Do you think all pet owners are bad and hurt their pets or are there also nice ones? (in the bbu)
This is a really good question! Thank you, Anon! I would love to hear what other people think!
No, I don’t think that all owners in the BBU are bad. I think lots of people are kind of nice and generous and affectionate with their pets. Most people who get pets in our real universe want them to be happy and thrive and want to build a loving and trusting relationship with them. I think that would be the same in the BBU. (Coriander’s very first owners would fall into this category, I think.) I also think that many people in the BBU get pets to do a specific kind of job, and that they might be less affectionate, but more like a fair and strict boss. So, I don’t think that they are all bad people.
But I think that there is something built into the structure of owning a person - a person who is literally not even seen as a human - that makes even the most well-intended owner become somewhat terrible anyway.
There is something with getting this kind of power over someone and having this very unequal relationship - particularly since both the owner and the pet are taught that punishment for even small infractions is both normal and necessary - that I think easily leads to abuse. I’m thinking of the Stanford Prison Experiment as a real-world example of that. And the whole dehumanisation with the pets not even being seen as human and also not seen as competent to look after themselves. This is perpetuated by both the pets and the owners.
So, in short, I don’t think all BBU owners are bad (even if some are), but I think that owning a human pet is always bad.
What do you all think?
Stanford prison experiment was a set up from the get go, but environmental factors do affect behavior. So, I wouldn't put it past from something like that being a thing in bbu. Humans are pretty great at normalizing stuff to a concerning degree, besides just look at bigotry doesn't take much for humans to see someone as lesser.
Mostly just wanting to point out the controversial nature of Stanford prison experiment.
Thank you @professional-idiocy! That is really interesting! I knew that there has been some criticism of the experiment, but I didn’t know any details.
Reading this and this about the experiment I kinda think that it is an even better comparison to the BBU - if you are given a role you are likely to want to live up to it.
I’m thinking about how people used to train dogs (and unfortunately still do in many places) with hash methods and thinking that they had to keep them in line and in the bottom of the hierarchy and all sorts of things, even though we now know that that idea of hierarchy is just wrong and that positive reinforcement is much better in all sorts of ways. Probably lots of people wanted to have good relationships with their dogs and were affectionate and loving towards them and still used hash training methods because that was the only thing they knew.
(And yes, dehumanisation of real people in the real world is happening with frightening efficiency.)
You know? Yeah, good owners are surely more abundant than bad ones. However, I have seen “good” cats and dogs owners physically punish their beloved dogs so harshly they give them anxiety. I have seen bad owners who kick their dogs on the side of the street, let the dog sleep with them in their beds.
I’m not getting into questioning morality, but I will question why someone would like to own a person as a pet if not to be able to have a human mind under control? Pets are animals who can’t communicate what they feel and have different behavioral patterns. When humans get pets what function are they serving? Company? For show? Safety and guarding? Herding? Sniffers? For breeding and get more money than they’re worth?
As op said, people have roles, and usually, they try to live up to them. However, a pet is thrown or even born, just to play the role their owner wants them to play and for that, they will train them to behave a certain way, or keep them in conditions that serve to ingrain the purpose they wish to give them. A pet is not in charge of what happens to them and so, aren’t allowed to question or demand anything different because they’re not above their owner’s wishes and decisions. However upsetting, they’re still dependent on them.
I think, at heart, nobody wants to purposely torture a living being you keep and care for, so what makes a bad owner is how extreme their punishments are. And that…how far someone will go is something unique to each person. As well as what type of rewards they will give.
Unless the pets are not something they have an emotional connection to.
It’s been proven time and time again, that the Stanford experiment and similar scenarios to Lord of the flies, which are famous for “showing people’s true internal evilness”, are generalizing bullshit experiments.
Why? Because people are so different and group dynamics change accordingly.
Group dynamics are severely fascinating. Because depending on the combinations of each individual’s role inside the team, it will pull a different result every time. Just try it out or remember your group projects and how the results were different with 1 friend and 2 strangers. One stranger and the capable guy. The dinamite guy, the serious one and the class clown. Your personality defines your role in a group because the mix of yours with others will create a dynamic, therefore, whatever role you take inside the group will be directly influenced by the people surrounding you, but will not depend solely on others.
Blame that on our social needs and skills.
And how unique we think ourselves to be. XD
If you add bigotry to the group, or “reasons” to justify alienating someone from the group, it will also change the role of that person within the group and how others treat them to socialize with the rest.
So, even if we can see how bad someone treats their pet, in the bbu, there might be a different standard simply because of the change of context, but in a detailed manner, because every pet and owner dynamic will define “how bad” is “bad” and will change from one another.