---
title: "Playing well with others"
date: 2007-09-04 09:32
series: Walking Dataloss
tags: humanism, humans, indexed, religion, secularism
---

<p>(There's been a distinct lack of consciousness streaming, around here recently. This is me doing something to fix that.)
<hr>
<p>There's <a href="http://indexed.blogspot.com/2007/09/plays-well-with-others.html">a cartoon at <cite>indexed</cite> expressing that the “do unto others” mantra isn't (or shouldn't be) only adhered to by religious people</a>.</p>
<p>I think Jessica's taking humanism to be roughly equivalent to that mantra, which I don't think is quite correct. As I understand it (and I'm not a humanist, so I may well be wrong) humanism is the idea that it's humans' duty to care for their environment, such as by taking care of the other species.</p>
<p>My opinion is that the other species can probably take care of themselves on their own, thank you very much. In my opinion, this form of humanism treats other species as the United States' foreign policy treats other countries.</p>
<p>This isn't my main reason for writing, though: it's that <strong>the “others” referred to in the mantra aren't only humans</strong>. This is why I'm a vegetarian—I don't want to be killed and eaten.