Slavery and Eugenics?

 Brad pointed out to me that within the Pokemon universe, you never see any animal life other than Pokémon, and pondered what they eat, where they get their meat from. At first, one would point to tofu and vegetables, but that’s more a cultural sign than an actual answer: the series was conceived in Japan, where tofu is a common source of protein. Also, it is logically improbable to assume that the humans of the Pokémon world would be uniformly vegan as a society since vegan living derives from a desire to do no harm to any living creature, which is clearly not the case of a society founded on forcing living creatures to fight one another to death for status and amusement.

I know for a fact that this has been articulated before on the internet, but as a meme, involving the eating of Pokémon. It’s the only logical conclusion one can reach of the Pokémon universe: that they eat Pokémon. In this way it’s a very startling picture of a society so incredibly cruel to the life that surrounds it, taking advantage of lesser beings for its own gain. All Pokémon, therefore, have Stockholm syndrome in a bad way, which is a theme of the series. The series tries very hard to seem kind by showing Pokémon being unruly to cruel masters and kind to loving masters, but let’s not forget that term: master. The Pokémon are inevitably still slaves regardless of how they are treated.

With all this in mind, consider this: As my friend Brad put it, it is a society that is founded on, and centers on what it, essentially, cockfighting, which has its own derivative: proving who the best mate is. All our activities are done to prove that we are the ideal mate, the best person to continue the species. It’s all one big contest to see who can create the perfect human, it’s eugenics, selective breeding, whatever you want to call it, all life derives from breeding and all emotion and all activity derives from our desire to breed. Fighters fight to prove that they are strongest, which, in today’s society is rather outdated because physical strength isn’t helpful in a world where survival is decided by pieces of paper, not by how easily you can break the neck of a wild animal or defeat another human being so that you may steal his mate. Humans have refined mating rituals over millenniums but it still comes down to competition, and all competition derives from the desire to mate.

In the Pokémon universe, then, the Pokémon battles are the primary mating ritual. What does that say about that society? That the one who can commit the most violence is the best? That the best human is the one who best handles its slaves? And the Pokemon universe takes such great interest in this mating ritual. What does it say about the society that created it? 

If I were forced to take opinion of this, I would express disgust. I despise ritual and competition. I love sex and am under the impression most people do, and especially since methods of contraception have been so vastly improved, aren’t we nearing a point where competition for mating is obsolete? Where we can all love one another as we see fit? Why should we have to prove ourselves to our desired mate? Why should we have to jump hoops and play games when the simple fact that sex is fun could override all of that? I’m sure part of why I feel this way stems from my social and physical shortcomings, but if all our emotions do derive from our desire to breed, doesn’t it make sense to facilitate fulfilling that as much as possible instead of making it the most difficult thing to attain?

To some extent, though, I do understand it. I’ve seen first-hand that not everyone on this planet understands the consequences of bringing new life into this world or the responsibilities that brings. The chasing of all our desires does need a level of restraint, or at least knowledge of the consequences, wisdom, and self-control. If we chase our every desire, not only does that make life amount to nothing more than selfishness, but it also would most likely stop humanity in its tracks (something I’m not entirely against, but that’s another topic for another day).

This brings up the big problem: what is life and what should it amount to?

I have no fucking idea and, frankly, I'm not sure I care anymore. The only thing I know for certain about life is that I'm stuck with it.

You thought you'd get through a post without any emo? Hah.