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Most people have desires. Generally, the more powerful you are, the more of your desires can be fulfilled. Because of this, many people also work hard to increase their own power. This results in some beings becoming much more powerful than others. Powerful beings then have the ability to do anything they wish to the weak, and they usually get away with it.
Many animal species follow the orders of a more powerful alpha in their group. Some members of the group will compete to attain alpha status. The way in which this may be done includes: a showing of physical prowess, intimidation, and more sophisticated methods, such as forming political alliances with others.
Animals show a number of submissive behaviours towards the alpha, or other more powerful animals in their group. These behaviours include: bowing, crouching, certain vocalizations, letting the alpha walk first in a procession, and letting the alpha eat before the others.
Animals with common desires may gather themselves in numbers to form a more powerful entity, increasing their chances of having their desires fulfilled. A group of herbivores with a common desire to protect themselves from carnivores, may form a large group to increase their power. Carnivores may also gather themselves into a group before attacking to increase their chances of a successful catch. Other animals may gang themselves into a group for the sole purpose of bullying others.
As humans evolved and became more intelligent, the amount of power individuals were able to acquire increased with time. Here are some examples of power in history.
20,000 years ago, in southern africa lived the bushmen. They had families that joined to form bands. Bands usually consisted of around 20 to 100 people. The leaders of the bands did not have much power over others. Most of the people in the band had equal power. The bands would occupy small regions, but sometimes migrated.
8,000 years ago, humans started exercising greater control over the lives of animals such as cows, pigs and sheep. Humans eventually imprisoned animals to more easily control their movements. Animals were often tortured and murdered.
In the year 100, the roman empire had a population of about 65 million people, and over 5 million square km of land. The whole population was ruled by a single emperor named Trajan. There were 600 senators that also had a lot of power. Included in the population were over 10 million human slaves. Slaves could legally be bought, sold, tortured, and murdered by their masters.
Now let's return to the present day.
Humans gain greater power by using several methods.
Humans use their own physical strength to physically overpower other weaker individuals.
Humans use weapons and technology to increase their physical power over others. Knives, guns, and larger weapons such as tanks and fighter planes are often used.
Humans with common desires gather themselves in numbers to form more powerful entities.
Humans use wealth and money to pay others into helping them maintain power and control over others.
Humans also use psychological tactics to scare others into submission. They may threaten to harm others, or use false religious ideas such as gods, demons and an afterlife in hell.
Humans also train others into believing false ethics, including the ideas of authority and discipline. They then use the peoples' own ethical beliefs to convince them that disobeying orders is unethical.
Every square inch of land on earth is now claimed to be under the authority of one or more states.
Powerful states have agreements with each other not to trample on each other's claimed land. Weaker states are often invaded by more powerful states. When there is disagreement over land, states go into war to capture the land.
Several states have independently claimed land on antarctica. The antarctic treaty system gives countries jurisdiction over people claimed to be citizens of their own country.
There are thousands of secession movements all over the world, led by people who wish to have their land freed by the ruling state.
Humans are not free to move around the land of the world. They are required to register and pay for passports. Many people are denied passports. Even after they have a passport, they must register and pay for visas. Even more people are denied visas. Violating the laws of passports and visas often result in people being incarcerated and deported.
Humans are not free to build a home in the area of their choice. Most land has already been claimed by rich landlords. Most humans are forced to pay rent to live on earth.
Today, power and authority is highly concentrated into about 200 states.
In poor countries, states often use money to pay people into helping them maintain power. They hire soldiers and police officers to help keep them in power and maintain control over the population.
In rich countries, what usually happens is that humans with similar desires gather themselves up in numbers to form powerful political parties to rule over all others. These states often profess the superiority of democracy and condemn anything that is not democratic. Anti-democratic speech is often illegal and results in incarceration.
Being alive on earth means that you are within land that is claimed by one or more states. All states force people living on their land to pay taxes. Most humans are forced to pay a tax for simply being alive. Failure to pay taxes usually results in incarceration.
Many things in a country are claimed by the state to be services that can only be made possible through the practice of taxation. It is almost impossible for a person living on the land to avoid any such things. States then use the fact that people use the unavoidable services as justification for taxation.
Sometimes states use tax money to provide good services for the people. They use this as justification for taxation.
States impose authoritarian laws over the people that live on the land claimed by the state. Failure to follow the laws can result in fines, incarceration, beatings, torture, and murder.
States use patriotic symbols to convince the people that agreeing with, and supporting the state is the ethical thing to do.
States that use a democratic system convince the people that the laws were chosen by all the people within the country, which is not true. They then use this as justification to rule all people under those laws. They also use this as justification to claim that it is unethical to break the law.
Many states force people of a certain age to join the military. These people are then forced to put themselves in incredibly dangerous situations. These people are also forced to murder people from other countries.
Police officers often beat civilians, and capture and imprison them arbitrarily.
Police officers will entrap and imprison people who commit victimless crimes. The police often commit victimless crimes themselves to entrap others.
Police sometimes protect people who are being attacked by bad guys. They then use this fact to justify their existence and behaviour, even though they commit many other crimes against the people.
States claim that their judicial system is based on the idea that people are considered innocent until proven guilty. This claim is widely spread throughout the media. It is a completely false claim. Not a single state follows that claim.
States imprison people based on whether or not they seem guilty to the judge or jury.
Most of the ways in which states use the prison system, is completely unethical. They will imprison people for doing almost anything.
Many people are imprisoned even though they've never been in any court.
Prison systems use many means to prevent people from ending their own lives to end their pain.
People who have personalities that differ greatly from the common man are often imprisoned in mental asylums.
People in mental asylums are forced to take personality altering drugs.
People in mental asylums sometimes have their brains electrocuted against their will.
People in mental asylums sometimes have their skulls cut open, and then have sections of their brains cut and removed.
Gambling, drugs, sex, and pornography, are made illegal except under very special cases.
Ethnic minorities are oppressed.
Religious minorities are oppressed.
Sexual orientation minorities are oppressed.
Libertarian minorities are oppressed.
Anti-state minorities are oppressed.
Almost all minorities are oppressed. Even in democratic states.
Many states will imprison people for speaking out against the state.
All states imprison people for certain kinds of speech.
All states imprison people for acquiring certain kinds of information.
There is no freedom of speech anywhere in the world.
There is no freedom of information anywhere in the world.
Parents force children into becoming obedient slaves by using corporal punishment and fear tactics.
Parents often talk about discipline, and may send their children to prisons, sometimes called boot camps.
Disobedient children will be beaten, and sometimes forced to take personality altering drugs.
Babies or children who cry too much are often beaten for it. Sometimes in attempt to get the baby or child to stop crying.
Parents force children into providing services for the parents, such as cooking food, cleaning the house, and sometimes sex.
Parents deny children from getting a job, or getting any significant amount of money.
Parents deny children the freedom to leave the home to live somewhere else.
After denying children the right to obtain money, food and shelter elsewhere, parents provide food and shelter for the children, and claim that children owe the parents for this. They use this as justification for setting rules and forcing children into being obedient slaves.
Most religions claim that parents have authority over their children, and that children must obey their parents' orders.
Most religions claim that disobedient children should be beaten, and even killed. Even the christian bible claims that disobedient children must be beaten and killed.
Parents force children to attend religious gatherings such as church.
Parents force children to take part in religious ceremonies.
Parents force vegetarian children to eat meat.
Parents force children to eat when they're not hungry.
Parents deny children food when they're hungry.
Parents and the state force children into going to school. Children are forced to sit in uncomfortable chairs for hours every day without having the freedom to walk, talk, or even go to the bathroom unless specifically given permission to do so.
Teachers forbid children from standing up.
Teachers forbid children from walking.
Teachers forbid children from talking.
Teachers forbid children from closing their eyes.
Teachers force children to do work for grades.
Parents beat their children.
Parents beat their children with weapons such as belts, paddles, broomsticks, and almost anything else that can be found in the home.
Parents forbid children from going to certain places, or from leaving the home in certain times.
Parents forbid children from forming certain friendships and relationships.
Parents may forbid children from seeing anybody from the opposite sex.
Parents forbid children from getting any sexual pleasure with their friends and partners. This may include kissing, hugging, oral sex, and intercourse.
Parents forbid children from bearing children of their own. When teenagers get pregnant, parents often force the teen to have an abortion, or to give the child away to adoption services.
Animals are even weaker than human children. There are currently much over 30 000 000 000 innocent animals imprisoned by humans. That's much over thirty billion, which is over 5 times the world population of humans. These animals get tortured on an almost daily basis by humans. In this chapter, I will list some of the reasons humans use for imprisoning animals, and the ways in which the animals are being tortured.
8.1 - Entertainment
Animals are imprisoned in tiny cages, to be kept in people's homes. They are called pets. Children often have no idea that the animal is suffering by having his freedom denied. They often have their sexual organs mutilated to prevent them from reproducing.
All sorts of animals have their freedom denied when they are imprisoned in zoos. This is done so that people can have easy and convenient access to see what many different animals look like.
Elephants, lions, bears and other animals are tortured in order to train them to perform circus acts. The animals are imprisoned, beaten and tortured into following orders.
Horses are forced to run around in tracks and obstacle courses. Dogs are forced to run in races. All for entertainment.
Hooks disguised as food are thrown into water by fishermen. Fish that think they are about to eat food are surprised to find painful hooks stuck in their mouths. The fish are then pulled out of the water depriving them of oxygen. The hook is painfully pulled out of the fish, and the fish is then either thrown into a bucket to die, or thrown back into the water, still in pain from the wound caused by the hook.
People armed with guns often go out into the wild to murder animals for fun. Sometimes they have a murdered animal stuffed and displayed in their home.
In rodeos people perform many different acts of torture on animals. The animals are beaten, tied up, wrestled, and stabbed, all in the name of entertainment.
In cockfighting, a weaker cock who wants to flee from a stronger one, is imprisoned together with the stronger cock in order to make sure that the stronger cock beats and kills the weaker one.
In bullfighting, bulls are drugged and physically injured to weaken them before the show. During the show, they are first stabbed with lances on the back and neck. Then they are stabbed with plenty of harpoons on the back. Then they are murdered with a sword, or stabbed to death with a dagger. Then they are dragged out of the arena while still conscious and in pain.
8.2 - Work
Animals are often forced to work for people. Elephants are carried around the streets to make money from tourists. Horses are forced to run around carrying people and are forced to pull on heavy carriages down streets.
Cows and other mammals are imprisoned to produce milk. They are repeatedly artificially inseminated and then have their children kidnapped from them. The cows are genetically manipulated, and are pumped full of antibiotics, hormones and other drugs to increase the milk production. Painful inflammation of the mammary glands, called mastitis, is very common. The average lifespan of a healthy cow is 25 years, but these cows are killed before they are 5 years old.
Chickens and other birds are imprisoned in darkness in small cages to produce eggs. Their beaks are cut off without painkillers. Many die of asphyxiation or dehydration. They are often deprived of food and water for days in order to cause their bodies to lay more eggs. They lose most of their feathers and have crippled legs. The average lifespan of a healthy chicken is 10 years, but these chickens are killed before they are 2 years old.
8.3 - Meat
Animals are imprisoned in small cages to produce meat. The cages they are kept in are as small as possible to minimize the costs of producing the meat. The animals are in pain, and often unable to even turn around. They are genetically modified, and are pumped full of antibiotics, hormones and other drugs in order to make them grow faster, which causes them severe pain. Huge amounts of pesticides are sprayed all over the animals in order to reduce the insect population. Ears, tails and genitals are usually cut off at birth without painkillers. The animals are often beaten to control their movements. They are also beaten to kill off those that will not produce meat economically. The animals are sometimes seen to be chewing on the doors of their cages in an attempt to escape.
The animals that make it to the end of their life at the meat factory are then murdered in various cruel ways. They have their throats cut open while hanging upside down, while they are still alive. They are immersed in boiling water to remove feathers, hair, and to soften skin, while they are still alive. They are dismembered, having their legs cut off, while they are still alive.
To make foie gras, a feeding tube is inserted into the birds' mouths 5 inches deep down their throats. They are then force fed lots of food to make them fat quickly. Sometimes a stick needs to be inserted to push down food that gets stuck. Their livers then grow to 10 times their normal size.
Veal calves are forced at birth into small crates that measure about 30 x 72 inches, which are kept in complete darkness. These crates are small in order to stop the calves from moving or exercising, to reduce muscle growth. The calves are purposely fed food that is not nutritious, so that they would become anemic, so that their flesh will stay pale. When they are finally let out for slaughter after 20 weeks, most of these calves have difficulty standing.
8.4 - Coverings
Sheep are captured and have their wool sheared off. Sometimes the skin is sheared off together with the wool. Mulesing occurs quite often, which involves cutting off larges pieces of flesh from the sheep in order to minimize infection, all while the sheep is alive and screaming in pain.
Dogs, cats and many other animals are imprisoned in small cages, and kept until their fur is ready. They are denied any kind of freedom or movement. When ready, they have their skin peeled off of them while they are still alive and screaming in pain. Some are still alive after the skinning is complete and die a few minutes later.
Animals are also skinned alive to make leather. Making leather often involves boiling the animals while they are still alive.
Feathers are pulled out of birds that are still alive and screaming in pain, in order to make pillows for human comfort.
8.5 - Religion and custom
Islam and Judaism both practice a form of animal sacrifice that involves very painful deaths on the animals.
Other less popular religions sacrifice animals by cutting it up in several ways while it is still alive and screaming in pain.
Thanksgiving involves the murder of millions of turkeys as a way of giving thanks for something.
Other customs involve beating animals, and inserting sharp spikes into the skulls of young animals.
8.6 - Experimentation
Animals kept imprisoned in small cages within laboratories are used for many kinds of experimentation.
Animals may be fed drugs and poison, causing lots of pain and death.
Animals may have poison placed on their skin and eyes, causing lots of pain and death.
Animals have tubes forced down their noses into their stomachs to force feed them drugs.
Animals get beaten with weapons.
Animals are thrown against walls at high velocity.
Militaries test weapons by attacking animals with them.
Animals have their brains cut open and have parts cut off or electrocuted while the animals are still alive and conscious.
Animals have their arms and legs pinned to prevent movement, and then cut open while they are still alive and in intense pain. This is called vivisection. Human children are often forced to do this in schools throughout the world.
Animals cannot speak english. But they try as much as they can to voice their pain by screaming and chewing on their cages. Most of these animals are kept away from the human population, so most people never get to hear any of these animals cry for help. For this reason, I am including a link to lots of video footage in which these animals cry for help:
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/archive.asp
Children speak up to their parents and teachers lots of times. But they are also punished for speaking up, which stops them from speaking up very much. They are also convinced that it is wrong for them to speak up, and that it is right for parents and teachers to do what they do. They are usually only heard within their homes and schools. But thanks to the internet, many children are now speaking up on websites, and forming organizations to fight for their cause.
In poor countries, adult humans face the same problems as children. They are punished for speaking up, and are convinced that it is wrong to speak up, and that it is right for the state to do what they do. Thanks to the internet, and internet privacy services, they are now able to speak up on websites anonymously, to prevent being incarcerated by the state.
In rich countries, the majority of humans with common goals form political parties which become the most powerful through democracy. So they get most of what they want and are very happy, and therefore have nothing to speak up on. The adult humans that are oppressed in rich countries form the minority, and do speak up a lot.
It turns out that those who have the loudest voice, and those that can make the most difference, are those who are the most powerful in the world. Those people have most of what they want, and are living perfectly happy lives, and just don't care that the weak are being oppressed. As long as they are happy, they want to keep it that way, and don't want anything changed.
If you're a human adult, think about what it is like for those weaker individuals.
Imagine if suddenly, somebody tells you to sit down, and forbids you from standing up, walking, talking, or closing your eyes. And they make you stay like this for 6 hours each day. You wouldn't accept this, and wouldn't think that this is right. This is what happens to children in schools all over the world on a daily basis.
Imagine if suddenly, somebody put you into a small cage. And they kept you there for many years. And then hung you upside down, and started cutting you up while you're still alive and screaming. You wouldn't accept this, and wouldn't think that this is right. This is what happens to animals in factory farms all over the world on a daily basis.
Most people of the world, will say that most of what I have talked about is perfectly ethical. They believe the powerful have authority to do these things to the weak. They are completely wrong.
Everything I have talked about is completely unethical. They are all unethical things that the powerful do to the weak.
Having the power to dominate over the weak, doesn't make it ethical to dominate or harm the weak.
The weak victims of these actions do not want to have any of that done to them. They don't want pain. They don't want to be harmed. They don't want to be murdered. They want to be happy. They want to live. They want to be free.
The powerful must stop doing these things to the weak immediately.
Each and every person of the world has the right to use any justifiable means to stop the powerful from doing such things. We must reduce the power of the powerful who do bad things.
Laws exist that protect the powerful, and make it legal for them to do those unethical things. The law is unethical.
Laws exist that prevent the weak from defending themselves. The law is unethical.
Laws exist that prevent others from rescuing and protecting the weak. The law is unethical.
Laws make it illegal to have freedom of speech. I cannot say everything that I want to say in this essay. The law is unethical.
Laws make it impossible to have happiness in the world. The law is unethical.
Authority is unethical. The law is unethical.
It is ethical to break the law.
Saying that the law is unethical, and that it's ethical to break the law is a very dangerous thing to do. It is illegal in all states of the world to encourage others to break the law. Because of this, I am not encouraging anybody to break the law. What I am saying is simply that it's ethical to break the law.
Something must be done to help the weak. Laws make it difficult for me to speak my mind. Laws make it difficult to encourage others to help the weak. Laws make it very difficult for me to write this essay.
Laws make it impossible to have happiness in the world.
It is ethical to break the law.
The Powerful, by The Humanoid