Sunday, May 30, 2010

Ignore the crazy

There is a "consensus reality" for people. It's that narrow ideaspace where the majority enforces its view of reality on all others. It sounds nefarious but it's mostly harmless, it's the sane state of mind that prevents us from jumping from buildings to test the theory of gravity, or picking fights with wild animals because they look at us in a funny way. But there is also a consensus reality for dogs, and although it's ultimately indeterminable for us, we can be assured that it's very different from ours. It would be a much less visual, and more olfactory concept: dog reality smells. And then there is also consensus reality for ants - or is it the reality of the colony - and you can think of all the other realities that are regularly experienced.

I love the South Park episode where Cesar Millan, The Dog Whisperer, trains Eric Cartman to be an obedient boy. His dog training techniques are used on Cartman to try and rid him of his unpleasant mannerisms. It's funny because it's true. In dogs we can get a somewhat exaggerated, but interesting picture of how we really function because their instincts are so much closer to the surface. But we have our own versions of those same instincts, which are very similar to those of our canine friends, and we're constantly influenced by them, and yet we can fool ourselves that we don't have them, because we keep them hidden much deeper beneath the surface.

But we also howl at the moon to channel our fears and keep the darkness at bay. We also bare our teeth at the Others, the people we distrust, or who for whatever reason give us a sense of foreboding.