Absolute Justice, Kindness and Kinship — Page 63
— Part I 62 like carnivorous animals as well as herbivorous ones. Amazingly, human teeth are also adapted to both dietary systems. There is another large difference between animal and human behaviour. In certain situations, humans can act in a more beastly manner than the beasts themselves. Beasts can never become cannibals, they never eat their own species; humans can. Even in this age in certain dark patches in Africa, one can find cannibals. There are certain tribes who capture some members of other tribes living across their political borders, to abduct and kill them for their flesh. They do so with the beating of drums celebrating this great festival. It is hard to imagine lions, wolves and dogs behaving in the same manner towards their fellow lions, wolves and dogs. Beasts are never cannibalists even when stricken with starvation. This apparent reflection on man’s character should be studied in further depth, lest we draw the wrong conclusions. When man abstains from eating the flesh of his fellow human beings it is not merely intuitive; in fact he has both options available to him. There is no law of nature that stands between this malpractice and him. It is merely a higher stage of refinement in matters of values which prevents most men from such acts. To illustrate this point in greater depth it must be stated that on the basis of non-cannibalistic tendencies, the lion may appear to be more civilised