Hi there.
Wolves are a social species, like we are or more precicely we were, and in a social gathering there are rules, there is a leader and there are subordinates, there are males and females, both have a leader and both have their own tasks and some shared tasks, if there is a leader and a rival for the position arises, the whole pack is affected and the conflict must be resolved, the leader and the rival have to have it out and only one can be the leader, the winnwer is the new leader, the loser can be forgiven or chased from the pack, but it is the leader's decision and none of the other wolves will interfeer with it.
At first glance it may not seem a good idea to chase away an obviously strong and probably good hunter from the pack, but it isn't his strength or his hunting capabilities that are in question, but his compliance to the leader, for the pack to function as a unit there has to be unity, one leader unquestionned and obeyed, blinly, if there is discention in the ranks, it is detrimental to all the members of the pack, a deer that would have been caught, could have escaped becaude of this discention and the whole pack would go hungry for a day, so respect of the leader is more importand than individual prowess, the same is true for the females, only the leader of the pack mates and only with the dominant female, they also have their roles to play, they tend to the young and defend the camp while the males hunt, any one of the pack would give their lives for the pack, for without the pack they would not survive.
This is true of all social animals, there are variants but the underlying principle remains the same, but only for small packs of less than say 50 members beyond that the system is non responsive and smaller groups form and it becomes harder for the whole group to function as a unit, a family structure implements itself, and the pack becomes a tribe, a center point to operate from but not directly tied to the others, it is no longer a dictatorship but a cooperative of sorts, where the whole tribe will defend itself from enemies, but may very well hunt by thenselves and share in the results of the hiunt with the rest of the tribe in exchange for having their young tended and kept safe, but in order for that system to work there has to be a leader that all the families will raly behind in times of crisis, and that is why respect is so important to them, the leader is the one that is most respected and that has proven himself a worthy member of the tribe, and those who are not respected are viewed as useless and eventually excluded from the tribe entirely and end up dead before their time.
There are few animals that live in a tribal atructure, but we use it extensively and we use it in a GRAND scale with cities of millions of inhabitants, where once respect was given an recieved without question, now giving it is a problem, where selfishness was rooted out for the greater good, selfishness is now a way of life, where lazyness was a sin, now it is no only tolerated but accepted, and for what, so that some may gain power over others and make money, respect is as important now as it was then, so why not play the game properly? Give respect to get it, it is that simple and them you have to keep beeing respectful to earn it, is that so hard? for a normal person, no, but for the lazy and the selfish it is and, over time the dis-respect that they generate for themselves is extended to others of their area, tensions arise, crime increases, attacks become more common, sounds femiliar?
Because of some less desirable people who openly dis-respect themselves beeing lazy and selfish, are accepted and protected by some well meaning but midguided people, it causes resentments, ill feelings and miss understandings between the different groups and with time the problems escalate and those groups distance themselves from eachother, until there are well tended nice looking areas and there are slums, those who were instrumental in creating those slums deserve to live there, but unfortunately, it is their children that end up living there and they are dis-respected because they live there and theat their parents were lazy and selfish, and weather or not they themselves are lazy or selfish, and they have great difficulty escaping the slums, and when the do get out their attitude betrays them and they are treated as second class citizens and all because of the lack of self-respect of their forefathers, and the dis-respect was forced on to them.
Solving the problem is not that hard in theory, but has proven to be much harder in practice, in theory, all one would have to do would be to start respecting himself and others and problem solved, ok, but there isn't just one person that is in this problematic sitution, there are millions and some are comfortable living there and make money because of the slums beeing what they are, and are wiling to go to great lengths to keep things as they are, and from both sides of the fence, so the problem persists because the will to change of the inhabitants of the slums is weak and unorganised and the ones that want to keep things as they are, are better organised, but if the inhabitants of the slums would learn the simple rules of respect and start applying them properly the ones that want to keep the slums as they are would not be able to do so and a major urban problem would be almost solved.
Who knew respect and the lack of it, could have such far reaching consequences.
JohnDowe.
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