Sunday, November 8, 2009

The Sociology of Felines.

The furry faced human has a large book in the basement in the bookshelf. The title is "Sociology", I think it was a textbook for college. From what I could tell, it was a book explaining how human society works, or at least how to understand it. So I drug it out and set to reading it.

Alot it was crazy. Humans make things utterly too complicated. I think much of it has to do with their desire to impose order on the world. Wasted time, wasted energy. Beyond the search for kibble, a warm place in the sun to groom, and someone to snuggle with, is there really a need for much more? Humans don't get the utter simplicity of cat society, nor do I think they ever will.

The book said that there are different ways of interpreting society, different paradigms if you will (pretty cool word for a domestic short-hair to use, eh?-its the thumbs I tell ya). One of the paradigms was that everything was symbolic, another paradigm was that everyone is placed in certain positions as part of a great machine, every cog in their place, and the last was that society was simply based on the conflict between the classes-that was Marx of course.

While humans and dogs seem to subscribe to building groups of people together, united for a purpose, whether a pack of dogs, or an army of humans, cats generally are more like anarchists; small groups with self-preservation as their aim. Within a group of cats, one may assert themselves as the alpha cat, but with the exception of lions, we don't really care about building a viable group. We prefer individualism, we prefer a smaller circle of relationships. A mother and her litter, a tom and his mate, littermates like Lucy and I who have been kept together. You would never see a group of cats building a pyramid or monolith.

Nope, not when there are toys to be played with, sunshine to be absorbed and kibble to be munched. People and dogs may not look down their noses at us, but we have discovered the good life. In Costa Rica, the humans have a saying that comes closest to Feline philosophy: "Pura Vida", living the pure life, unfettered by the passions and pursuits that are so much litter box fodder. The sociology of felines is just that, the good life, without the entanglements of pursuits that only benefit the strong.

I think thats why I'm writing this, to help humans understand why felines have so much to teach a crazy human world.

No comments:

Post a Comment