The Dumb May Speak

I thought long and hard before committing it to cyber space. This is not a new year resolution (2022), not by a long shot. But I felt it was a case of absent logic that should be addressed in some small way at least.

“A sick animal!” “A sick dog!”

I have lost count of the times I’ve uttered these words, this phrase, times we’ve uttered it, and I’m sure we’re not alone. Our inspiration for this expletive has been uncomfortably diverse. The news, whether in print, visual or digital has been a primary source. These carry daily, hourly tales of crime, too sick and revolting. And all too pedestrian.

Paedophilia, rape, murder, mass and serial murder, theft, domestic abuse, child abuse; I dare not attempt to list them all. I cannot, it’s too much. Yet, we target the “voiceless” as similes and metaphors for such unspeakable horrors. This becomes a euphemism for these horrific acts, as such the theme of this brief blog.

Does the animal kingdom display such depravity? Such sickness? Now, I seriously doubt it. Yes, they kill. The predator vs prey dance is all too familiar. But never for sport. It’s survival of the fittest, this is a direct product of their evolved state. The predator survives at the prey’s expense, the prey will survive if it hops and runs at lightning speed. The ‘Law of the Jungle’ is a popular cliché. There is no room for mercy or compassion here. I have heard it most commonly used in a commercial or enterprise context. Perhaps the phrase is fair in its comparison to the animal world, when humans play at it. This is dependent on the strong premise that man (or woman) dominates the food chain especially in an intellectual sense and more dramatically in a spiritual sense. Man has a soul and as such should display humanity and control of their baser instincts. For the record, I believe in the spirituality of man.

What is the issue when some don’t? perhaps there are reasons or root causes. It’s not my domain, I’m not qualified enough even to scratch the surface of this anomaly. An anomaly that has marked man over the last five thousand years of recorded history and almost six million years of pre-history. In my book the ‘The Beast’ I elaborated this perennial conflict between The Godly Man and The Ungodly Man.

Animals can go rogue, there have been enough instances, whether lion, elephant or hippo. But the frequency (or lack of it) of these instances are enough to make this the exception, rather than the rule. They have been terribly injured physically or wronged by us at both an emotional and physical level. It’s common sense really.

My resolution here is not to reason out the availability of a soul in beasts or the acute lack of it in some men. But rather to avoid using similes or metaphors which draw from the animal kingdom to describe the vile acts of man. Because I’m keen to highlight the depravity and malaise embedded in the crime. Now, this will require an act of will since I have spent almost a lifetime indulging this habit.

But, a new challenge then. I need a new set of similes and metaphors.