‘Wolf-man' or ‘Dog-people' -- Which should we be?

Last night, I realized that I may have solved “all” of America’s and the world’s problems. I am not as ‘down on humanity’ as many others and in my open optimism maybe I am blessed to see just a little bit more. :)

Is this too grandiose? Is this hyperbole? Whether it is correct or not, it is “to some degree guilty of those accused exaggerations,” but it may still carry much merit. The 100-meter dash at the Olympics is an ephemeral ‘hyperbole of human achievement’. Yet, somehow it seems to carry much use for helping us “figure out what it means to be human.”

Let’s hope that this discussion is “a little wild,” because if I did just figure everything out this easily, won’t we all feel foolish?

At this time, I am going to trim this discussion down and leave out some of the details and obvious evidence, and I will present it as hopefully a quick and clear argument. [It is longer, more complete, and a touch more complex than I anticipated.]

All animals on Earth used to be ‘wild.’ If you are an anarchical libertarian, you might say ‘free.’ I would not. Wild yes, but ‘free?’…no. I do believe that wild cattle are ‘free,’ but I think that ‘wild’ humans are not free, but there is not space for that here.

At one time, there were no domesticated ‘farm animals.’ Humans, scientifically called Homo sapiens sapiens, were also not living with domesticity in domiciles in ecumene(s) (areas of permanent dwellings). What does that mean? Civilization. Humans were not living in civilization. That is all. Just some word fun. :)

Homo (sapiens) neanderthalensis wandered the Earth up until about 30,000 years ago. It was not the first hominid to do so, but we know now that it/they traveled to most of the places that Homo sapiens sapiens (Hss - just my own designation) did and intermarried into our/Hss DNA in both Europe (classic Neanderthals) and Asia (Denisovans).

Wolves and dogs can have pups together. Genetically, they are the same species by that definition. Horses and donkeys are different species but they can have offspring, called mules. Mules have a different number of chromosomes than both of their ‘parents’ and mules cannot reproduce - or did one just do so by accident?

Humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) and Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) did have offspring together. Scientist keep increasing the percentages of Neanderthal DNA they find in our Hss DNA and the percent of people who they claim have Neanderthal DNA in them. It is believed that humans even had offspring with other archaic hominids., but enough of that for now.

My solution to America’s and world’s problems can be found in the difference between wolves and dogs. In here, we are going to find a simple but obvious example of openessence.

Wolves is where ‘dogs’ started. They are big, fierce, and brave travelers. They have bigger brains than dogs, they are smarter than dogs, and they have bigger teeth and snouts than dogs. They are designed to live by killing. They mature quicker [or have shorter ‘childhoods’] and they are very hierarchical. They do not domicile with humans easily or willingly. They are not willing to mix with others (groups, individuals, or species well or often). To refer back to a previous post, they are our ‘chimpanzee side.’ Wolves, much like the ‘almost-not-domesticated’ house cat, has little need for us and our companionship. Yes, cats do vary. Some even say cats used us to conquer the world.

Dogs are ‘humane.’ Were they our first domesticated animal? Did we domesticate ourselves along with them? One older PBS show even argued that the dog domesticate us and created civilization by doing so. With curly tails and ears AND smaller bodies, teeth, snouts, and attitudes, they became an integral part of our homes, families, minds, societies, and civilizations. Dogs literally get high with oxytocin when they see us. Could you doubt this when you get home for the day and they go crazy? They are super-socialized [hypersociability thesis] to live with us, maybe even more than humans are with each other. Human love-bonding and childbirth also release oxytocin — the ‘love hormone’ of attachment, and dogs also get a fix every time they see us. They are addicted to us. Referring back to my previous post, dogs are our bonobos side.

Humans can go either of two ways — wolf or dog.

We can all live in small, rigid, hierarchical, single-species, and ‘violent’ packs with scary ‘weapons’ …and outside ‘civilization’ …and only surviving in short brutish lives and without embellishments.

Or we can live in large, diverse, open, democratic, and social(ized) civilizations that are inter-species, peaceful, healthy, long-enduring, and full of great comforts.

Wolf-man is primitive, brutish, and not very free. Without reaching the level of civilization, ‘freedom’ itself does NOT and cannot supplant or replace the ‘survival status’ of this form of Wolf-man existence. Without much creativity nor the capacity to do much more than fill a short-lived role in a very rigid hierarchy, Wolf-man has little to no influence over his existence. He is ‘trapped’ in nature, not freed by it. This is the ‘fear of entrapment’ that we see in the groups stuck in this mindset today. A ‘militia mindset’ went from a valiant way to protect a small community from a larger, scary foe into a self-imposed imprisonment (born in fear, anger, and prejudice) in a restrictive hierarchy with no real potential for the authentic growth of its individual members or the group itself. In its small-mindedness, it aspires to ‘free’ the individual, the group, and the society, but it is the antithesis of all three. A parallel irony is the vikings. The word ‘viking’ only means pirate. These pirates did raid and steal at the very start. They did raid land, villages, and kingdoms. Ultimately, they sought to create safe farming villages and trade towns were they were safe from violence. They wanted the blessing of civilization or as the Constitution of the United States says, “the blessings of liberty.”

Dog-people mix, intermingle, travel, create, smile, play, vacation, talk [yah, even the domesticated dog learned to bark/talk], recreate, vote, and build civilization(s).

‘Man’ became ‘people’ when they created and moved into ‘civilization.’ By giving up some very scary wolf teeth, dogs, and ‘less-weapon-carrying humans,’ found greater safety and security AND longer and happier lives.

Guns have bullets. Bullets are a way to ‘shot teeth,’ as I like to call it. The first human tool, the hand axe, enabled us to do what strong animal jaws could do, break open bones to get the marrow out. Spears allowed us to have ‘artificial teeth projections.’ Arrows, especially with arrowheads, allowed us to shoot those ‘teeth.’ Guns are like atlatls and bow and arrows of a different sort. Weapons let us hunt. But civilization is not built by weapons. Civilization is built when weapons are not ‘in use’ and humans can do something else.

Wolves are carnivores who live by their teeth.

Humans are omnivores who live by their open minds. ‘People’ are a large group who live safely (with the protection of an army), but not always in the midst of an army or those ‘arms.’ Dogs live in civilization by not showing their teeth. They live by their tails, and they often smile with them.

Dog-people are pluralistic, peaceful, positive, ‘political’ [in the sense of being of a ‘polis’ (or a Greek city) and its democratic management], and progressive. They seek to continually create newer worlds with better opportunities for each and every member of their new greater global group. This Dog-people mindset naturally leads to the solution(s) of all of our problems for all our people.

Dogs are wolves opened to a greater sociability. Less teeth, more mind. Less fearful, restrictive obedience and more friendly, constructive cooperation. :)