless, senseless, nonsensical, for which you've been warned. Be very deliberate and practice great care as you consider your posts in the future, because I have no qualms in timing out your forum access.

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