As blind as a bat, ears like a
hawk, the eye of the tiger. Why do we have so many animal analogies in our
language? Trawl back in time and I bet you would find that humans have been
using animals as a comparison and justification for their actions and behaviour
for most of our existence.
Of course some of the analogies
get warped over time and develop. Think mad as a hatter, a badger, or a box of
frogs. They all have their roots in our past, be it elements of popular culture
or a result of our industrial heritage. But why are animals so crucial an
element of these comparisons?
My theory is that humans have an
inbuilt need to compare; to be able to justify reasons for our actions. And we
use animals because we are not confident enough in our own existence to build
them on ourselves. Perhaps we don’t quite feel we deserve the lives we lead and
have to sink them to an animal level – primal, natural, just. I will leave you
to muse on that for now because my head feels as lazy as a sloth.
Elloise Hopkins.
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