YOUR ENGLISH SECTION

SOME THOUGHTS ON CATS, HUMANS AND PIGS

More than half a century ago Sir Winston Churchill noted that dogs look up to humans, cats look down, and only pigs seem to regard us as equals. A bitter joke on human imperfection, of course – but, at the same time, it is a fact. We are accustomed to considering ourselves to be the crown of creation and to look down on dogs, cats and pigs. How do we know that we are right, and the animals are not?
However, being an opponent of any relativism, I’m going to argue that we are right indeed.
Of all the creatures populating the globe, we seem to be about the most unequipped to survive in its tough environment. Our bodies are weak, defenceless, and very sensitive. Logically, our fate was to die out, saving land for stronger life forms.
Nonetheless, we had enough reason and will to survive. More than that, we’ve built up civilisations; so that now we can use our reason and will for something apart from survival. Most wild animals, unless they are very hungry, regard us as something mysterious, something they should not have contact with.
You may say we are mostly wasting our abilities and opportunities to think – and you would be right. But let us avoid double standards: we judge animals by their abilities rather than by their deeds. Unlike our adversaries, we can afford to tolerate weak and stupid individuals – even those who are devoted to the idea of destroying civilisation and, hence, the luxury of tolerating themselves. Even this is proof of our greatness!
However, though we are the greatest of all living creatures, it is still difficult to assert our supremacy over felines. Somehow, our success and reason, our great civilisations, do not impress them; but nobody would dare say they are just too primitive to apprehend these.
It seems to me that they have perceived their own freedom, and, like ourselves, their own reason and will. Whatever we do, feline eyes observe us with a kind of sacred wisdom; all our civilisations are just childish games to them. And we, carefully pretending to be imperious and to regard them as pets, subconsciously admire them and try to emulate them. In vain.
Sometimes I think they are much older.

By Pavel Stroilov,
2nd year student of Moscow University for Humanities