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We,The People, are not happy
19 - Good and Bad
To explore a different planet does not mean that we have to abandon all our values. We want to preserve our notion of good and bad. If a trip to one planet makes us change our mind, it must be a change that would apply everywhere and not only on the planet we are visiting. That does not mean that we want to impose our notion of what is good and bad to the whole universe. It only means that we don’t have the monopoly of the good and bad.
Our notion of Good and Bad has to change.
The small bacteria are in control. The poor mouse is marching to her death, not even conscious of what is going to happen to her. We would decide that the death of the mouse is “bad”. It is even the worst thing that could happen to it!
Have you ever heard of the Toxoplasma.gondii?
Humans, cats and mice have a common bacteria called the Toxoplasma.gondii and these bacteria have a problem. The T. gondii in the mouse must infect a cat before it can reproduce. Getting cat and mouse together does not happen naturally. You could not make sex life more difficult. The bacteria have a solution. They make the mouse to be seduced by the smell of the cat. You may think that this is a dirty trick, but it works. The result, of course, is that the cat eats the mouse, and the bacteria can reproduce.
Mother Nature may have a different opinion. Her goal is for everyone to find his place in the world. She sacrifices mice to make a place for the Toxoplasma.gondii. If, someday, the mouse becomes an endangered species, the cats will go hungry. Mother Nature, in her infinite wisdom, will protect the mouse and restore the balance between cats, mice, humans and the T gondii. For the Toxoplasma gondii, it is a lifesaver. For the cat, it is an easy source of food. We would not blame the mice for having mixed feelings about the whole thing.
Toxoplasma.gondii can also be found in humans.
“Toxoplasma infection is classically associated with the frequency of schizophrenia, suicide attempts or road rage”.
How can we be sure that the main reason the Homo sapiens survived 300 000 years is not that Nature kept a balance between them and their environment? Humans may have been the cause of the death of innocent animals, and humans may have been sacrificed for the survival of some animal species.
We may have to reconsider what we call Good and Bad.
Some questions remain?
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How can the T. gondii know that they need a cat to reproduce?
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What do bacteria know about smell?
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How can the small bacteria know what a cat is?
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Can the Toxoplasma.gondii think?
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The general question is: Who’ decides ‘what’ on planet Earth?
Nature also keeps a balance between animals and plants.
The African koudous eat acacias. When there is a drought, they eat acacias to the point that the plant may not survive. Mother Nature’s solution is to make the acacias produce more tannin than the liver of the koudous can process. The plant kills the animal. The decision does not come from the acacias and their knowledge of the limits of the koudous’ liver. There must be a mastermind somewhere, in the immaterial world, controlling everything. This is way above our head.
Could the life of human beings be governed by something we are not conscious of? The main decisions about life are not made at the human level. Our ideas of good and bad may not always apply.
What happens when we grow up?
Something important happens when the human child is 2 or 3 years old and starts saying “I”. He is now conscious of being a separate human being. He has an individual ego. He divides the world into two: What is inside his skin and what is outside. Before this separation, he was part of the world, and the world was in him. He is now going to spend the rest of his life trying to escape his isolation. His first love may give him the illusion that there is a way to escape his solitude. That can make the first broken heart even more painful. He is getting access to a higher level of good and bad.
The ‘Bad” can help understand the ‘Good’.
When you break a cookie into pieces you get the pieces and the link between them. Humans focus on the pieces because they have shape, color, and taste. They belong to the material world. This is well-known territory. We are not sure what to do with the links between the pieces. We discard them. This is what happens when the human species gets broken into little groups. Each group fights for what it perceives to be its own survival. We forget that we all belong to the same species. The “bad” appears when we focus on the parts and ignore the links between them. A country may start a war with another country. A religion may fight another religion. They have forgotten what unites them. That would require a higher level of consciousness.
