because we said so

the basic element of all interactions between all organisms is forebearance.  we forebear to kill and eat that one.  various reasons.  ways of life built to accomodate the presence of other autonomous units.

oh, but let me go back to the cellular times when parts of us were free swimming in the soup, happily eating the algae, bumping into each other from time to time, occasionally exchanging genetic bits, sometimes by eating, sometimes by being eaten, encapsulated bits put through someone else's membrane, it thinks its getting a bonbon, i think im infecting her with me.

viruses like mosquitos carry around bits of sometimes useful stuff, the canny and aware cell might catch a favorable genetic bit as it passes by.  back to the time the mitochondia showed up and we made a deal with them, we won't eat them, we'll let them live inside us.  cause it makes me feel so good.  so much more alive, so much more me, now i've got mitochondia, now i can really get something done.

the mitochondria gets an excellent environment with nice protective membranes.  it creates the stuff that we organisms use to burn the food we eat.  before mitochondria we only got to sip the energy of the food we ate.  mitochondria allowed us to be more efficient in our food use, we grew, got bigger, made more of us.

composite organisms, way down at the cellular level.  the "me" imagines its a single thing.  the basic premise of unique selfhood is a joke.  look ma, says the pile of stuff, i'm me. 

still, everything in behavior is things that are done instead of killing and eating.  we argue and fight about which alternatives alternatives to killing and eating are accepted in society, but all of them are in a sense creative endeavors compared with killing and eating.

we tell ourselves that killing and eating is creative too because it allows us to continue to live and that's good, right?  otherwise why are we here?  food preparation exalted.  but the killing of the food designated polluting by the purist religions, professional food killers considered low caste.  because we all know the score, the food wanted to live, we don't care, we're more important, because we said so.

the mighty cell bears down on the mitochondrion which pleads: don't dissolve me, i'll show you a real good time.  what's better than eating "you" ask the cell.  let me in, i'll show you says the mitochondrion.  few moments later the cell goes wow, can you do that again.  mitochondria settles into the cytoplasm.  yes, but first you have to feed me.  ok says the cell, whatever you say, just give me some more of that sugar.

i love you says the cell.  love you too says the mitochonrdrion.