What stops us from abusing each other as humans is not mainly compassion, but rather the threat of reciprocal violence, and our interdependence on each other fo

What stops us from abusing each other as humans is not mainly compassion, but rather the threat of reciprocal violence, and our interdependence on each other for the basics of life. In other words: killing is bad for you and it’s bad for business. Causing pain follows roughly the same logic. Morality surrounding suffering depends on personal feeling and has no basis in practical life except inasmuch as one might calculate that an interest group will act on such a feeling. For instance: I can be recruited to save a dog from suffering, but not to save a spider. It’s not reason that drives me here, but feelings alone. My rational parts understand that my existence is predicated on non-rational equipment. I am not ashamed of this, and neither should you be. No one lives except by occupying space and resources, and refraining from actions (such as killing yourself to feed hungry worms) that would otherwise create pleasure and ease suffering of some other creature. Life under finite resources is inherently tragic. The coming of oxygen to the atmosphere of Earth was a disaster for anerobic bacteria! We’re not going to repeal oxygen! As I age, I find that I want to avoid gratuitous harm of animals— even pests. I am less cruel than I used to be. But I have no justification for changing, and have no argument to make about it.