Don't raise your horns, really?

More on sheep and goat.


I wrote something on comparison of sheep and goat 3 years ago. Today I read an article about the same and felt complied to write a bit more for another aspect.

Generally, a sheep is docile, conforming, follows the herd, obeys the shepherd and his dogs, non combative, doesn’t argue and stays where he/she is fenced up at.

On the other hand, a goat goes his/her own way, fights the dogs, jumps fences, questions authority.

Regardless of who you want to be, a sheep or a goat, there are always external forces trying to make you into one or another.

So, who would prefer a world full of sheep?

1. Governments. The more sheep in the country, the easier for them to rule. This is especially true for those great leaders the likes of Chairman Mao, Stalin, Hitler, or more recently Mr. Kim, Mr. Hussein, Mr. Lee, Mr. Mahathir, the list goes on. These great leaders despise and hate goats. Rightly so, the goats question them, challenge them and fight them.

More than 2 thousand years ago, the son of Joseph and Mary did just that and guess what they did to him? They nailed him on a wooden cross. That’s how great governments dealt with annoying goats.

Recently, there were some really unhealthy happenings in the middle east. Some great leaders were challenged and brought down by their own goats. This is most outrages and unthinkable! They supposed to be docile sheep and run away when the shepherd unleashed the dogs on them. Instead, they turned around and raised their horns and sent the dogs running with tails between their legs.

2. Organised religions. This is not to be confused with religions, as most of us usually equal them as the same. In reality, religion and organized religion are 2 very different things. Religion is about spiritual, finding universal truth, betterment of oneself, self cultivation, enlightenment. Whereas, organized religion is about rule, control, impose, dictate, oppress, punish and so on, all wrapped up in a thin sugar coat of called “divine order”.

As in the case of governments, organized religions condemn goats and will not hesitate to put them on the chopping board if they have the opportunity. That’s the reason all organized religions demand their subjects to be sheep. “Don’t raise your horns” goes one famous quote. “Obey the shepherd and submit to him” says another. Being a goat, you would probably raise your hand and ask “who are the shepherds?”. You will be frowned upon for asking silly questions. Of course the shepherds are the appointed ones by the divine force, whoever that is depending on which organized religion, who are given divine right to guide and bring you back to the right path, i.e. be a docile sheep. If you dare to ask “how do we know what you say is true?”, they will expedite your passage to eternal hell by burning you alive. But fear not, at least your soul will be save because they will pray for you for the entire BBQ party.

Just few hundred years ago, they rounded up thousands of goats, labeled them witches and sorcerers, and burnt them alive. Best of all, they made all the sheep in the city to witness the roasting session. What’s better than a real life lesson on “don’t raise your horns”?

There’s another great thing about organized religions. When their numbers are small, they are usually the oppressed and at the receiving end. When their number builds up, in a blink of an eye, they begin giving out divine punishments to the sheep and goats. Such a wonderful thing.

3. Perfect spouse or partner. You should just worship your perfect partner for he/she knows everything and does no wrong. Anything less than admiration and total devotion is unforgiven. A sheep is a perfect match for a perfect partner who needs lots of respects, admirations and ego boosts. Can you imagine a goat in that position? “The Nepalese are dark because most of them are fishermen at the sea back home.” A sheep would answer “wow. You are so knowledgeable and smart.” The perfect spouse gets his/her daily dose of respect and ego boost. All is well. A goat would roll his/her eyeball and say “I think Nepal is a land locked country and has no coastline.” The perfect spouse can’t be wrong and so a domestic argument will happen, which will break down the family – the basic building block of our civilized society. Do you want that to happen?
Only if all wives are sheep, they wouldn't set up and promote the superbly relevent "Obedient Wife Club" or affectionately called OWC, to educate and bring the goat wives back to the right path. No prize for guessing. of course to become a docile sheep, with added spice of husband pleasing sexual "behaviors".

Now, do you see my concerns? Being a goat means you are ungrateful, troublemaker, law breaker, go against divine rules, etc. your acts are punishable and the good shepherd will not hesitate to crack his whip and let their dogs on you.

Ask any livestock farmer and their will tell you docile-ness is one of most important criteria when they choose an animal at a yard. Polled or horn-less breeds are preferred. Most of them burn the horn butt off on young kids and lambs so they will not grow again.

So do you still want to raise your horns and jump the fence? Repent and be a docile sheep now.

How to win an argument

How to win an argument?

Occasionally, like it or not, we argue with others. As winning is always a must for us high achievers, we have to do what it takes to win an argument.

There are a few techniques to win an argument or debate that will make you an admirable high achiever, and make those underachievers look up upon you. The beauty of these techniques is you don’t even have to know what your opponent’s arguments are. So, it is sort of a set of universal techniques that fits all debate and let you win all of them effortlessly.

1.     1. Attack the messenger.  Focus your assaults on the person instead of his/her arguments. The meaner you attack the messenger, the higher your chance of winning the debate. If practiced well enough, winning comes naturally by sending your opponents speechless and too busy defending themselves and forget about the real debate.

Example: You can’t even speak proper English, you points can’t be correct. Go back to school loser.

John is a low IQ dumb, if you believe what he said, you are a greater dumb .

2.       2. Reduce and distort the opposite opinions. This is technically called the “strawman” technique. It basically means build a reduced and distorted version of your opponent’s argument and then beat it up easily with a single blow like beating a strawman.

Example: Capitalism is nothing more than the rich exploiting the poor. So we must fight it with all our might.

Building a highway will create more accidents that kill. So we must object to this new proposal.

3.       3. Accuse hidden motive. This is also a very effective method to divert the attention from the direct arguments and instead focus the audience attention to your opponent’s immoral hidden agendas. Note that you don’t have to give a damn about what your opponent’s argument is.

Example: You support non violent just because you are a Buddhist who is on an evil mission to convert all the good Christians and Muslims in our audience.

You are saying global warming is a threat because you are a Greenie who wants to destroy the good economy of our country.

4.       4. Attack the weaker relatives. This is also termed as “kick his shin” technique. An experienced debater will be able to look for an irrelevant but related point and start attacking it to make the audience believe the actual arguments are being debated and beaten up badly.

Example:  Socialism is spoken many times by the evil communists, which means socialism is equally evil and if not banned from our good society, it will destroy all beloved country.

If we haven’t seen a monkey changing into human, the theory of evolution must be flawed.

5.       5. False options. Make your opponent choose between 2 options that are made up by you. This forces them to focus on your two options, whereas there are many more options to choose from. They are doomed whatever they choose because the options are cleverly designed to entrap them. This requires some levels of smartness but will come naturally if practiced a few times.

Example: Pakatan Rakyat is a corrupt party, so we have to vote for UMNO.

Do you want to be a religionless communist or a God fearing good Republican?

6.       6. False assumptions. This is a very tricky but effective way of confusing the opponents and beat them up after that. It involves giving a pseudo assumption that seems rock solid and hence make your argument undebatable.

Example: Most of the residents speak English which means they are educated and hence the theft must have been committed by the villagers outside of our community.

Look at the cows, they are vegetarians and yet they can grow so healthy. So being vegetarian is also good for our growth.

7.       7. Self referencing argument. This is used by many winners in human history with great successes. It is a powerful tool if used together with technique (3) above. The examples below are self evident.

Example: Communism is the greatest way of life on earth because Chairman Mao had said it numerous times in his Red book.

If your opponent detects the self referencing in your “circular logic” argument, quickly switch to technique (3) to question his hidden motives.

I know you are a bloody racist. Chairman Mao is the beloved leader of 1.3 billion Chinese. Just because you have white supremacy in your blood, you hate all Chinese.

If all of the above fail, you may have no choice but to resort to the dumbest, least effective and most time consuming method. Do research to back your opinions and counter your opponents with data and figures. Most of the time, you will lose an argument this way especially if your opponent employs the above methods instead.

Happy debating.

LOST

Under the shadows of the big trees, Mary was frantically scanning the forest looking for a hint of a foot path or any familiar signs. Although every tree was different, the tropical rain forest around her seemed the same – huge, tall trees with sparse undergrowth. 

The sun was setting and Mary knew it would be dark very soon. She checked her watch. 6:25pm. At most, another 30 minutes before it would be too dark to navigate in the forest. She had a compass but it didn’t help a bit for someone with little experience. A compass was useful only if she knew her location and a map to guide her.  

“Don’t panic, Mary. You can do this.” She told herself. 

Mary came to Borneo with 2 other fellow researchers to do field studies on beetles that fed on decayed vegetations. This was a major part of her post graduate thesis. She loved bugs even when she was a little girl. Her friends would scream and jump, while she would pick up a spider and looked at it with full interest. Very few would appreciate how amazing these small creatures with segmented body were. They thrived in harsh environments where other creatures failed. They outnumbered other creatures by thousands times.

She loved the tropical forest and enjoyed the 2 weeks field trip very much. This was the last trip where they had to hike to a remote part of the forest to collect samples and had to stay a few nights in the forest. They had 2 very experienced local guides who knew the forest like their back yard.

Mary came out with another researcher Jane to collect beetles after they had set camp near a waterfall. Marang, their lead guide wouldn’t allow them to go into the forest alone.

“It’s too easy to get lost. Everywhere looks the same. If you make a step in the wrong direction, you may not find your way again.”

Mary now knew he was right. She had asked Jane to go back while she took a short detour to get some leave samples by the stream.

“The foot path is pretty clear and I won’t be lost” she had said jokingly to Jane.

She went to the stream, collected the leave samples and back tracked. While walking, she had a strange feeling she wasn’t on the right track. Maybe she had missed a turn. 

So she turned and walked back. There was indeed a faint path between 2 tall trees.  One of them had a big branch broken from the main trunk. She followed that path but it ended before a steep slope. Mary knew she didn’t come that way and back tracked. 

She walked for a while but didn’t find the junction and the 2 tall trees where she came from.

She scanned and she saw the two tall trees were not far away on her right. The sparse undergrowth didn’t look too hard to get through. 

“The footpath is just behind the trees. I can get back to camp once I see the path.”

She walked toward the tall trees and found that although the undergrowth was sparse, vines and fallen branches were making it hard to get through. Her backpack got hooked on a branch and she fell on her knees. 

“Can’t get through from here. I will walk around this small slope.”

She walked around some big trees and was tripped a few times. When she got back on her feet, her target trees were gone from sight.

To her horror, she couldn’t remember where she started.

“Dang! Should have left some marks” she blamed herself.

With no choice, she moved towards the direction which she thought was right. After a few turns, she knew she was in trouble as she had no clue where she was and the sun was setting fast.

Mary checked her watch again. 6:50pm. The forest was almost dark save for the little sunlight that filtered through the thick canopy.

“Help! Help!” Mary was overwhelmed by panic and called out for help.

Exhausted and in fear, she rested under a huge tree with trunk thicker than a pickup truck. Under the shade, it’s unusually clear of undergrowth. 

Mary knew it was better for her to stay put and wait for help. It’s too dangerous to wander in the dark forest, although she knew there weren’t any big animals in the Borneo forest that would harm her. 

A cold evening breeze chilled her sweat soaked body. She had goose bumps all over and felt her hair was standing on her head.

Her whole body shivered as if she had entered a meat freezer.

Before she blacked out, she thought the cold breeze had a faint scent of incense. 

Marang took a deep drag on his cigarette. It’s still early in the morning and the foggy forest around him was quiet. He had a worried look on his face and felt uncomfortable of what had happened. He lived his whole life in this part of the Borneo tropical rain forest and knew and saw many things that beyond the comprehension of city folks. The forest was a different world compared to the villages and the cities.

He could tell which part of the forest he’s in by the sound of the insects and birds. The seemingly uniform forest was unique and had distinguishable features in his eyes. Different parts of the forest had distinctive smells of leaves, rotting vegetation. Even the breeze was a sign for him to find his way in the forest. His senses worked optimally here.

Ironically, when he occasionally went to the cities, he couldn’t find his way in a shopping mall. He couldn’t remember what floor he was on and the shops looked the same to him, although they had names on them.

They found Mary wandering in the forest after she didn’t return to the camp that night. She was walking in the dark without a light. When he found her, she had a big smile on her face and her eyes were sparkling in the flash light.

Back in camp, Mary didn’t say a word to anyone but was grinning all the time. Marang was uncomfortable with this. He started a camp fire and stayed up all night. 

In another hour, the sun would rise and wake up the forest. The insects and birds would start their day loud and happy, followed by the gibbons and leaf monkeys. This morning symphony was loud but peacefully rhythmic, just like the breaking of surf on the beach.

Nik, the other guide, walked to Marang and handed him a coffee in a tin mug.

“Jaga-jaga si Mary tu. Ada yang tak kena” (watch out on Mary. Something not right) He said to Nik.

Nik nodded and then shook his head and sighed.

At that moment, they saw Mary crawled out from the tent and walked towards the trees, smile on her face.

Both men ran after her and grabbed her arms. Mary turned to face them. Her eyes were big and her gaze was wild.

She smiled and bared her teeth.

“Taring aku cantik kah?” (are my fangs pretty?) she asked in a high pitch voice, in the local language.

Marang knew his worst worry came true. Without a word, he and Nik dragged her back towards the camp. Mary was struggling frantically and almost over powered the two strong men.

“Lepaskan aku. Lepaskan aku” (let me go!) She screamed and kicked.

Can’t get her arms free from the men, Mary bared her teeth and tried to bite them but was quickly pushed away. They finally had to tie her up to prevent her from injuring herself.

The other researchers were woke up by the commotion and looked at them bewilderedly.

“Stop this at once and let her go.” Matthew protested. He was the leader among the researchers.

“Something is inside her and we can’t let her run wild in the forest.”

“Nonsense! She needs medical treatment. That’s what she needs right now”

“Mr. Matthew, how do you explain she speaking the Malay language? She is a Dutch, mind you”

Matthew kept quiet. He knew Marang was probably right. Being an intellect trained in science, he wanted to find a scientific explanation to this.

“Maybe she had heard the language here and learnt it in her sub conscious mind. You know, people can do amazing things with their sub conscious mind.”

Matthew tried to explain. Jane put a hand on his shoulder and signaled to him to keep quiet.

“Aku mau pulang! Laki ku menunggu!” (I want to go home. My man is waiting) Mary kept screaming and yelling.

Marang didn’t know what to do. He knew he can’t take Mary out from the forest. What started here must end here. Taking a possessed person out of the forest might keep the spirit in her forever. At the same time, he couldn’t stay in the forest for too long lest endangering the other researchers under his charge. He heard tales of forest spirits attracting each others. He also worried about the safety of Mary. Being possessed for too long would drain her and do permanent damages to her. She might lose her mind and the worst, she might drop dead.

It seemed they were not alone here. There’s at least another unseen being lurking in the forest, if what Mary said was anything to go with. There might be more of them.

Having lived in the forest all his life, he was certainly not naïve to the realm of spirits and other unseen beings. They were called “Penunggu” in his language, which meant Guardian. They usually left people alone unless that poor person had done something wrong or offensive to them.

There was also another type of being which were feared by the local tribe. The locals called them “Puaka” (demon) and they were believed to be ferocious. Marang knew of many tales where villages were possessed by Puaka and most of these tales didn’t have pleasant endings. 

He heard tale of a possessed woman from the Iban tribe who chewed on her own fingers. By the time they stopped her, all her 10 fingers were gone.

Marang could send Nik to get help from the village but the return trip would take 2 days. That would be too long and too painful for poor Mary to bear.

The sun had warmed up the forest and fog was gone. The forest was again transformed into a busy and alive place, with all the sounds of the insects, bird and animals.

Marang was alarmed by voices in the forest. They turned out to be  the honey collectors from the Iban village. He called out to them and they came to the camp.

An elderly man looked at Mary and talked to Marang in his language. He nodded after Marang explained to him what had happened.

“I am going to take her to the forest where we found her and the Ibans will help to make the spirit leave her” He explained to the group and asked Nik to take charge while he was away.

In the forest under the huge tree without undergrowth, the old man encircled Mary with a ring of stones. He put the offering of ice wine and honey under the huge tree trunk. The other Iban men pour rice wine around the tree while reciting words of prayer to the ancestors.

“Nenek datang nggak di jemput. Nenek pulang nggak dihantar. Sila pergi Nenek. Cucu mohon.” He repeated the recital many times.

(Elder, you came uninvited. You go without sendoff. Please leave. We plead.)

Mary stood there still with a grin on her face. The forest around them was quiet and still. Not a single sound of insects or birds.

“Aku mau layang” (I want to float in air) she hissed out the words.

The old man poured rice wine on her face and without warning smacked her head hard with his palm. Mary fell on the ground and passed out.

They felt a cold breeze swept through and before long the warm sunlight and sounds of insects were back.

Without delay, Marang took Mary back to camp site and asked the group to pack up and leave immediately.

Back in the city, when Matthew asked her what had happened to her, Mary said she can’t remember.

“I was like in a dream. In the dream, I was tethered to a huge tree and kept walking around it. It was really, really cold and I don’t remember anything else besides that tree.”

“What happened after that?”

“I felt someone hit me on the head. Before I wake up, I heard a voice. She said ‘I shall come for you’. It’s in a foreign language but I understood it. I woke up and found myself in the camp and you guys around me. Funny dream, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Just a dream. It’s just a dream Mary.”

Rasheeni's cries

For thousands of Rasheenis out there. I hate myself for not doing more than weeping for you.

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Its 3pm in the afternoon and the small lane in the outskirt of Kathmandu is crowded as usual. Rasheeni is walking home from school. As in any day, she walks faster than her friends as she has to get home quickly. A lot of chores are waiting for her at home.

She changes quickly and hangs up her only school uniform, which she has to wear for another 4 days. She takes the leftovers from a big tin pot on the only table in their tiny shed and goes to feed the chickens. After that’s done, she rinses the pot with water she bucketed from the river 2 days ago and starts to boil rice on a small kerosene burner. While waiting for it to cook, she changes the urine soaked pants of her younger brother who has been lying inside a paper carton box since the morning. When the rice is cooked, she quickly puts out the burner to save the little fuel they have and goes to the welfare center 2 km away to get their daily ration of dahl curry and vegetables. After safely putting the rice pot and the bowl of curry on the table, only then the 8 year-old Rasheeni starts to do her homework on the dirt floor.

She is hungry but she has to wait for her mother to come back from work before they can have their dinner. Her mother works in the city as a cleaner and earns just enough wages to keep them barely alive. School was a far away dream until Mr. Santos founded the Welfare center in the village. With the help of a few NGO, Mr. Santos set up a welfare center which provides free food for the poorest families. He also started a small school for the children with the help of some volunteer teachers from overseas.

Rasheeni likes school and she is especially fond of a young teacher from Holland, Miss Ruel.

“I want to be a teacher like you when I grow up” she told Ruel many times. Ruel would give her a pat on the head and smile.

“I m sure you will, Rasheeni. I m sure.”

Her mother comes home and tells her that her grandfather will be visiting them next week and he will take Rasheeni back to his village.

They eat quietly but Rasheeni is nervous. She senses something in her mother’s voice.

“Mother, when will I come back here?”

Her mother looks away and says slowly, “you will stay there for a long time.”

“what about school? I want to continue to go to school.”

“Rasheeni. Grandpa has found a husband for you. You don’t need to go to school anymore. Your husband works in India and his family has many buffalos and big rice field. You will not be hungry.”

Rasheeni keeps quiet. She doesn’t quite understand what her mother has told her. She knows that a girl has to be married and obey her husband.

“if having a husband is good, why did father leave us?” she once asked her mother but her mother just wept and walked away.

Ruel notices Rasheeni is different today. She is usually the one who is beaming to ask questions and likes to raise her hand to answer questions. Today, she is very quiet and doesn’t say anything in class. Her big eyes look dim.

“Rasheeni. Are you alright?” Ruel asks the 8 year-old Rasheeni after class.

“I will stop school next week because I will be married in my grandfather’s village.”

“But you are just 8 years old. My god. How can they do that to you?”

Rasheeni looks up with her glassy eyes and says “Miss Ruel. I don’t want to marry. I want to come to school and be a teacher like you one day.”

Ruel hugs her and promises to help.

Inside his office at the welfare center, Mr. Santos takes a sip of his tea and looks at Ruel.

“Miss Ruel. Such things happen almost every day here in this part of the world. Child marriage is very common.”

“But she is just 8 years old. For god sake. Can’t we do anything to help her?”

“Legally, we can’t do anything. But that’s not what I fear most for little Rasheeni.”

“What can be worse than that?”

“It’s also very common for poor families to sell their young daughters to brothels in India. Many men believe having sex with young virgins can cure their illnesses such as AIDS and TB. Young girls are especially in high demand in the coming festive month”

“WHAT!” Ruel cups her hand over her mouth in disbelief. It’s beyond her comprehension such cruelty even exists.

Mr. Santos shakes his head and sighs. Throughout the years, he had seen one too many worse cases.

A girl in remote Gujerat was sold for 3 times by her own parents. Every time she was rescued by the police and brought back to her parent, only to be sold again. Sometimes when he closes his eyes, that image of the tortured young girl he found locked in the back room of the brothel would come to him. The blank face with total hopelessness in the eyes. The lash marks on her young, skinny naked body.

“Ruel, sometimes I wish I could help them all but the reality is we can only do so much. I understand how it feels” Santos says sadly.

Ruel doesn’t give up. She goes to the police, the district officer and even the Dutch high commission in Kathmandu for help.

“There’s nothing we can do. We don’t have enough man power to help.” The inspector tells her.

“Her mother has legal right to decide for her daughter.” The district officer says.

“We have to respect the local culture and not to interfere in local affairs.” The Dutch high commissioner’s secretary says to her in perfect manner.

After she goes back the next week, Ruel finds only 7 pupils are left in her class of 10. Rasheeni and 2 other young girls are missing from her class forever.

On instinct & behaviors

In general, human behaviors are divided into 2 broad groups, i.e. “natural” and “Un-natural”. Before you raise your hand, allow me to summarise.

“Natural” behaviors refer to all instinctive actions (or in-actions) that satisfy natural requirements of a living being, regardless of whether he/she comes from civilized and uncivilized background.

As the logic goes, “Un-natural” behaviors refer to the opposite of “Natural” behaviors.

To illustrate, behaviors of other non-human, soulless, dumb living beings are also presented as comparison to show the superiority of the chosen, intelligent, special human species.

“Natural” behaviors can be further sub-divided as follows, in order of priority.

1.  Individual survivor

1. 

-          Animals: eat, sleep, run from danger, hide from the elements, hunt, rob from the weaker ones etc.

-          Human: eat, sleep, run from danger, hide from the elements, hunt, rob from the weaker ones, selfish, back stabbing, lie, cheat etc.

Every action has 1 single purpose in mind, to instinctively stay alive.

2.        2. Propagation of own genes
.

-          Animals: courtship, love dance (birds, some fish, some insects), display of strength/beauty (peacocks, moose etc), gifts (dung beetles,  chimpanzees etc) mate, maternal care, occasional paternal care (Penguins, hornbills, sea horses etc), defending offsprings, fight for mating rights, guard harem of females (lions, elephant seals, zebras etc), kill off-springs sired by other males/females (lions, bears etc), exclusive breeding rights of alpha pairs (wolves, African wild dogs, merkats etc)

-          Human: courtship, date, makeup, perfume, sport cars, diamonds, mate, maternal care, romance, marriage, winner gets the princess, polygamy, criminalized adultery, virgin wife, jealousy, possessiveness, demand for faithful partner etc.

Every action has the purpose of increasing the chance of passing on ones’ (male/female) genes to the next generation.

3.       3. Survival of the species.

-          Animals: live in pack (wolves), reluctant to harm babies (of same species), pack hunting (lions), collective care for babies in the pack (hyenas), pecking order (chicken and some birds), social hierarchy (alpha pair in wolves, dominant silverback gorillas etc), dispose of the old and injured from pack, chase away grown up males/females to reduce chances of incest (avoid in-breeding), rarely cannibalise, expand/defend territory, killing competitors (lions and hyenas killing each other whenever there is an opportunity) etc.

-          Human: families, villages, countries, family names, reluctant to harm babies (of same race, civilised killing uncivilised is generally ok), matriarch society, caste system, organized religions, Gods, governments, kings and novelties, saints and noble men, mercy killings, criminalized incest, dislike cannibalism, wars, slavery, banning homosexuality, genocides, create rules and laws, moral, honour to serve in war, encourage virtues (honesty, faithfulness to country, subordination etc) while punish sins (liars, thieves, disobedient, question Gods etc)

Every action is aimed at multiplying ones’ species (race, group, country etc), preserving order and reducing competitions from other species (race, group, country etc)

Natural behaviors are in order of priority, individual survival being the most important and hence of highest priority. E.g. in a war or disaster, a human will usually save himself first, then his offsprings. Defending the county will be on lower priority

“Un-natural” behaviors are those that don’t contribute to the above actions/inactions.

1.       1. Anti survival of individual or species.

    - Animals: extremely rare to none. only observed on some intelligent species such as elephant, dolphins and primates. dolphins had been spotted many times fending off sharks from injured members, even human divers were reported saved by dolphins.

    - Human: care for aged parents; defend unrelated sick, disabled people, sacrifice ones’ life for the benefits of other unrelated people, compassion towards other non-human species.


    2.  Non survival related behaviors

   

     - Animals: extremely rare to none. only observed on some intelligent species such as elephant, dolphins and primates. Dolphins and bonobos are the 2 known species , besides human, that have non reproductive sex. (http://songweaver.com/info/bonobos.html; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sexual_behaviour)

     - Human: music, arts, literature, sports, individual spirituality, sex for pleasure etc.

Above behaviors are considered as going beyond the realm of survival of either individual or species. Nevertheless, they are not in the mainstream of human behaviors which are cherished by the masses.

By far, three of most popular and cherished elements of human life are: Food, romance and organized religions.

So, can you go beyond instinct and survival?