Worse than Any Animal

This morning, as we were studying about the influence of the social environment, a student asked in bewilderment about the agenda being pushed by liberal circles. He said, “We learn that the environment gives us all our habits. Recently, things that have been taken for granted for thousands of years are being put into question: Men want to be women, women want to be men, children want to be treated as if they are cats, and teachers have to comply with the children’s wishes. Where will this lead? How low will we fall?”

The only way to make things right is to deal with human issues rather than with bodily issues. If we worry about increasing social cohesion and mutual responsibility, people will feel confident about who they are and how they should behave. This, in turn, will make people happier and calmer. They will feel connected to their communities, and the new level of cohesion will feel so rewarding that people will stop wondering whether they are men, women, or cats.

My answer was straight and simple: “We will become worse than animals, in every way.” This required a more elaborate explanation: Humans possess characteristics that are beyond the animate level. These attributes have driven us to develop culture, art, religion, ethics, and various forms of governance. In a word, they make up what we call “civilization.”

Yet, when we misuse these attributes, they degrade us and make us lower than any animal. When we apply human morality to animate instincts, which have nothing to do with morality but function in us the same as in every other animate body, we warp our perception of the world and create distortions in society.

Animals do not ask about their sex or ponder what species they are. They are simply the way biology has made them. When we introduce morality into biology, which is exclusively the realm of instincts, we ruin our instincts and impair our biology.

Humans can be above all of reality, or below all of reality. When we leave the animate level alone and focus on the human level — on improving society through greater solidarity and mutual concern — we raise humanity above all of creation. Moreover, in doing so, we contribute to the world we live in. Conversely, when we focus instead on messing with our biology, we become lower than animals because we disrupt society and corrupt our morals and our bodies.

The only way to make things right is to deal with human issues rather than with bodily issues. If we worry about increasing social cohesion and mutual responsibility, people will feel confident about who they are and how they should behave. This, in turn, will make people happier and calmer. They will feel connected to their communities, and the new level of cohesion will feel so rewarding that people will stop wondering whether they are men, women, or cats.