One Hundred and Fifteen

We call ourselves the only rational animal, but we don’t use reason when deciding what to do. We use it only after we’ve decided, to rationalize doing what any other animal would recognize is irrational.

We claim we’re not governed by instinct, as other animals are, but by reason. In reality we’re governed by a fear greater than either reason or instinct, greater than common sense or the ordinary animal’s instinct for survival.

We are the most destructive of animals because we’re always conscious of our weakness, and afraid others will take advantage of that weakness. We assume everyone is our enemy, actual or potential, so we attack them before they can attack us.

When we attack and destroy others, we lose our feeling of weakness. We even persuade ourselves that we’re actually strong, invincible. But that feeling of strength is as irrational as our feeling of weakness, so it doesn’t last.     

It’s not because we fear them that we do everything our masters ask. We do it because we love our masters more than we love ourselves. They are who we wish we were, our ideal selves.

Our masters prey on us as we prey on each other, so they seem stronger than we are, just as we seem stronger than our victims. But masters are weaker than their slaves. Masters need slaves to do for them what they can’t or won’t do for themselves.

Every human society is divided into masters and slaves. We rationalize this by claiming masters are naturally superior, and slaves naturally inferior. Everyone knows this is a lie, but we're social animals, and would rather live with others in a society based on lies than live alone with the truth.