You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow.

—Cormac McCarthy

George Carlin, on one of his albums, joked about the similarities between humans and chickens, eventually coming to the conclusion that chickens have some type of moral superiority over humans.  “Chickens,” he pointed out, “are decent people.”

A couple of days ago, I was sitting next to a window and, not long after the people at the table outside had gotten up, a bird flew over and knocked a half-eaten piece of bread onto the ground.  The bird took a few bites out of it and left, apparently satisfied.  Moments later, a group of smaller birds flew up to the same piece of bread to try and feed off of it.  There were about seven or eight of them and they were all concerned with the immediate gratification of satiating their hunger.  

What was interesting about their method of getting to the bread was that there didn’t appear to be a method.  I’m no ornithologist, but it looked like the birds were more or less just trying to get their share, other birds be damned.  Whichever one had tried to take it, and as soon as one dropped it, another one came in and tried to do the same.  Occasionally two would get a hold of opposite ends at the same time, and the result was clearly not as productive as the birds must have imagined.  

Now as people, we are better than these poor animals because somewhere along the evolutionary line, we developed language, reason, thought, and self awareness, among other things.  This mixture left us as the most advanced members of the animal kingdom, and ever since we have loudly proclaimed our supremacy.

Birds, not realizing that they are some of the unfortunate creatures that progress left behind, are simply guided by the laws of nature and have been relegated by humans to serve one of four basic functions: the foreground for movie sunsets, a hobby for naturalists, egg producers, or dinner.  And this is fine, since we’re a movie-loving, omnivorous bunch.  

What struck me while watching the birds fight over access to a piece of bread was that, although they are birds, the comparisons that can be drawn between bird behavior and human behavior are so obvious and still so strong.  Humans, as advanced as we are, always find ways to territorially fight amongst ourselves.  Do we use thought or reason to achieve compromise?  Certainly not as often as we could.  

If there’s a piece of land that two groups lay claim to, not only will each group fight for jurisdiction without making any concessions, but more sophisticated reasons like history, religion, and revenge will all become major factors, further complicating the issue.  At least chickens have the excuse that they’re chickens.

Which brings us back to George Carlin: maybe he was on to something here.

M R