"you and me baby aint nothin but mamals"

"you and me baby aint nothin but mammals so lets do it like they do it on the discovery channle". While the song by The Blood Hound Gang is a song about sex, the chorus speaks a biological truth, we aint nothin but mammals. Human seem to seperate them selfs from other animals such as dogs and monkeys. This unjust serperation creates a void in our lives that effects how we live negetivitly. There are six main reasons why we think we seperate our selves from animals.

The first reason is Genisis. In the book of Gensis the first chapter tells the creation myth. God created the earth, light, plants, animals, and humans. Then god dacreed that man would dominate over all other living things. Genisis tells us that all the animals of the world are here to serve us. this idea puts us above the animals, we are here and everyone else is here for us. this is used as a justification to mis treat other animals because they are so we may be happy.

The second reason is science. Scientists have created a tree which shows what family every animal is in. when the tree is drawn you see that humans branch out from the rest of the animals. This tells us that while techinally we are animals, we are a specail kind of animal diffrent from the rest. according to this chart we are diffrent from other animals, like a super animal.

A third way we seperate ourselfs from animals is the myth of creation. We are told that there we're the end result of evolution. Evolution started at amebais who got bigger then came onto land and after millions of years we were born. We are told that we were the end result everything. that all that evolving and such were all so we could be here. This is the equivlent of a jellyfish saying that after years finally the jellyfish was created. the average person will find that stupid. they will says things like "thats stupid after the jellyfish things kept evolving." The same can be said about us. who said the world was done changing. This idea of we are the final product tells us that all the animals of the world were just part of the equation to make us. we put ourselves on a pedistil sayin elvolution has created the ultimit species, us.

In dailey life we are constantly surrounded by people. At the same time we are rarely near any other animals. sure we see the squirl or pigeon, mabye even a hawk. but 95% of the time we are with other humans only. By seperatting our selves from animals we easly forget our animal instincts. We get so cuaght up in the human socail pressures of everything. we lose sight of the fact that we are animals and enjoy doing animal things.

Descartes came up with an idea that would further seperate ourselves from animals. He believed in dualism. the idea that we are just a soul trapped in a body. but he took it to another level by saying animals dont have it. he would then tutore dogs and explain that the cries of the dog were really stimulus responces and that there was no real pain and no real soul. This idea has been taken in by our society. by adapting this idea we can now easly kill hundreds of animals for food and uses hundreds more for test expirements, because they dont dont have souls so they arent really there. while we on the other hand have soals and must be defended from everylittle thing that might harm us.

Along with this idea of dualism is the idea of religion. Since we humans have souls we get to go to heaven. the human is just a ghost trapped inside of a machine. when we die that ghost is released and sent to heaven or hell. other animals dont have this. When a dog dies, he just dies. there is no soul to go up to heaven for eternal bliss. This idea that we have an eternal soul and others dont puts us a grade above everyone else. while everyone else will die, we will last for ever.

That last way we seperate ourselves is the most clear. When we think of animals we think of wild animals running through the woods or playing with each other in the plains. we see these images on the tele as we sit in our desks in a unnaturally lighted room. We spend the majority of our lives in chairs. your bed, to the kitchen, to the bathroom, to the train, to school and back. we dont run around and be active like the other animals. This creates a void in us. by sitting down all day we cant act on our animal instincts.

There are four major benefits to relizing we are infact animals.

the first is childbirth. By seperatting ourselves from our animal ways, we lost confidence in how we give birth. we bagan to go to hospitals and get the drugs and metal objects. by understanding we are infact animals and seeing that no other animal lets other animals cut them open to take out the baby, we understand that we can give birth with out the hospitals and surgeries.

The second is our physical health. By accepting we are animals we throw out the idea of dualism. Once we accept the idea that our body is part of ourself we start taking better care of it. we will start accepting the fact that we do need excersice to be healthy, and not just to fit into those jeans. As humans we look for the greater things in life. we try and develope our mind, because we think thats what makes us better then the other animals. We focouse so much on the mind we forget about our body. by understanding we are infact animals we will look at our bodies as important too and try to improve that.

The final reason i remember is the idea that no one will save us. By assuming that we are the end point of evolution, and that we have souls we assume that we will be saved in the end. What we have to understand is that we are not specail. we are the same decaying matter as everything else. 99% of the animals who lived on this planet are gone. Once we understand that we are just another animal we will understand that no one will save us and that we are on our own.

This subject has effected me.I like many people have said "we are animals" but never really beleived it. The idea that we will not be saved has caused me to lose hope. up until now i always thought things would get better one way or another. in part because i seperated my self from other animals. but now i see that i am jsut an animal and i have just the same chance of becoming extint as every other specieces.I now believe that we wont last for ever. All hope for humans have been lost. its only after you lose everying are you free to do anything.

This unit has also effected my ideas of a perfect world. my dream world has alot more animals roaming free and alot less hard sidewalk. one day dream i had after a class was new york city, except the sidewalks and streets were gone. in their place was dirt and trails, kinda like when you take a hike through the forest. i saw vines climbing the walls of buildings and animals in trees. While this was only a day dream its interesting to think of a world where we are more connected to nature with out doing back to the wild.
its also important to understand we are animals so we may shed the socail pressure that seperate ourselfs from animals. i have never seen a fox with skinny jeans and a tight polo shirt. by understanding we are animals we can do thing that benefit us and not the opposite. instead of eatting burgerking we get a salad. instead of wear bright red skinnt jeans which are hard to move in we wear looser clothings that we can move. The more we let go of unnatural behaivor the more we become free.

our views on old peopl effect us

http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/viewsonoldagemaybecomerealitylater.html

being a teenager prevents meaningfullness

Between parents and school there is no real time for a teenager to live his or her life. We are told to be at school at 830 so we have to wake up earlyer then we want to. We spend the first half of the day learning things that we are told are important, then we are given a set amount of time to eat before we go back to learning about the "important" things. then we go home, mabye do an after school activity, and do homework.

then we have week ends. As if school doesnt take up enough of our lives, it bleeds over into our week end. the point of the week end we are told is to get away from school and relax. That wouldnt be such a bad idea if it wasnt for school and parents. In between over the weekend school work, and our parents having control over where teenagers go and what they do, there isnt much freedom left in it at all.
This leaves us with the question of between going to school five times a week, to having to ask permission to leave the house on a saterday night; is a teenagers life really their life. Or is it the life that other people force upon us.

being a teenager is just like being a dog. How much control does a dog really have over his life? He eats only when he is fed, he pees only when he is let out and if he doesnt sit down when he is told, he is punished. Niether teenager nor dog has the freedom that they think they have

my living funeral

The real question when making this list was who would make me sounds good. The point of a funeral is to make the person better then he was. A man kills a girl when he is 23; at her funeral they talk about how great he was at 17. People who speak tell everyone else how "meaningful" the dead guys life was. A man sits at a desk all day everyday till he dies, the people talk about that one time he gave a homeless man a dollar. Because by talking about that one time his life seems meaningful.
So the question who who can kiss my ass enough to make my life seem meaningful.

questions

1)how much does a funeral cost?
average funeral cost 6,500
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/RetirementandWills/PlanYourEstate/HowToPlanAFuneral.aspx

2) how much is the average nursing home?
$2,969 a month
http://www.mcknights.com/Survey-Average-cost-of-private-nursing-home-room-drops-in-2008/article/120072/

3)How many old people live in poverty?
3.4 million seniors age 65 and older live below the poverty line
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/07/elderly_poverty.html

4)how many old people are in a nursing home
5 percent of the 65+ population occupy nursing homes, congregate care, assisted living, and board-and-care homes, and about 4.2 percent are in nursing homes at any given time.
http://missourifamilies.org/quick/agingqa/agingqa7.htm

5)how many old people are widows
67 percent
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEED6103EF935A25757C0A961948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

6)57 percent of men and 52 percent of women today enjoy sex. About one quarter of those old people ages 75 to 85 are now sexually active. (http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/sexual-reproductive/2008/09/04/making-the-most-of-the-new-sexual-revolution.html)

7)Researcher found that 91 percent of U.S. adults, about 50.5 million, used at least one medication regularly. Prescription medicines were used by 81 percent of adults, or 44.9 million older Americans. Most medications were used by those 75 to 85 years old. (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_73119.html)

It has become clear to me the importance of old people; money. Old people are seen as people with lots of money and nothing to do. becuase of that buisness have gone and tried to squeeze every penny out of them. from the pills to keep them erect, to the expensive funerals you never stop buying stuff. We talk about the idea of the media telling us what a meaningful life is as if it only is told to teenagers. its not, even old people are being told how to live their last days. With all the wisdom and history these old people have, they are still being told their life isnt meaninful.

statistics

1. What percentage of old people live in nursing homes?

2. What percent of old people are widows?

3. what percent of old people keep in touch with their family?

4. Still work?

5. How many old people kill themselves?

6. How many old people have kids

7. How many are sexually active?

8. On medications?

9. Socially active?

10. How many have come over from another country to try and live a better life in America for themselves or their family?

11. How many have health care?

12. Pension?

13. How many old people know how to use today's modern technology?

14. Rate of poverty?

15. Food stamps?

16. percent over age of 65?

17. How has that changed over time?

18. How many old people actually talk to their grandkids or kids in general?

interview

1. What is your favorite memory
Oh, I have so many its hard to pick one. But i remember one year at camp on parent visitting day i tell my dad i came in third in a swim race. "how many kids were in the race he asks?" "three"
2. do you think your life was meaningful
I lived my life, had many expirences, learned alot of lessons. yes i do.
3. were there any parts of your life that you thought were wasted
Nah, i wouldnt say my time was wasted. It might have not been excitting, but i was always working toward some goal and every goal takes work.
4. do you feel you are just waitting to die
(laughs) im not waitting to die. I am living my life in a relaxed manner. right now im waitting for lunch.
5. do you have any plans for the future.
Im gonna eat my lunch.