Learn from Timothy

The videos of Timothy Treadwell were fascinating.  Not only does Timothy seem to disassociate himself with the rest of humanity by thinking that it is his duty to protect bears from other people, but he thinks he has enough know-how to teach the bear how to survive.  For example, in one of the later videos, Timothy talks about how Downey is struggling to catch fish.  He proceeds to tell her, rather condescendingly, how to catch the fish.  He yells to her across the pond, “you have to actually work for it, you have to actually produce an effort.”  He anthropomorphizes Downey, even though he is essentially trying to protect her from mankind.  This is highly contradictory because he doesn’t want man to dominate over the bears, but yet he treats Downey as if he is superior and knows better than she does at surviving. 

Though it is quite prevalent with the case of Timothy Treadwell, people today often believe that they are inherently better than the other beings in the world and feel an inherent right to dominate over other creatures.  It also stems into feeling the right to dominate over other people.  This kind of mindset is not only troubling, but is part of the reason we have such an unequal society.  We can learn a lot from Timothy Treadwell.  We shouldn’t assume that we know better than the person or creature beside us because we don’t.  We need to be less condescending, more understanding, and realize that though we may be at the top of the food chain, we need each member of it to keep us alive.