The Culture Of The 21st Century: Dogs Replacing Children

In the News (CNBC.com): “Why companies are offering ‘furternity’ leave to new pet owners”

“…one marketing firm in Minnesota has started offering ‘furternity’ leave for all new pet moms and dads.

“The policy is part of a growing trend in pet-friendly workplace policies and a way to offer workers flexibility they might not have otherwise. …

“A number of companies already offer pet-friendly offices. At Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, the company says more than 6,000 dogs share the workspace with employees. Dogs enjoy a floor designed for pet play in one of the company’s buildings and the company even opened a special dog park that’s also open to the community. …

“At Minneapolis marketing firm Nina Hale, furternity leave allows new pet owners to work remotely for a week after adopting a pet. The policy gives pet parents the opportunity to bond with their furry friends as they acclimate to new surroundings. …

“Pet friendly benefits like pet leave, pet bereavement and pet health insurance are growing in popularity, Steven Feldman, an executive director at Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI), tells the Society for Human Resources Management. It’s a “signal you’re looking at the employee’s entire family,” he adds. It’s also a way to entice young workers, the largest pet-owning generation.”

Comment: They have pet strollers, pet coloring, dog therapy, dog aromatherapy, dog church, and dog pools. It looks like we are moving to a culture where dogs replace children.

My Comment Yes. However, on the other hand, humanity has not stopped feeling the need to take care of somebody. Do you remember the Tamagotchi toy? It had to be constantly fed and taken care of.

We need to understand that human nature demands attachment. One is still bound, unwittingly, to his or her apartment, to smells, to everything! I see this as a huge internal, but not yet conscious, longing for communication between people, which, unfortunately, does not receive its normal expression, its release.

We therefore replace people with animals. Actually, it’s not that far off.  People feel that their dog is their friend, and the dog feels a friend and a master in their owners, and we are mutually devoted to each other.

Practically, we know people who have pets that eat from the same plate with them. They feel no difference between them because such contact occurs at the animal level. It does not need any major expressions, achievements, tensions and participation. I lower myself to the level of an animal; I reach out to him and he responds back to me, and we are both content.

Let us hope that this period will pass, and it certainly will pass because humanity is evolving and we will have to achieve contact with each other. Then all that contact with the animals will disappear. Like any other part of evolution and movement toward the lower levels, it will eventually die out. We will not have much interest in cats, dogs, parrots, hamsters, etc.

Question: Will we get such a yearning for each other? Will we uncover and reveal it?

Answer: We will understand that we still lack communication. Phones, virtual communications, dogs, lonely apartments, empty benches in public parks, and so on—it will all go away because we are changing, whether we like it or not. Let time do its work.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/27/18