Do Liberal Elites View Themselves As Animal Handlers?

I have read a great deal of material about animal intelligence and how scientists and animal handlers try to assess it. I am currently reading a book entitled The Parrot's Lament: And Other True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligence, and Ingenuity by Eugene Linden. It is full of amazed observations of the cleverness of chimps, dolphins, some parrots and big cats, and particularly the red apes or orangutans. The orangs are especially creative in making tools to enable their efforts to escape captivity, even though in the wild, Linden says they rarely make or use tools.


It suddenly struck me that, well, duh, they are trying to escape. Their handlers are always withholding or giving them treats to discourage or entice certain behavior. If they can think and plan as well as he indicates, along the lines of a four or five year old human, then they can probably feel trapped and resentful at being controlled and restricted for no reason other than human study and entertainment.


But what is a new realization to me is that I believe these handlers enjoy having virtually total control over their charges, and I am going to make a big jump here and equate them to liberals who like to control people and run their lives. In both situations, of course, it is for their own good. Actually, they may be the same segment of the population.


The poor animals would have a much harder, shorter life in the wild, so they are better off under the management of these compassionate people.


Likewise, the great unwashed of fly-over country don't know what is best for them, so compassionate liberals need to wrest control of their lives for them to improve their condition.