Why Do We See Ourselves As Superior

The world around us is filled with many different forms of life.  Some include plants, insects, animals, and other people.  I find it interesting how each of these is a form of life, but are still seen in many different lights when seen through the human mind.  We perceive ourselves to be the most intelligent and dominant species on the planet due to our enhanced mental acuity.  On the other side of the spectrum, insects are seen as one of the lowest forms of actually moving life. We are made up of the same fundamental elements as insects and our bodies are both made up of cells, yet we live such different lives and perform such different functions.  When focusing on the life of a simple insect like a moth, Virginia Woolf stated that a singular moth sees to have the "energy of the world within him," but when looking at the world as a whole, the moth seems to have a "frail and diminutive body."  When focusing on ourselves it seems obvious that we would see ourselves as superior because we have only seen life through our own eyes, and this makes us see our lives the most important.  Unfortunately this causes many people to feel little to no sympathy for these "lesser" animals when stepping on them or using other methods to kill them.  This is similar to a previous piece we read called "Consider The Lobster," where lobsters, also called sea insects, were mass killed without remorse just for luxurious food.  In all these cases the common factor is humans asserting their dominance over another species.  It is true that the human race has higher mental processing than any other species, but that does not give us the right to mass kill another species just on a whim.  Besides, in the end, no matter what the species is, we are all bound to die in some way or another.  So no matter if you are seen as inferior or superior in the eyes of another, death is the great equalizer and will bring you on to the same level as all others.