The best!

What makes us believe that people are better, smarter, more special, than other living organisms?

By our standards we are the best, but our standards are only based on what we know and expect and like.

Maybe we are just the most judgemental! Or maybe not. Could it be that some animals pity us, or find us adorably inept? Obviously many fear us. We really are the most dangerous, intent on controlling as much as possible and totally capable of destroying our the world.

Human beings are always trying to find tests that prove which animals are the closest to us (and therefore worth the most?) Once we thought the fact that we make and use tools separated us from other animals. Then we discovered that chimpanzees also made tools. Now we know lots of animals make tools and even more interesting, they are pretty good problem solvers all on their own. Of course the ability to problem solve is not equal in all humans either.

We are excited when our dogs understand a lot of our words. Add in all the other trained animals and I begin to wonder how come they can understand our words, but we can't understand them? Who speaks dolphin, or dog?  Actually how many of us can even speak another human language?

I suspect human beings think we are the best because we are human. If we were buffalo we might value all things buffalo more.

Why do we need to label everything? Best. First. Smartest. Richest. Poorest. Words ending in "st" seemed to require some kind of judgement call, but each call is so limited, so inconclusive. It's like saying the sky is blue.