The Pantaloon : No Higher Purpose : Brother Wagwit

The Pantaloon
Edited by Brother Wagwit
Earlyish in the 21st Century

No Higher Purpose

In the grand scheme of things, what is the purpose of rats and roaches?

This question –not necessarily this specific question, but the gist of the question, the existential paradigm aspect of the question– periodically creeps into conversation. Usually, this type of question is posited with a presumption that humans are of a higher order than every other worldly creature; certainly of a higher order than rats and roaches.

The short answer is that, much like rats and roaches –and every other living creature– humans eat, poop, and procreate. And when these basic needs are met, they putz around fluffing and puffing, growing petty and territorial, forcefully so if needs be. In nature, hurling poop is de-rigueur to make a strong point.

We bipeds have only been around for a very short time. The vastness of earth’s geologic time scale only accentuates the chronological insignificance of human presence on earth. We are the earth’s current dominant life-form, but it has not always been so, and will be not so again, sometime in an unforeseen future.

As much as we’d like to flatter ourselves, there is no higher order, no higher purpose, no higher meaning to human existence. We will be in charge as long as we can eat, poop, and procreate more effectively than any other creature or plant. And for now at least, no other living thing can hurl poop more effectively than humans.

At some point, drastically or gradually, things will change. Then, maybe, that’s when rats and roaches take charge.

Rat me, roach me, riddle me this and that.