Free If They Give You Lined Paper, Write Sideways by Daniel Quinn Page B

Enlightenment came to be known as "Nature."
    Elaine . Yes.
    Daniel . This is why I've always rejected "environmentalist" as a label for myself. In its fundamental vision, the environmentalist movement reinforces the idea that there is an "us" and an "it" — two separate things — when in fact what we have here is a single community.
    Elaine . Yes, I see that. But even accepting all that, there will still be people who rank us as the most important members of that community.
    Daniel . There's no doubt about that, and their reasons satisfy them. There are still people who rank the white race over all others, and their reasons satisfy them, too. There's really nothing to be said about this beyond pointing out that the community of life got along just fine without humans for billions of years. In terms of importance to the community as a whole, I would without hesitation rank earthworms above humans.
    Elaine laughs.
    Daniel . Well, let's see. Where to go next... Here's a question that should keep us occupied for a while: "Do you support the idea of extending human rights to primates?"
    Elaine . I take it you don't.
    Daniel . No, don't do that. You're not going to learn anything by leaping to what you assume to be my conclusion. Your job is to explore the assumptions of the person who asked this question. You have to understand his frame of reference and figure out why it seems like a sensible question to him.
    Elaine . Okay. "Do you support the idea of extending human rights to primates?" It's loaded with assumptions.
    Daniel . Let's hear them.
    Elaine . I suppose the first one is the assumption that extending human rights to primates is something that's possible to do.
    Daniel . Couldn't we do it with an act of Congress? Couldn't we persuade every government on the planet to do the same?
    Elaine . Not as stated. Are we going to give primates — by the way, aren't we primates?
    Daniel . Yes. Take the question as referring to nonhuman primates.
    Elaine . Okay... Are we going to give them the right to vote, the right to bear arms?
    Daniel . Ask the questioner. What would he say?
    Elaine . He would say... let's see... "I mean the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The right to enjoy the protections of due process of law."
    Daniel . So assuming that everyone in the world agreed to accord primates these rights, they'd be subject to eminent domain, the government's right to appropriate private property for public use. That's due process of law, isn't it?
    Elaine . I guess so.
    Daniel . And, under this assumption, if a gorilla killed a poacher he wouldn't just be shot to death, he'd receive a fair trial.
    Elaine . Well... he wouldn't be considered fit to participate in his own defense.
    Daniel . True enough. So, in effect, all primates would have an irrevocable "Get out of jail free" card. Primates would have rights even humans don't have.
    Elaine [ after some thought ]. I guess we'll have to settle for the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
    Daniel . Okay. You said the question was loaded with assumptions. What are the others?
    Elaine . Well... I guess one of them is the assumption that it makes sense to stop with primates. Is it because they're very intelligent? If you're going to extend human rights to intelligent creatures, then why not dolphins and elephants? Or if it's because they're endangered, then why not blue whales and bald eagles?
    Daniel . So you're saying that the idea is unsupportable because of its arbitrary limitation of human rights to primates.
    Elaine . No, not exactly. I guess I'm saying it's impractical, because no one is going to accept the extension of human rights to nonhuman primates as a stopping point. Maybe I shouldn't say no one. I mean that animal rights advocates aren't going to accept it. Why not minks and ermines, along with all the others I've mentioned? Vegetarians might want to extend human rights to chickens and cattle.
    Daniel . True.
    Elaine waits for