Juan Villoro
After years of writing, the master of paradoxes, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, made a curious statement: “The human race, to which most of my readers belong…”. He thus suggested that his texts were also available to other animals. Read at the beginning of the 20th century, the phrase had a particular touch of irony.
Today, animals enjoy great prestige. If someone says, “You left me with my tongue hanging out,” that no longer refers to the astonished surprise humans experience: thanks to the admiring attitude of cocker spaniels, the expression has become a compliment.
If we used to look for human traits in pets, now we want to imitate them. A relative who doesn’t drink water during meals explains her behavior in a way that doesn’t admit contradiction: “That’s how dogs do it”.
But I am convinced we must still imitate more animals that suit us. The chimpanzee is the primate closest to us; its remarkable intelligence does not save it from outbursts of temper; it rejects alternatives that suit it but which go against its obstinate judgment. It is worth looking for examples that are less similar to ours.
Although dogs lack the reasoning of chimpanzees, they have learned an essential lesson for earning their chops: they know that nothing helps them survive quite like sympathy. According to Brian Hare of Duke University, apes are incapable of noticing that if a human extends his index finger, he is pointing at something. Dogs, on the other hand, pick up on that gesture. Understanding that another knows what you ignore is a cognitive resource that requires modesty and sociability, virtues that are rare in sullen chimpanzees and humans, who are incapable of recognizing that the other may be right. The canine species resolved its survival by being agreeable to another species. It is a subordinate decision we will not commend as a general behavior model in times of justified anger, but it reveals social dexterity.
Something similar can be said of cats, which look lovely in a palace or a sorcerer’s cabinet. It is no accident that they are the permanent tenants of the Colosseum. Their presence recalls life before the cities. Following an idea of Victor Hugo, José Emilio Pacheco wrote: “Come, cat/ come closer:/ you are my chance to caress the tiger”. Even if it stops before us like an Egyptian ornament, there is something wild about a cat. It is our chance at the tiger.
Popular culture perfected the mythology of the solitary, adventurous, bohemian cat. In the movie The Aristocats, the high life is not in Parisian mansions but in basements where jazz is played. The same happens in the cartoons of Top Cat and his gang.
Cats cannot be tamed. In circuses, the pointy-whiskered tamers have failed with the most diverse varieties of cats, from fluffy Angora specimens to Bengals with mimetic leopard spots. The great paradox is that, with resources different from those of dogs, cats trained themselves. Instead of enduring the uncertain outdoors or the alleys where the best dish is a fish skeleton, they preferred to purr in the warm houses where there are croquettes.
Darwin’s thesis on the survival of the fittest refers not to strength but to the ability to adapt. Hare’s studies extended those of the Russian ethologist Dmitri Belyaev. Both concluded that a variant of wolves discovered that hunting is more arduous than having a master. Those remote grandparents of dogs assumed domestication as a matter of prime necessity. To test his theory, Belyaev began breeding foxes in 1959. Those that showed aggression received worse food and were kept away from females. The experiment produced gentle foxes. In 2003, Hare visited the offspring of the pilot program and met adorable companion animals.
Since Aesop, the fox has had a reputation as a cunning animal, so its friendliness can be seen as a devious strategy; however, given the choice, it is better to meet a pacifist for convenience than a sincere predator.
Rebelliousness is one of the greatest virtues of human beings, descendants of the ape and its whims. However, from time to time, we should imitate species that are agreeable for survival.
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