With Rights Comes Responsibilities

Note From Glen:
Greetings All, Morgen contributed this thoughtful concept, however it is very lengthy. Therefore, to keep things tidy on the main page, the first bit will be here and the last bit can be found in the Comments section. It worked last time, so this will be standard practice on wordy concepts.
Yours In Thought,
Glen


Once there was a bird, several in fact. Some call them fowl. They called each other ‘Caw’, and ‘Craowe’ and ‘Chirp Chirp’. The fowl had friends who couldn’t fly, and as a result, these herds, schools, flocks and colonies of creatures all kept to their own environment, staying out of the sky. For the most part, the birds stayed out of the water, the fields, and hills. Each creature respected the others, only impinging on others when they were really hungry or hurt. But there was one group, and they travelled in packs and gangs. Word is that these creatures once swung from trees. Eventually they left the trees, and just started swinging. Soon after, there was a whole bunch of them.
They grew from packs and gangs into groupings and assortments. They naturally started taking up more room than they had before, now needing more space than ever. Their footprint1 was larger than their individual bipeds. And wherever they settled down, well the weight of their presence was felt for miles around. All the other creatures were puzzled and alarmed by this unsustainable development. Herds flocked from the colonies to the schools where inquiries into the crisis were being held. No one knew what to do, nor how to manage the impending catastrophe (whenever it would arrive, however long it would take to play out).
In a very short time the assorted groupings of bipedal gangs had begun packing things away, taking goods from one place and storing them in another. They became more organized, flocking to colonies in herds, travelling over deep waters, through foreigners fields and over holy hills. They were adventurers! Conquerors! And the ability to move, spread, and enslave was their right! Sometimes their groups divided into bunches, and they enslaved each other. But most often they made truces, and collectively agreed to just enslave and exploit the earth and its other creatures.
That was the story of a bird, several in fact. From their fowled perspective we learn how the abilities of one gang of creatures developed, eventually being understood as more than an ability. Their ability had become viewed as a right. Most rights, unlike abilities, are to be asserted at every moment, and in every situation. And so the characters in our story went about foolishly plying their abilities (which they mistook as rights) at every possible chance--instead of--discerning when and where they should display their capabilities.

[Continued in Comments...]

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