Sunday, 8 April 2012

Blind as a bat…


As blind as a bat, ears like a hawk, the eye of the tiger. Why do we have so many animal analogies in our language? Trawl back in time and I bet you would find that humans have been using animals as a comparison and justification for their actions and behaviour for most of our existence.

Of course some of the analogies get warped over time and develop. Think mad as a hatter, a badger, or a box of frogs. They all have their roots in our past, be it elements of popular culture or a result of our industrial heritage. But why are animals so crucial an element of these comparisons?

My theory is that humans have an inbuilt need to compare; to be able to justify reasons for our actions. And we use animals because we are not confident enough in our own existence to build them on ourselves. Perhaps we don’t quite feel we deserve the lives we lead and have to sink them to an animal level – primal, natural, just. I will leave you to muse on that for now because my head feels as lazy as a sloth.

Elloise Hopkins.

1 comment:

  1. I think you have got tons to brag concerning! and that i would not worry about being "overly boastful" as a result of you are tooting your own horn! i prefer to listen to the great stuff that folks do. It's far better than hearing the long list of crap and ailments they're experiencing over ... and over ... and all over again. Hearing dangerous stuff all the time is simply not smart.
    cricket-bat

    ReplyDelete