Nobody knows who first referred to human beings as the best of creation. The only thing that can be said with any sort of certainty is that it must have been a human being. A story is narrated about Prophet Moses who, pointing to a lizard asked God why He had created such a creature. To which God is supposed to have retorted that the lizard in question had just asked Him why He had created Moses. Although obviously apocryphal, the story raises a good point.
For there is a huge subjective element involved in such judgment calls. While we do not know what cattle say to one another while they graze away on the meadows, it is a safe bet that they think rather highly of the bovine species – certainly higher in the hierarchy of creation than human beings. Besdies (and this is probably of more concern to humans), the distinction between man and beast is getting hazier all the time.
There is no denying that man is capable of remarkable feats. There is no way a lizard or a cow could ever have come up with Hamlet, the theory of relativity or Symphony #40. Only men (and in some cases women) demonstrate this sort of creative capacity. Similarly, it is hard to find bovine and saurian counterparts of Albert Schweitzer, Abdus Sattar Edhi or Mother Teresa. These, most certainly, belong to the credit column of humanity’s ledger. But there is the inevitable debit column as well. For when man decides to tie in his lot with hedonism (which he often does), he gives bonobos and swine a real run for their money.
Whatever one may think of the man-created-in-the-image-of-God metaphor (another rather self-congratulatory expression), there is little doubt that there is a divine spark in him somewhere. This spark, when man resolves to preserve and nurture it, results in his turning into a remarkable individual, like the prophets of God and their committed followers. But when the same man decides to imitate the mannerisms and fashion statements of stars and media personalities, it is impossible to find an ape who can even come close to him when it comes to the art of imitation.
Parrots, despite having many merits, have earned the unfortunate reputation for mindless repetition of sentences and phrases, usually at the most inopportune of moments. The verb ‘parrot’ in the English language is unfair to the raucous bird, considering the fact that in every household, office, factory and classroom one is sure to find men with a habit of repeating second-rate political or ideological arguments that they have only heard last night on some TV show, passing it on as their own argument. Worse still, what with parroting having become their second nature, they often sincerely believe themselves to be the source of those ideas. In public discourses, most of the instances of slogans masquerading as thought can be classified as parroting, which no parrot in the world is capable of.
The nature of cats as lazy, entitled creatures that are happy to lie around all day, bossing their ‘owners’ around has been immortalized by Jim Davis in the character of Garfield. There is no denying the accuracy of Davis’s depiction, but modern civilization produces untold number of couch potatoes (Jim Davis’s fellow human beings) who, in lethargy, lazing around and entitlement stakes, put the most sluggish and ungrateful of cats to shame.
Up until a few decades ago, cattle and sheep were absolutely unsurpassed when it came to grazing for hours on end. Not any more though, for they have unquestionably been relegated to the second-place. Modern man, with a seemingly inexhaustible capacity to munch on gums, Cheetos, fries, cookies, cakes and sweets, now rules this roost as well.
Modern intellectual man (of whom there is a surplus today) has also trumped the ruminants in the fine art of regurgitation. Only, where the animals do it with food, the self-proclaimed intellectual does it with what he likes to refer to as ideas and beliefs. Hence the daily encounters one has with men believing their own propaganda with all the satisfaction at their disposal.
We owe all the architectural marvels, culinary delights, works of music, art and literature, and scientific achievements to many remarkable men. However, Homo sapiens have another side to them as well. They can easily be lazier than sloths, more vicious than crocodiles, dumber than killdeer, greedier than squirrels and more gluttonous than pigs. Unfortunately, an overwhelming majority of them ends up answering to one (or more) of these descriptions.
In the hierarchy of creatures then, man is certainly up there. Potentially, that is. Sadly, few manage to convert that potential into actuality. Those who want to, must first stop competing with and beating the beasts at their game.
