Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
By JEREMY GARBER/Special to The Oregonian
Humanity has a rich (albeit morally and ethically bankrupt) tradition of distancing ourselves from the rest of the animal kingdom. Collectively we fancy our own species far superior -- in nearly every conceivable way -- to our earth-bound brethren. The hierarchical conception that places man atop the animal kingdom has had disastrous consequences for all of us, as well as for the world we must inhabit.
In his new book, "Beasts: What Animals Can Teach Us About the Origins of Good and Evil," longtime animal rights advocate, ex-psychoanalyst, and author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson argues there is much that we can learn from other large-brained mammals about the lesser angels of our nature.
In considering our "mania" for hierarchy, Masson highlights "our propensity to divide the world into 'us' and 'them'" as an explanatory cause for "our species' singular capacity for violence." He goes on, "In humans, hierarchy seems to involve more than basic needs and to entail attempts to exalt ourselves at the expense of someone else. The 'other' is deemed inferior, and we are not to feel any particular empathy or even sympathy for him. Hierarchy allows us to engage in genocide when no other animal does."
The moral superiority we feel toward others, especially animals, has led us to betray our own ignorance and prejudices. While Masson decries our misconceptions regarding the supposed violent nature of mammals and other apex predators, he also highlights animal altruism in species such as vampire bats and gorillas.
Despite our penchant for ascribing our baser tendencies to an animalistic nature (but seldom our more honorable or tender ones), the cruelty, exploitation, hatred, indifference, and violence that proliferates within our species is largely absent from non-human ones. Throughout the past century, we have killed some 200 million of our fellow homo sapiens, maintaining that nature is somehow intrinsically violent itself -- employing an erroneous justification in stark contrast to what observations of the natural world actually demonstrate.
"No serious evidence supports the idea that other animals besides humans engage in mass killing of one another," Masson writes. Of the nearly 5,500 mammal species on our planet, 90 percent are herbivores -- making the notion of nature being "red in tooth and claw" a fallacious one at best.
Late in his intriguing book, Masson confesses "I write not as a scientist, out to prove some impregnable thesis, but as somebody who has observed something of great interest." His genuine concern for our aberrant behavior is both thoughtful and compelling. The underlying question within "Beasts" is a straightforward one: "What makes us so violent to one another (never mind to other species), and is there anything to be done about it?"
Masson points to many answers, most notably the introduction of agriculture and the domestication of animals, the latter of which has "perpetuated a culture of cruelty and abuse."
As with previous works in which he has explored the emotional lives of animals, Masson's writing is easily accessible to both a general audience and those already familiar with the subject. With a personal, passionate, and sympathetic style, Masson makes an imperative case for "taking the lives of animals seriously, seeing both where we surpass them (our ability to pass on knowledge cumulatively) and where they surpass us (their general lack of ill will for others)." "Beasts" implores us to rethink our long-entrenched beliefs regarding the nature of non-human animals, in hopes that by more accurately perceiving the world around us, we may learn to treat not only other species with greater kindness and compassion, but perhaps our own as well.
Reading: Masson discusses "Beasts" at 4 p.m. March 15 at Powell's City of Books, 1005 W. Burnside St.
Jeremy Garber recently reviewed "The Sixth Extinction" by Elizabeth Kolbert for The Oregonian.