Commandment 10: Admit People Act Like Sheep, but They Don’t Have to
A huge window sticker on a car on the highway reads, “Beast Mode.” What the owner actually intends, if anything, is unknowable. But the natural options of such a statement are only two. It either means “I am mindless” or “I am immoral”, although the owner might prefer the word “amoral” on the latter.
It is true that most of us are driven most of the time by the same things that motivate animals. Drivers move through traffic in packs like dogs, or pursue, preserve, and relinquish leads (usually completely unaware) just like horses in a race. Most of us emote and act almost blindly within large crowds exactly as the crowd acts. (It doesn’t take long, after all, for one clap to become thousands, and then again, for the thousands to die to silence.)
Most of the time neither the motivations nor behaviors matter one whit. We eat like animals (except with utensils–sometimes) and it does not matter. But one characteristic which sets us apart from animals is the ability to choose other than the expected biological, pack, or even self-interested behavior in favor of something with real value. Morality is uniquely human (and above, of course, if angels are included). The appreciation of beauty as beauty is uniquely human. Altruism is uniquely human (yes, despite some animal behaviors which make things appear otherwise).
The point is not that animals are bad and people are good. Quite the opposite. Jesus uses animals sometimes to say what we should be like (e.g., the birds of the air.) The point is not that we are like animals. The point is that human beings have a unique responsibility to act freely and responsibly rather than as cogs in a machine, plants in the ground, animals on a farm, or even minds in a behavioral maze. So we may act like cattle, or sheep, or rats, but we don’t have to; and just as importantly, we are commanded not to. Matthew 16:24.
