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Closer to Home (4)

Concluding Thoughts

Pet Dog 

Read the article “seven reasons why dogs are and always will be man’s best friend.” This was posted some time ago on our group’s messenger but I could not help being bothered by the popular psyche behind the writer’s second point that dogs can connect with their owner deeply. Substituting our relational empathy towards humans has something to do with our influence to that popular culture which portrays that dogs are endowed with human qualities. What’s more, attachment to dogs similar to one’s attachment to a lifeless rag doll only reveals our need for love and companionship that needs to be nurtured and protected. Both dog and a helpless rag doll will only help show us that we have a deep capacity to love and care for others under the right state of affairs; it is simply a means but not the end, for to continue to indulge in that solitude, in that circumstance, instead of being alleviated from what might otherwise have been kept hidden in us, is to misappropriate the dog’s usefulness. Besides, it is easy to deify a dog because of the therapeutic effect it brings; this purported unconditional love that they say dogs have toward humans, since it really can change our brain chemistry. Purported because again, so does a lifeless rag doll. You can also confide your problems to it, and no matter what we tell them, you will never find someone as supportive without judging you, and so it triggers relaxation, and reduces stress, etc. but this is repulsive since it is to say that rag dolls can do just as much as what dogs are doing to us. Yes, dogs have an incredible value as human companions but not as a surrogate to our human needs. Yet, myriads have succumbed to the suspect cultural buildup that puts the true value of our dogs in peril, its usefulness and its suitability in our social order. Many are made to believe that the unconditional love that the dog has towards its master is so compelling since this is a rare commodity in human relationships, when the truth to the matter is, like rag dolls, dogs have zero expectation because they are incapable of linking companionship with the person’s emotional condition. Companionship to them is companionship, it does not matter how hard your day has been, the financial state you are in, what next thing needs to get done, etc., so it wags its tail whenever they see or hear your voice simply since your presence alone excites and entices them. A human relationship however is more intense and intimate because it subsequently involves prospects and expectancies and therefore fitfully rare but more precious, therefore it rests on a higher echelon in our world’s social order.

I hope to make you see the dire consequence when one starts to tinker with this social order, and the devastating effect of the usefulness of dogs when one uses it as an end in and of itself instead of simply a means. It inclines us to prefer dogs like misfit people who would rather have their rag dolls over humans. On the other hand, while the actuality of the befitting role of a live dog against a lifeless rag doll has its purpose, it’s very limited nature to give us the sense of our need of empathy towards others is a means to help us imitate similar social interactions with other human beings. Therefore possessing a flawed companion in our house (a dog) that is indwelt with its very less human capability can occupy an amazing bridge that perfectly meets the needs and purposes that we sometimes require to make us arch over our own blind spots as crossroads to becoming fully human.