Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Mostly what Julian Baggini says about complaining I would endorse enthusiastically, but I was dismayed to learn that the thinks that this is a uniquely human activity. Of course it is not. I live with four species of other animals (dogs, cats, chickens, donkeys) and I can say categorically that they are perfectly able to recognize when something is wrong, and complain about it. They can even achieve solidarity on the matter and, when humans or some other potential agents of change are willing to listen, bring about change. Humans need to be very careful about thinking of themselves as unique and therefore different from the rest of creation. It leads to arrogance and the abuse of other species if we do not recognize our closeness to and dependence upon them. There are very few attributes and skills not also possessed by some animal that we know. The only one I can think of is the ability to write down language, and there are an awful lot of humans who can’t do that, either.