I’ve never petted a squirrel. I try to chase them around often, too. I stand there and wait for them to trust me. I bend down and show them that I’m friendly. I’ve tried just about every tactic. The only way to get a squirrel to stay is to trap it, or to distract it with food. Squirrels will stare at you out of the corner of their eyes, ready to move if you move. They just don’t want to be within 10 feet of a human if possible.
There isn’t a reason for squirrels to not trust human beings. We do typically kill everything we see, but squirrels don’t know that. They can’t tell that we are dangerous. They don’t know why to be afraid of us. They can’t comprehend their death or the possible consequences of human interaction. Guinea pigs act in the same way, only they’re much slower. Both animals live in fear, not because they have anything to fear but because it’s in their nature.
Fear is in our nature. The media provides us with plenty of things to fear. We need it. If the media didn’t create things for us to be afraid of something else would. The government would create a potential threat. Some random blogger would make up a rumor. That rumor would catch on quick. Our neighbors would create something, or maybe we would just be afraid of our neighbors. We would create dragons and demons, hell and eternal suffering. It’s in our nature to be afraid and strangely enough the only way to overcome our nature is to find something we can all be afraid of.
Tags: Animal instincts, Fear, Humanity, Media, Terrorists, Trust
