Predation. What a concept. Not one most of us want to consider when it comes to our fellow man and yet failure to consider predation might make you critically susceptible to predation. And so, sadly, it is something that is best considered, sooner rather than later, when it might be too late to avoid it.

As indicated, I only recently extricated myself from a dating relationship with someone I’ve come, more and more, to conclude was a predator. It occurs to me that when he and his soon to be ex-wife, as he reported to me, colluded in choosing me as his next conquest, it was in viewing me as prey to his predation. They liked to call me ‘Marilyn’ – as in Monroe – which while initially, seemingly obviously, flattering (and absurdly so, except perhaps in that I am currently a size 10 or 12, yet still ‘sexy,’ one might say, as he did), it was due to a like perceived ‘vulnerability’.

So, here I am now, seriously considering the ways in which I am perhaps opening myself up to predation as a result of perceived and/or real vulnerability. It brings up a lot for me to consider, including that this may be why a predator appeared in my life, and at a time of especially acute personal vulnerability for me, so that I might consider this more fully, about myself, and at large.

Generally speaking, people who care about others and concepts such as ‘justice’, beyond a surface level designed to give the appearance of ‘getting along well with others’ done mostly for their own purposes, are viewed as ‘weak’ by the majority of our society, if not openly, than perceptibly. It is in this sense that we are in a sort of cultural ‘Catch 22’ in that the lack of care toward the other is the problem, but being the change you want to see in the world by caring sets you up for predation.

I think it also aggravates people, generally, who don’t want to ever have to consider in what way they might be their brother’s keeper. And, I think Capitalism has made this idea of ‘brother’s keeper’, to the minds of many, an insane notion to be squelched like flames that might set the house afire.

In wondering – how did we get here – collectively unable to consider our own potential vulnerability in assessing how to address vulnerability at large, one has to conclude that we have in some sense raised predation to a higher form of being, than vulnerability. In doing so, we are naturally drawn to deny our own vulnerability or else risk becoming prey, ourselves. In some sense, it seems to me, therefore, we are collectively very much aware of the psychopaths among us and are very much dancing to their tune (as they see themselves as higher life forms and we seem to be agreeing with that assessment).

Many people are waking up to this it seems – more and more astute observations as to this particular issue among issues are found in articles and comments to articles that seek to address the ills of our time.

We can only be agreeing with the self-assessment of the superiority of predators out of fear, for there is nothing rational about predator worship. Predation cannot be morally vindicated. In fact, predators are not what you’d call human, and so it is humanity itself that is at risk today in our world as a result of the elevation of predators to a seemingly agreed upon higher life form status than the rest of us, who, like it or not, are vulnerable to predation.

Denying vulnerability not only won’t save us from being vulnerable, it may well seal our fate as against the predators among us. And, so, we must consider both – predation and vulnerability, if we want to understand what has gone wrong with us, collectively, with any hope of fixing it. That is my conclusion and I’ve given it A LOT of thought! I hope you all will give it some real thought, too. That might be a start down a saner path for all of us – a damned good start, too. It is, I believe, the very crux of what is presenting itself as crises in our world today.