I discovered when we suffer, we suffer as equals. And in their capacity to suffer, a dog is a pig, is a bear...is a boy.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the shared experience of suffering among all beings, regardless of species or identity.
Philip Wollen's quote reflects on the universal nature of suffering, suggesting that all creatures, whether human or animal, experience pain similarly. It calls for empathy and compassion towards all living beings, highlighting that the capacity for suffering is a common thread that connects us, transcending traditional boundaries of species and identity.
In practice
During a speech at an animal rights conference.
When I travel around the world, I see that poor countries sell their grain to the West while their own children starve in their arms. And we feed it to livestock. So we can eat a steak? Am I the only one who sees this as a crime? Every morsel of meat we eat is slapping the tear-stained face of a starving child. When I look into her eyes, should I be silent? The Earth can produce enough for everyone’s need. But not enough for everyone’s greed.
We torture and kill two billion sentient living beings every week. 10,000 entire species are wiped out every year because of the actions of one, and we are now facing the sixth mass extinction in cosmological history. If any other organism did this, a biologist would consider them a virus.
We obey people we don't trust, to buy things we don't need, to impress people we don't like, using money we don't have, for gratifications that don't last, killing animals we don't hate, for pleasures that don't satisfy, dreaming of a life we don't deserve, and praying for an afterlife that doesn't exist, we are a stupid species
In their capacity to feel pain and fear, a pig is a dog is a bear is a boy.
War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason.
The curtain of the universe is moth-eaten, and through its holes we see nothing now but mask and ghost.
Aggression only moves in one direction - it creates more aggression.
We often fancy that we suffer from ingratitude, while in reality we suffer from self-love.
Made as we were in the image of God we scarcely find it strange to take again our God as our All. God was our original habitat and our hearts cannot but feel at home when they enter again that ancient and beautiful abode.
Sometimes the shadow stays next to the Light. Sometimes it disappears into the Light
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