My Opinion: Jón Gnarr - Animal Life

I think that one of the main reasons for unnecessary difficulties is usually that people underestimate or misunderstand conditions and the nature of things. That people often have expectations about something, based on sentimental and subjective judgement. People make demands and then become disappointed when things don’t meet their expectations. This may apply to our fate and expectations to life, but particularly to other people. We want people to do things in a certain way, and when they don’t, we often become surprised and frustrated. The most obvious examples are ethical. Why do people commit crimes? Why are they selfish? Why are they violent? Why do they lie? The most exaggerated example is addiction. We don’t understand it. What causes it? Doctors say it is a disease, and most people agree to that. And yet there is no cure for it, except some kind of a “spiritual awakening” recommended by many doctors as a treatment. No drugs seem to work against addiction.

Dog Life

I have had many dogs through the years. Usually I got a dog on a whim. I got many dogs through the classified ads. Usually these were dogs that someone needed to get rid of for some reason. After the dog came into my home I soon started suspecting that the reason the owner wanted to get rid of it was first and foremost the behavior of the dog. These dogs usually had some kind of a personality disorder or had somehow been damaged in their upbringing, or they had had no upbringing at all. They showed limited respect for me and seemed to think that I was just their service provider. They never obeyed me and just did as they pleased. I particularly remember one of them. He was an Irish Setter. He was just over a year old when I got him. I named him Bob Dylan. Instead of walking majestically beside me, Bob would rage at his leash, biting it and constantly pulling it. And whatever I said, it had no effect. He used every opportunity to escape through the door and run out of sight, and didn’t heed any calls or commands. Many a day I walked around my neighborhood calling, Bob! Bob! But he never came.

Later, when I finally went to a dog training class, I found out that this was all my fault. My dogs were not selfish psychopaths. There was nothing wrong with them. They were just dogs, and true to their nature. The problem was my attitude and expectations of them. I thought, for example, that dogs were much smarter than they really are. My ideas about dogs came from movies and TV shows, where dogs, as a rule, were emotionally intelligent thinkers and their owner’s best friend. I wanted a dog that was a mixture of Lassie and the police dog Rex. And preferably it should be able to read my mind. When I realized this, my whole dog life changed. Today, I have a dog that I am really pleased with. I see him for what he really is, and I have no unrealistic expectations of him. He is also really content with our relationship and he thinks I am awesome.

Monkey Life

Dogs are just animals. We are different. Or are we? Are people not animals too? Perhaps we are more related to dogs than we care to admit. We are raised as being separate from other animals. Many people maintain that we are made from an animalistic foundation but with godlike qualities, that we are animals with a soul. But maybe that is not right. Maybe we don’t have a soul. Maybe the idea of the soul is based on a misunderstanding. Many scientists say that we are no different from other animals, except regarding the intellect. We are closely related to monkeys. Chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans are, for example, so related to us that there are discussions about giving them rights akin to the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights. Is that so crazy? Will people in the future shake their heads over our conduct regarding the apes, like we shake our heads over slavery in the past? It can be argued that we really are but a species of apes. And perhaps a lot of what we do is not based on calculated ideology, but instinct. The human being is not one thing and all the animals something else. We are all from the same stock. We are human animals. And when we realize this our expectations of other people change. We stop being constantly frustrated by other people’s behavior and become happy instead when they behave well. We should treat other people with patience and tolerance. We should forgive others; they don’t always know what they are doing, because they are just apes in clothes. Like ourselves. I think, for example, that I have learnt more from my dog than he from me.