The mistreated dog
Over thousands of years dogs are domesticated, selected, crossed on and adapted to human needs. They are violent when desired, affectionate when the environment provides, dogs are loyal to their owners. Owners, because despite being considered by many as a “family member”, they are property. Whether they are bought or adopted, wheter they live inside the house or in the yard, eat the same as humans or the food that is put in their bowls, they are property, because they do not choose, they are not free and they rarely revolt.
Having a pet is to buy affection, but often at the cost of silent torture and that most people don’t realize or care about. Almost an example of the Stockholm Syndrome, the dog jumps and cries, screams and urinates on its own legs in happiness when he sees the owner who spends the whole day away from home. He loves the owner, because he has no one else to love. The dog is a victim, unable to defend itself. It is a product, with models, colors and sizes, and that, by chance, has feelings and emotions.
Even when locked for life in a small cemented yard, with a collar that never leaves the neck, fed with the tasteless food and gaining little or no attention, a lone dog clings to the owner as if he were the only person in the universe . Surrounded by high walls that hide even the street, maybe it really is.
Dogs have low expectations. They don’t need a comfortable sofa to rest on, even though they really like one. Likewise, they do not need a roof over their heads, hot and tasty food, and loving relationships. But would we treat dogs better if they revolted? If they barked dangerously at the food or if they were forbidden to come and go? Would our pets be organized enough to demand better conditions? Would we like to have them? Probably not.
Dogs accept submission to humans as if it were natural. In fact, it is. Humans have the intelligence to manipulate virtually every other living thing on the planet, that are often seen as eternal children. Animals know little and are little interested in the world, their priorities revolve around basic needs and are hardly able to create something new. They benefit from living with humans and accept domestication peacefully (or over several generations, crossbreeding and aggression). It’s easy to understand a dog or any other animal, it’s difficult to understand someone who puts himself in this situation.
Like the dog, the worshiper has his human. Jump, scream and maybe even urinate in your own pants in front of your human. He eagerly waits for hours or even days (camped in front of a stadium, a store, a temple) for his human. However, unlike the dog that benefits from this relationship, the worshiper receives nothing in return. He does not even receive the cemented yard, the tasteless food or any sporadic affection. The worshiper is a battered dog.
More docile than the dog, the worshiper has not lost his superior human intelligence. He remains capable of accomplishing things that would be impossible for a dog, he remains attached to a quality of life that a dog would not miss, and even so, he gives up everything for his human. The worshiper lives the happiness and sadness of his human, as if he doesn’t have his own emotions.
Worshipers donate money and time, work, found churches and parties, protest, publicly honor and even win over new worshipers. They multiply, which explains most religions, fanatical groups and even the ways of contemporary politics. Without asking for anything in return, they shape the world to the interests of their humans, which does not explain their reasons.
Often, worshipers are people in need of attention and care. People who embrace the Manichaeism of hating society that never valued them and desperately loving a personality in exchange for attention, or the illusion of attention. They arise from the need to vent repressed and common desires, but censored by strong social barriers.
As absurd as the worship of a personality may sound, it’s accepted socially. It would be wrong or inappropriate among ordinary people, but when it comes to a personality, the hype is televised. A platonic and rarely responded to passion. Possible, because it’s anonymous.
Worshipers do not create themselves, they are moved by the masses and convincing individuals. Like brainwashing, they take pleasure in giving up reasoning, their aspirations, personal beliefs and even their own character, to hear inspiring and motivational messages that do not add wisdom. Right way for prejudice, fanaticism and contempt for evidence.
Once achieved, nothing, not even reason, common sense and the family itself, are obstacles to worship. Surrender is liberating and addictive, taking the burden of responsibility for the stupid and selfish acts that allow themselves. Perhaps it’s this freedom that worshipers receive in return, the tranquility of following and not thinking.
For the worst or most noble reasons, cultivating worshipers is an ancient tool of power. By manipulating minds, temples are erected and myths are perpetuated. Fragile, a drop of reason is enough to bring them down, and even so they multiply in the information age. Humans turned into pets.
Teaching freedom is a strange fate.
