Thought Exercise #12: Due 12/3/13

Marie Mason:...I was a direct action proponent from the age of five. It started for me at the age of five when a group of teenagers were throwing a kitten in the air repeatedly to see if the old adage was true that she would land on her feet every time. She was clearly frightened and exhausted, failing to land on her feet and not doing well by the time I worked up the courage to leap from the crowd of bystanders, grab the kitten, and run like hell for home. My parents explained to me that pets were other people's property and I had stolen other people's property. So, they made me go talk to the "owner," apologize for my "theft," and explain my side of the story. I managed to impress them with my sincere wish for the cat's well-being, so they gave her to me, and Misha lived with my family for twenty-two years as a cherished companion.
“What Is Good for All of Us, Is the Only True Good for Any of Us”: An Interview with Marie Mason
Matthew Ross Calarco
Pg. 127-139

Just reading about how children treat animals make me think that children can be no different from adults in their treatment to animals. When I see or hear of children mistreating animals, or saying they hate animals, it makes me wonder about their level of empathy and compassion, particularly by the time they develop into adults. In high school, one of my teachers say told the class that even though it is always said that people change over time, while there is some truth to that, people actually do not fully change their personalities throughout their entire life. At the very core of each person are some traits that do not simply alter, even as they face different events and scenarios throughout their lives. Some people may remain stubborn, or introverted, or extroverted, or weak-willed. It may simply just be because that's just how they are born to be.
Just like humans, animals all have their own unique personalities. As a dog owner, I observe this in dogs as well. One of my dogs hates swimming and is terrified of large bodies of water, but my other dog enjoys it very much. One of my dog prefers to be petted on his back, while my other dog prefers his neck and head. They shouldn't be subject to the harsh treatment only because they are different creatures from humans, one who cannot use human speech to convey their feelings or speak up for themselves.

Thought Exercise #12: Due 11/26/13

“Let them see that you trust them & let them solve their own problems, make their own decisions.Do that & they will commit their lives to you. Bully the, control them out of fear or malice or just for your own convenience, & after a while you'll have to spend all your time thinking for them, controlling them, & stifling their resentment.” 
― Octavia E. Butler, Fledgling

I think of the Golden Rule: Treat Others the Way You Want to Be Treated. There is the saying that "What goes around comes around," which also applies to the concept of karma, in which all your actions and treatment of others will in one way or another come back to you. When a one is shown kindness, trust, and support, a relationship of mutual understanding, trust, and commitment to bringing out the best in one another can truly blossom and be mutually beneficial. But when one is bullied and mistreated in any way, karma will turn things against the original perpetrator.

The quote from "Fledgling" also made me think of the quote from Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince":  “It is best to be both feared and loved; however, if one cannot be both it is better to be feared than loved....It is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.” After all, to run a government, or to be a leader, one has to be feared to a certain degree in order to be respected, but it is a tricky balance to be a great leader who treats others well and is loved, while being recognized as a powerful, trustworthy, dependable leader at the same time.

Thought Exercise #11: Due 11/19/13

"In Kanaka Hawai'i cosmology, Kanaka Maoli (real people, human beings) share family relationships with the entire universe. This is best understood first through the Kumulipo, which is a cosmogonic prayer as well as the genealogy of Kalakaua and Lili'uokalani....In this cosmology, humans are part of a vast family that includes celestial bodies, plants, animals, landforms, and deities....The distinction between animal and human is clearly drawn nowhere in this cosmology. Humans descend from landforms, kalo, animals, and humans."
--Jonathan Goldberg and Noenoe Silva, "Sharks and Pigs: Animating Hawaiian Soverignty Against the Anthropological Machine"

This cosmology reminds me of the ecological system of the earth. All around the earth, all creatures are interconnected in one way or another. As I learned from biology class, all life originates from the sun, since the plants gain their energy via photosynthesis, and life on earth ultimately depends on the energy source from the sun. Without the sun, life would not exist. Building upon the energy from the sun, all life on earth depend on one another for survival, even if it means hunting down each other to keep the population number in balance. Yet, as Mufasa from Walt Disney's The Lion King said tells his son:

Mufasa: Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance and respect all the creatures, from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope. 
Young Simba: But, Dad, don't we eat the antelope? Mufasa: Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connnected in the great Circle of Life. 


And so, life goes on and on.

Thought Exercise #10: Due 11/12/13

"How intelligible is the (or an) Asian body? "Asian American" sex and gender positions are deeply polarized; the missing Asian male phallus is countered by a female hypersexuality ranging in representation from the submissive geisha to the "dragon lady."
--Mel Chen, "Queer Animality"

The Asian body is foreign to the Western world, sometimes to the point of being seen as animals to outsiders. Asian women have a stereotype of being very meek, shy, and submissive, yet extremely hyper-sexual once behind closed doors. Meanwhile, the men in the Western media are typically shy geeks, complete omega males who cannot assert themselves in society. Growing up as a non-whitewashed Asian American, I'm proud to say that I'm quite in touch with my asian heritage, and am also proud to say that my dating/sexual preferences goes to asian men, mainly due to similar cultural values. I know that when some asian girls express interest in asian men, some people will gawk at them in awe, and ask, "Wait? What???? How do you like asian guys?" In addition, one hilarious, yet disturbing, Tumblr website titled "Creepy White Men," is a collection of screenshots of demeaning messages that asian females receive on dating websites from, you guessed it, creepy caucasian men.

In one entry, an asian girl got a message from a creepy white guy who asked her who the asian guy in one of her collection of pictures was. When she told him it was Wang LeeHom,  he told her, "What the Hell? Asian guys are so ugly. Don't you know that asian girls prefer white guys?" As if he thought he could force an opinion on her! For the record, the white guy was unattractive, and Wang LeeHom was the hot guy with the chiseled body. Of course a handsome asian man would be preferable over any ugly white guy any day, at least, based on looks.

The Creepy White Guy tumblr page can be found here for disturbing hilariousness. http://creepywhiteguys.tumblr.com/

Thought Exercise #9: Due 11/5/13

When reading "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," I thought of how the earlier androids were easier to be detected by the bounty hunters due to their limited intelligence. However, as android technology improved, bounty hunters had to administer the Voigt-Kampff empathy test in order to distinguish humans from androids. This test was done by measuring empathetic responses, or lack thereof, from questions designed to evoke an emotional response, often including animal subjects and themes. Since androids lack empathy, their responses are either absent or feigned and are measurably slower than a human's.

This made me think of serial killers, psychopaths, and hardened criminals in real life. Many of these types of people lack empathy, compassion, and sense of remorse that the larger portion of society would be able to express. There are men who would rape and kill, finding it as thrilling as if they were children going out to devour ice cream. They are like monsters living among us, among human beings, hidden in society with the exterior of humans. It makes me think of this quote from the anime "Death Note," in which the detective known simply as "L" confesses to a child that his greatest fear are monsters, and gives this explanation:

There are...many types of monsters in this world: Monsters who will not show themselves and who cause trouble; monsters who abduct children; monsters who devour dreams; monsters who suck blood, and... monsters who always tell lies. Lying monsters are a real nuisance. They are much more cunning than other monsters. They pose as humans even though they have no understanding of the human heart. They eat even though they've never experienced hunger. They study even though they have no interest in academics. They seek friendship even though they do not know how to love. If I were to encounter such a monster, I would likely be eaten by it. Because in truth, I am that monster.”

Thought Exercise #8: Due 10/29/13

"Something remarkable has been happening in the post-industrial contexts across the world since the 1990s: a shift from considering pets (especially dogs) as a species apart, to a reconsideration of pets (especially dogs) as profoundly appropriate objects of human affection and love....the prototypical Fido who slept on the floor and ate scraps from the table has been replaced by Lucy, a companion with increasing legal rights who sleeps on a bed and eats upscale foods....In many post-industrial places across the world, dogs are for the first time being formally and regularly accommodated in doggie beaches, parks, high-class hotels, cafes and restaurants; department stores and mainstream retail catalogues feature substantial selections of pet goodies; and new genres of boutiques and retail outlets for pets (many of them online) have emerged."
--"Critical Pet Studies?" by Heidi J Nast

As a dog owner, I consider dogs as more than just pets, than as just cute little fashion items to be stuffed in frilly clothes and purses to tote around so that other people can coo over them and probably even humiliate them. My dogs hate clothing, for the record. It annoys me so much when people consider little dogs as "the ultimate fashion accessories." No, stupid, dogs are not fashion accessories! They're living beings who deserve love, care, and attention from human families who raise them!

I also have heard of, and know of, people who simply abandon or give away their dogs when they can no longer care for them. Some young couples will adopt dogs as practice for raising a child. Once a baby arrives, the couple will abandon the dog. I just think, "WTF? How in the world could you do that to a dog? The dog loves you and needs you, and you get rid of it just because it isn't human?" I also know of someone who has raised several dogs when he was young, but had to give them away. One of the dogs he raised was when he moved out of his parents' home at age 16, but when he had to leave for UCLA for college, he had to give his dog away. I just think, "You know you going to college. Why the Hell did you raise a dog then?"

It makes me sad that many apartment buildings prohibit dogs from living there. When I was in Canada, my mother and I were surprised to see people walking their dogs into stores at malls. These were incredibly well-behaved dogs as well.

When I think of dogs, one dog that comes to mind is the dog Wishbone, the titular character of the PBS Kids' show from the 90's about a Jack Russell Terrier who loves classic literature and retells them to the audience. It was so cute to see a live-action dog star in his own TV show and watch him interact with other humans as if he was one of them. It makes me wish dogs all over the world could be loved by humans that much.

Thought Exercise #7: Due 10/22/13

"When we say that all human beings, whatever their race, creed, or sex, are equal, what is it that we are asserting?....[I]t is simply not true that all humans are equal. Like it or not, we must face the fact that humans come in different shapes and sizes; they come with differing moral capacities, differing intellectual abilities, differing amounts of benevolent feeling and sensitivity to the needs of others, differing abilities to communicate effectively, and differing capacities to experience pleasure and pain. In short, if the demand of equality were based on the actual equality of all human beings, we would have to stop demanding equality. It would be an unjustifiable demand."
--"All Animals Are Equal," by Peter Singer

It is true that it is fallible to say that every person is equal to one another. It's an idealistic statement, much like Communist society, in which everyone is ideally seen as equal in terms of socioeconomic classes and monetary prospects. In our diverse species, there are people of all different races, heights, intelligence quotients, skin color, looks, and skills. For instance, one cannot expect an art history major to run a program that a trained computer engineer could do under one minute, nor can one expect a fifteen-year-old girl to mother a child the way a more financially-capable thirty-year-old woman could do.

But what of animals? It is ridiculous to say that all animals are the same, as there are thousands of species adapted to different environments and behaviors. But what can one say when trying to compare humans to animals? The socially-ingrained immediate response most people will perhaps say on this matter is that "Humans are superior to animals." But how can they justify that? Just because animals do not have the IQ of humans? Because animals cannot industrialize and build cities and weapons of mass destruction? They, in their own ways, can be considered vastly superior to humans. For instance, dogs have better sense of smell than humans do, and bears are much more massive and powerful than humans are, and fishes can breathe in water. In addition, when humans die, they don't contribute to the ecosystem. In short, humans are not equal amongst each other, and humans cannot be considered superior to animals.