Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux - Do Pets Need Mutual Attachment?
Aired: 2025-05-27
Duration: 04:34


=== Pets and Our Devotion (03:43) ===

[00:00:00]  Not nice.
[00:00:00]  And so, it's the same thing with the ducks, right?
[00:00:03]  The ducks were our pets, right?
[00:00:05]  We have had dozens of ducks, and we've taken them from, you know, ducklings all the way to flying around.
[00:00:13]  And if the ducks would be limping, oh, I have this, and I think it's common, right?
[00:00:22]  And it's a bit of a white thing, right?
[00:00:25]  That this is the real care for animals and so on.
[00:00:29]  So pets, we bond with them very deeply and powerfully because they're essential for our survival.
[00:00:35]  Like, we could not survive without pets.
[00:00:37]  At least, not very well.
[00:00:39]  I mean, you need cats, you need dogs, your livestock is essential, and you have to have that attachment and that connection to your pets.
[00:00:49]  So, please understand, you're programmed that way.
[00:00:53]  And that's not to say don't feel it, right?
[00:00:56]  that's fine.
[00:00:58]  That doesn't mean I can't enjoy a meal.
[00:01:00]  But please understand, you're programmed that way.
[00:01:05]  You're programmed to have devotion to your pets.
[00:01:10]  Because if you have devotion to your pets, your pets will have loyalty to you and will be much more likely to protect you, to help you.
[00:01:20]  You needed dogs for protection and warning.
[00:01:25]  Herding sheep and so on, right?
[00:01:27]  So we have a very strong attachment.
[00:01:29]  And listen, the intellectual understanding of this, I don't mean this to diminish the passion and connection that you have with your pets.
[00:01:37]  I don't mean that at all.
[00:01:39]  At all.
[00:01:40]  Like, enjoy it.
[00:01:41]  Relish it.
[00:01:42]  My daughter and I, was it yesterday?
[00:01:45]  My God, the days are blurring.
[00:01:46]  I have to ask my wife.
[00:01:48]  The days are blurring.
[00:01:49]  Yes, yesterday we go, we went to a shelter.
[00:01:55]  You know, I give my donation and we go in and we play with the cats.
[00:01:59]  And she loves cats.
[00:02:01]  Loves cats.
[00:02:01]  And they're great.
[00:02:04]  They're wonderful, wonderful creatures.
[00:02:06]  And we, you know, blood pressure goes down when you pet cats.
[00:02:11]  And they just love dogs.
[00:02:13]  They're wonderful.
[00:02:14]  And, you know, to have something so excited when you come home is beautiful.
[00:02:18]  And so to love your cat?
[00:02:21]  Beautiful.
[00:02:21]  Beautiful.
[00:02:23]  But, you know, would you feel the same about an armadillo?
[00:02:27]  Probably not, right?
[00:02:29]  So, I mean, you have this connection to these creatures.
[00:02:35]  I mean, what was it?
[00:02:36]  I saw a video of somebody in Thailand flicking a cockroach off somebody's head.
[00:02:39]  It turns out the cockroach was his pet or something like that.
[00:02:41]  Like there are people who have pets that are completely incomprehensible to me.
[00:02:44]  Every now and then there's some lunatic in Florida who has a freaking alligator in the bathtub or something, or people have...
[00:02:54]  He always played some creepy guy, right?
[00:02:56]  The comedian?
[00:02:58]  And he was playing a creepy roommate who would feed dead rats to a snake.
[00:03:05]  The fact that people have these pets, it's weird to me.
[00:03:08]  It's weird to me when it evolved to have snakes as pets, at least not in Europe.
[00:03:13]  So there's nothing wrong with your attachment and your affection and your...
[00:03:21]  It's programmed in by our ancestors.
[00:03:23]  In other words, those with greater affections.
[00:03:25]  I mean, it's, again, Aristotelian mean, right?
[00:03:28]  So those with no affection for their pets did not gain the protection and loyalty and survival bonus of having pets.
[00:03:35]  Those who had too much attachment to their pets ended up not getting married and become the eponymous cat ladies, right?

=== Symbiosis And Affection (00:51) ===

[00:03:43]  Like I was talking to this woman at the cat shelter and she said, oh yeah, sometimes we'll come across.
[00:03:47]  Crazy old women who've got like 100 cats.
[00:03:50]  And then we've got a huge problem, right?
[00:03:52]  Because where do you put them, right?
[00:03:54]  So think of it as...
[00:03:59]  It's kind of like a codependence or symbiosis or...
[00:04:05]  I'm having a brain fight.
[00:04:09]  I think it's symbiosis.
[00:04:11]  Oh, embarrassing.
[00:04:12]  Every now and then.
[00:04:15]  That may but does not necessarily benefit each other.
[00:04:24]  Symbiotic relationships, mutual benefit to mutual harm.
[00:04:28]  Okay, but what is the one, I should know this, what is the one that is mutually beneficial, right?