7/18/06 The Wild Kingdom By Kam Zarrabi, Intellectual Discourse Why does history repeat itself? Simple; human nature hasn’t changed that much from the time our ancestors came down from the treetops and began to walk upright. The sapient species does exactly what its distant cousins do in the animal kingdom; we all partake in the struggle and competition for survival and dominance. And that is how life, from the lowly amoeba to man, has propagated itself in the continuous march of natural selection. However, there is only one thing that distinguishes us humans from all the rest. Our cognitive faculties have inflicted us with a level of understanding that, in order to function properly, we require answers to the strange question, “Why?” This “why” rears its head up at every turn, demanding explanations, rationalizations and justifications for what we do, even though our animal cousins that do the same things are never bothered with such questions. When a lion challenges the aging monarch, chasing it away and taking over the deposed king’s harem and killing his cubs, naturalists and environmentalists do not interfere, therefore, allowing “nature” to maintain its own balance. The issue is not referred to the United Animals Council or some International Court of Beasts’ Justice. Of course, we know that we are not animals. Or, are we? We can extrapolate with some degree of certainty that what we see recorded in our Biblical accounts about one special tribe’s trials and tribulations must be a reflection of the aspirations and actions of other tribes in other realms, dating back to the earliest times when colonies of man came in contact with rival groups. cont.....