Alphabet Superset

All Lifeforms Deserve the Same Chance at Life

One thing I have never understood, and will continue to never understand, is how little a value can be placed on life. I mean, just the probability of existing is completely absurd. For context, the odds are one in 10 followed by two and a half million zeros.

So why is it that life can be snuffed out so easily? That is a question I have been asking myself for as long as I can remember. This is not only applied to humans, but other animals and life as well. I don't mean the food chain, but the unattached demeanor lifeforms can have in regards to other life.

Atomic bombs, for instance, aren't meant to kill anyone or anything in particular, but as much life in a specific radius as possible. It doesn't matter if someone in that radius is meant to find a cure for cancer, or if someone in that radius is meant to run the fastest mile this world has ever seen. When they step foot in that radius during the time a different human being, who is very, very far away decides to drop the atomic bomb, their lives are no longer in their own hands, but the hands of the human being who is very, very far away. A game of chance is ultimately the deciding factor of their lives.

Another example that comes to mind, one that I feel I share with a very small amount of people in this world, is the unethicality of killing insects and rodents that get into our homes. This is a pretty universal action, yet one that I just can't get behind. They get into our homes, yes, but so what? If we have the ability to catch and release them back outside instead of mercilessly killing them, shouldn't we do so? Doesn't that just make sense? 

Two things come to mind here when I think of this topic. One: The essay "Famine, Affluence and Morality" by Peter Singer. He argues that if you can prevent something bad from happening without sacrificing too much on your end to do it, you 'ought to take the necessary steps to do so. You don't have to completely agree with Singer's essay to take a glass bottle and trap and release an insect,  another living being, back to the outdoors. I think if we start seeing all living beings as just that, living beings, it would make treating their lives as such much easier and more natural. 

The other thing this topic makes me think of is a song lyric from Linkin Park's song called "One More Light." This is the lyric: "Who cares if one more light goes out? In the sky of a million stars..." I find so much meaning in this lyric. There are so many stars out there, when one goes out, you would not be able to tell due to the sheer amount of stars around it still out there. We are approaching nine billion people on Earth. When one person dies, due to the amount of people still alive on our planet, it doesn't truly matter in the grand scheme of things. It is up to us to make it matter, by remembering those who have passed away and doing our best to help those alive who are in need. And that accounts for all life, human being or not. In the song, Chester Bennington adds the lyric "well, I do" after posing his question. Why shouldn't we use what we're given in this world to help the living instead of expediting death?

One argument I find myself rolling my eyes to a lot when it comes to the killing of lifeforms in our homes is that they are the ones who are "invading" our homes. We invade the homes of lifeforms so much more than they invade ours. We, humans, invade so many natural habitats, like birds in the sky when we're traveling in an airplane, or koalas, sloths, and many other animals when we're chopping down trees in a forest. The list goes on and on. I'm not saying it's always pleasant to get your home "invaded" by an insect or rodent, but it sure as hell beats getting your entire habitat squashed by a life form ten to 10,000 times larger than you who simply thinks you are getting in the way by just living your life. Chances are you would even spend less energy by just capturing and letting go an insect or rodent outside than killing them in the first place. 

This world is a vast place, and death runs rampant wherever we go. But shouldn't that mean even more so that we should do our best to not spread it unnecessarily, and instead practice kindness and acts of life? I, by no means intend to accuse or attack anyone by writing this, but to hopefully put out into the world a different perspective that could hopefully change some minds in the process. I hope to inspire acts of mercy and kindness in a world of more and more darkness. May this be one more light against the forces of evil that will inevitably find their way around the living world.