[The loss of chimps as crucial medical research aids would be sufficient cause to reject the project. But there is an even more important, if esoteric, reason for refusing to grant rights to apes. The fundamental purpose of the project is to undermine our belief in human exceptionalism — the principle that human life has unique moral value simply because it is human. Animal liberationists abhor human exceptionalism as bigotry against animals. Thus, by persuading us to include apes in the so-called community of equals, supporters hope to slowly erode society’s belief in the unique importance of human life.]
At one time–and to this day in some cultures–male life was “uniquely important” and valued over that of women and children. Similar examples abound throughout history, including Caucasians over Blacks and Native Americans, adults over children, Israelis over Palestinians, Germans over Jews, Turks over Armenians, Hutus over Tutsis, and on and on….
Placing “unique importance” on one group of sentient beings over another has repeatedly resulted in drastically tragic consequences. Why, then, would we cling so tenaciously to such a malignant way of thinking?
[These misguided efforts overlook a crucial point: The way we act is based substantially on the nature of beings we perceive ourselves to be. In this regard, our self-concept as the world’s most important species is extremely beneficial, because it is both the stimulus for promoting universal human rights as well as the grounding for our distinctly human duty to treat animals humanely.]
What a telling paragraph from Wesley Smith. His conclusion is that we humans have to believe we are the master species in order to embrace and implement the concept of universal human rights. And apparently his self-image is so fragile that he needs to feel superior to non-human animals to feel good enough about himself to perform his “distinctly human duty to treat animals humanely.”
Incidentally, Wesley Smith is a senior fellow for the Discovery Institute, a “think tank” that works strenuously to maintain and advance the money worshipping, war-mongering brand of Calvinistic Christianity and the reactionary socioeconomic values that riddle our Right Wing nation and culture of death. For more on Discovery, click here: http://www.uncommonthought.com/mtblog/archives/2006/08/07/can_you_say_hid.php
[But the arguments GAP has deployed in Spain don’t advance the idea of equality among animals. They destroy it.]
[GAP is scientifically honest. And science doesn’t show mental parity between great apes and human adults. What it shows, as the group’s president acknowledges, is that great apes “experience an emotional and intellectual conscience similar to that of human children.” Accordingly, the Spanish proposal doesn’t treat apes like you or me. It treats them like “humans of limited capacity, such as children or those who are mentally incompetent and are afforded guardians or caretakers to represent their interests.”]
[And that’s just the top rung of the inequality ladder. GAP’s mission statement says great apes are entitled to rights based on their “morally significant characteristics.” It says they
enjoy a rich emotional and cultural existence in which they experience emotions such as fear, anxiety and happiness. They share the intellectual capacity to create and use tools, learn and teach other languages. They remember their past and plan for their future. It is in recognition of these and other morally significant qualities that the Great Ape Project was founded.]
[Morally significant qualities. Morally significant characteristics. These are appeals to discrimination, not universal equality. Most animals don’t have a rich cultural life. They can’t make tools. They don’t teach languages. Singer even points out that “chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas have long-term relationships, not only between mothers and children, but also between unrelated apes.” Special rights for animals in committed relationships! It sounds like a Moral Majority for vegans.]
[Opening your mind to science-based animal rights doesn’t eliminate inequality. It just makes the inequality more scientific. A rat can’t match a pig, much less a boy. In fact, as a GAP board member points out, “We are closer genetically to a chimp than a mouse is to a rat.”]
[George Orwell wrote the cruel finale to this tale 63 years ago in Animal Farm: “All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.” That wasn’t how the egalitarian uprising in the book was supposed to turn out. It wasn’t how the animal rights movement was supposed to turn out, either.]
How tremendous was that leap? Suddenly Saletan, who previously expressed his emphatic opposition to GAP’s significant blow for animal liberation, started citing the reasons why this step forward for animal rights will result in a “Four legs good, two legs better” scenario for the “lesser” species. If this legal precedent is such an abysmal failure for the animal rights movement and for the voiceless victims they defend (both of which Saletan obviously fears and despises), why isn’t he celebrating?
If this is the best Saletan and Smith can muster in support of their morally primitive position, they need to head home and get back to their drawing boards. And they’d better move quickly, because if they’re panic is justified, those “damn dirty apes” might just acquire property rights and displace Saletan and Smith from their precious abodes!
Jason Miller is Cyrano’s Journal’s associate editor.
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