NEWS HEADLINE ; SUICIDAL TROUT SWIMS STRAIGHT INTO THE JAWS OF A SHARK . NO, I'VE NOT LOST MY MIND. THIS IS ABOUT PREDATORS. And terroism?

 

 

 

Again, I'm reminded of The Little Shop of Horrors dentist. The lyrics are something like, "open wide here I come," patient, " but doctor I'm not numb"!

Gotta love those sadists.

 

So, yesterday my husband came home from fishing.  And as everyone knows, fishermen LOVE telling their stories. So, I love listening. Occasionally I do pick up an interesting piece of information.

 

He was telling me about the snook he caught. What was relevant was that the first cast he threw was in front of the fish, so the fish swam away. He explained, that the predators know that the prey would never be in front of them, so he had to cast behind and to the side. Which he did and then caught a big snook. He was very happy. For those of you who fish, he also caught an 8 pound jack with which he struggled for 15 minutes of bliss.

I backtracked in our conversation, and asked him about the lure not being in front. He explained that even a fish is smart enough to know that the prey would be going the other way. If it's too good to be true, it's not.

I thought, "wow. fish are smarter than people"  Sort of.   I do recall years ago when it was thought that humans were the only kind who killed their own.

That has probably been debunked or changed, but still, I got to thinking about prey and predators. The term that is used, is predatory.

 

The  new dictionary, says that predatory, is capturing and feeding upon other animals. I think after my research it should have stopped there. They added that it is, also, plundering, robbing or exploiting. Since my research, I believe that dictionary used what is only a modern concept for the second half of the definition which doesn't really apply. However, now, I have an image in my head of a chimpanzee holding a gun on another chimp and demanding it's banana.

 

 

 

                                            

 

 

Prey is defined as what is hunted by carnivorous animals for food. Also, a person's dupe or victim.  Ditto for this second part.

 

Again, nothing was listed in my intro to psych text. So, I shall have to further expand my research.  Offhand, I have my own thoughts. However, I believe I owe it to my readers to at least look up someone else's ideas. You know, like people who might actually know something.

 

 So I'll look it up on line and get right back to you. It may take me several hours, but to you, it'll be the next section. Isn't cyberspace amazing?  Time means nothing here.

 

 

 

 

PREDATION: 

 

So far, what I've gathered, is that generally predators, predatory and predation are the words used with the obtaining of food. That's right. Predation, which is the correct term, is related to eating. Not necessarily killing except that everything we eat was living at some time, even wheat, so I take that back.   We are all predators, just not in the sense I was thinking.

 

    Hannibal Lector was on the right track.

 

It would then seem that anything we eat can be considered prey. My nasty mind had some thoughts I will not be sharing.  Not everything we eat was sentient.  Fruits, plants and vegetables were alive, and therefore, also prey.

  

In order to survive, you have to eat. It's a very simple concept. 

 

So maybe predator is not the right word.

 

SURVIVAL OF A SPECIES:

 

And we're back to survival of the fittest. Survival crops up a lot. Evolutionarily speaking, those of us who are here, have managed to survive. And if you read my last post, not necessarily because we had good genes.

 

Many species developed or accidentally mutated so they were able to survive their predators. We now know that this means you didn't get eaten. Those who survived became, you know, better. Better at things like blending into the environment, super eye sight, speed, strength, really, really big teeth, and, the survival instinct. Or I should say, that is something we are born with.

 

 

HUMANS AS PREDATORS:

 

Humans are omnivorous. That means we eat everything.

 

One article said that a "lone, naked human is at a physical disadvantage to other apex predators. (awe, they put us at the top of the pyramid with other predators). Except we lack in speed, bone density, weight and  physical strength."  It goes on to say that without "crafted weapons, society or cleverness" we would  have been dead.

 

So, essentially our brains got us to the top of the food chain. My question is, why do so many of us prey on each other?  Since I've done my research, I have to change my language. Unless you're a cannibal, a human is not a predator, even if you kill or torture another human. I know, it's semantics, but it matters. At least, to me. So: ha ha.

 I have the power because I'm in charge of this post. And Power may be the word I've been looking for.

 

WHY DO SO MANY HUMANS ACT CRUELLY TO EACH OTHER? JUST WONDERING,  DO ANY OTHER ANIMALS GO TO WAR?

  

If the shoe fits, hit some one with it. Or steal theirs because you want it.  Sorry, I'm off track again. Or not.

 

 

24 HOURS LATER AND I'M BACK: RESEARCHING THIS TOPIC which was DISHEARTENING.

 

I copied over 6 pages of information onto a Word document so I could read the articles and attempt to integrate and absorb them.

 

As I mentioned, the terms used were not the right ones for what I was thinking.  The terms are more likely to be things like maladjusted, sociopathic, disturbed, prejudiced, or anti-social. Hunter would be more accurate than predator.  

 

 

What makes one person purposefully hurt another?

Here are several different theories.

 

 

 

 

 

Freud believed that sadism, or the desire to cause pain to another human being, is the result of a mix of sexual desire and aggression, which have biological and psychological bases and are a natural part of human nature. 

Usually, I like what Freud has to say. I can't say that I agree that it's innate. I do believe that some infants/children are conditioned to combine the two [sex and aggression] if they had parents or nannies who sexually stimulated them while being hurtful. I believe that explains a certain amount of S&M.

Heinz Kohut, a break away Freudian, thought that aggression against another person is always psychologically motivated. He meant that anger, rage and hate always have emotional and psychological meaning, even though it is not always obvious or easily explained. Great. I can agree because it is so nicely vague. Thank God he continued. He went on to say that "without understanding, hatred directed at another person can be a way of holding ourselves together." Something like Descartes, "I hate, therefore I am".  I think he's on to something.

 

 

 

  Kohut thought that rage, anger, and hatred are ways of filling an emptiness.  It is, he suggests, better to feel sadistic than not to feel at all.  This is also relevant to the people who cut themselves.

 At this point I'm going to bring up the horrific shooting at the gay club in Orlando. It pains me, that I live in the town where the shooter was from.  Thankfully,  Saint Lucie is a largely populated, and very physically large area of land, so I don't have to feel 'connected' to him.  Although, my husband and I  have driven by this mosque often enough to know where it is and what it looks like.

MY THEORY ON ORLANDO

Personally, I do not believe this was an act of terror. This was a man who was born into a religious, fundamentalist family who would never, ever accept a gay son. His actions are actually rather classic in a psychological sense.

When a person hates who or what he feels inside, his defense against it is called "reaction formation".  He actively hates those he would like to be.

I don't know if he ever acted on his feelings, but he certainly showed enough interest in this club, two hours away from home, to give one pause to question, why?  We have a gay club here so he didn't need to drive so far away?

 

 

I don't know what made him snap. Something did. All the talk he spouted that was pro ISIS and terror, in my mind was a cover up. When he shot all those innocent people, he was in fact, killing the part of himself he couldn't tolerate being. His calls to 911 and others about ISIS and terrorism were a smoke screen to save face with his family. And perhaps he believed he'd be able to go to Muslim Heaven since he martyred himself. It's twisted. But so is hate and prejudice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

HERE ARE SOME OTHER TAKES ON OUR KILLING PLEASURE.

 

IS IT AGGRESSION?

 

               According to many researchers, predation is not aggression.

It is:

 a response by an individual that delivers something unpleasant to another person. Some definitions include that the individual must intend to harm another person.  Predatory or defensive behavior between members of different species may not be considered aggression in the same sense. Hey baby, I'm not angry. I'm hungry.

 

Aggression is meant to harm another person.  The article went on to say, that we have:

a genetic predisposition to cooperate—born not from altruism but from conflict. Primate groups that cooperated gained a competitive edge over rival groups, and their genes survived.

But then........

As long as we consider another human as

 "The Other," we automatically become "The Other" as well. When we have become "The Other," we also fracture the wholeness of our individual selves, so that within us we create an alien, not to be trusted, an aspect of our being.

I'll try to translate. Notice that our cooperation was born from conflict. It follows that old adage that "Politics makes strange bedfellows".  Looking at it that way, we will unite against what we see as a common enemy.  When that conflict is over, we revert back to our individual, group identification, and see anyone outside our own group as  "Others".  If you watched the TV show, LOST, you'll know that term.

 

And, we usually fear the unknown. Others, by the nature of the name, are unknown. Even if we do know them, they are not us, so they are different. We can dislike what they are because they are not us or like us. 

 

AND LET'S NOT FORGET ABOUT POWER.

At the junction between pain and power lies cruelty, abject cruelty always is an attempt to exercise power over another.  I think I finally found what I was looking for.

 

THEORY ABOUT HUMAN ON HUMAN VIOLENCE.

When a person feels powerless, he or she will take on power in the form of dominating other beings. The feeling of power must be acted upon, or it does not fill its need. Therefore, people with perceived power, will act continually in order to maintain that feeling. Acting can be the mental process of thinking or planning how to enact their dominance.

 

Since humans are the only animal who can think, we are the only animal who can think of ourselves as being weak, empty or less than.

Therefore, we are the only creatures capable of inflicting purposeful pain and death on our fellow humans and other creatures. This tendency often begins in childhood where dominance over more helpless creatures, like animals and younger children is likely to be acted out.

 

CONCLUSION:

I am very sad to say, that from what I have read, humanity is in a sorry state. Perhaps if I were a more optimistic individual, I would believe that our species is capable of a massive change.

Thankfully, the majority of humans do not feel powerless nor do they desire to dominate so completely. As parents, we attempt to socialize our children so they will be assets to society. When parents fail, or a persons genetics are geared towards violence, there is little to be done.

 

 

Democracy is the best form of government except for its giant loophole. We are unable to prevent terrible people from doing terrible things until after they've done them. Our civil rights protect us as well as put us in grave danger.

 

The only things I can see that might be helpful, would be to recognize those who are mentally disturbed and treat them if possible. If they are not treatable, and pose a threat, they should be put away so they will not cause harm.

Also, the selling of weapons of such destruction boggles my mind. Who on earth but a soldier needs an assault rifle?

That's about it. I am powerless to change these things. I wouldn't want the power. As they say. Power corrupts and Absolute power corrupts completely.