Aug 8, 2022 4 min read

The definition of a mammal is a warm-blooded vertebrate animal distinguished by the possession of hair or fur, the secretion of milk by females for nourishing their young, and the birth of live offspring. Some examples of mammals include monkeys, apes, rats, cats, dogs, deer, bats, whales, and dolphins, but don’t forget humans.

As humans, we often try to deny our relationship to the other mammals. We can minimally agree that we are (usually) a higher thinking version of our mammal cousins. We have the ability to be self-analytic. We also have the ability to imagine different scenarios, reason abstractly, and learn rapidly. Additionally, we have established cultures that have rules and moral codes. (But even that infrastructure is at great risk right now.)

We do have fur. OK, we have hair. It’s not as pronounced as the fur on the bodies of our only 1% genetically unique chimpanzee cousins, but we have fur. Unfortunately, some of us have almost no fur on our heads but abundant fur growing in our ears and noses. We annually spend billions of dollars on our fur: curling it, straightening it, and trimming it. If you’re a Duck Dynasty or Taliban kinda person, you take great pride in letting it grow wild on your face.

The female version of we humans produces milk for nourishment, but as a species, except maybe for cats, we seem to be the only mammal that continues to drink milk from another mammal for life.

Our bodies put off pheromones which are chemical elements that trigger a shared response in members of the same species. There are alarm pheromones, sex pheromones, and many others that impact behavior or physiology. These pheromones are like inaudible dog whistles to humans. Although we can’t consciously detect the pheromones, our bodies do, and they react to them.

According to the Smithsonian magazine, we can perceive all sorts of interesting things about one another through unconscious smelling. The most famous pheromones are potent aphrodisiacs. For example, androstenone and androstenol in the saliva of male boars is like TNT. If a female boar gets a whiff of these molecules, she’s very likely to say, “Let’s start a family.”

Ever wonder what causes road rage? Almost every conceivable type of living creature has a chemical called adrenaline that is released when we are threatened. Did it really matter that much that someone cut you off or got ahead of you in the merge lane? Did it matter enough to get out of your car, pull out a gun and shoot at that person? Or did our adrenaline get way out of control?

It’s this irrational animal stuff that we’re seeing way too much of lately. It’s the same mental insolence that fuels cult-like groups who have been encouraged by misdirected political or religious fervor. Yes, of course there’s some minimal thinking involved, but it’s mostly emotionally based responsiveness built upon irrational fear, lies, or misinterpreted information.

Because we have critical thinking capabilities, we human mammals can come up with really devastating ways to manipulate each other over this irrational, emotional, reptile brain stimulus-response activity.

Face it. We are animals. Admit it. Understand it, and then try like heck to stop acting like a bad mammal. Good humans are capable of being loving, kind, and caring. Good people help each other.

Just remember all of that extra fur is gone. It was put there to protect us from the cold a long time ago, but things have really changed. We need to embrace that change, too. Yes, we are humans, mammals that are finite, flawed, and fearful of failure, but we are also vulnerable to negative manipulation. The current level of hypocrisy and subterfuge from our leaders and the slanted broadcast media is threatening the future for us all.

Let’s work together, use our more sophisticated gray matter, and Make America CARE Again.

Nick Jacobs of Windber is a health-care consultant and author of two books.