John Stuart Mill assured in Utilitarianism that “it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied”. In his opinion, no minimally sensible human being would want to exchange the complexity of their life for the linear life of a happy imbecile. But are we sure? Plutarch answers us with a work dedicated to Grillus, a sailor of Ulysses who, after experiencing human and porcine life, considered the latter to be entirely preferable.When Ulysses arrived on the island of Aeaea, he visited the sorceress Circe accompanied by half of the crew. Circe invited them to a banquet, but she enchanted the food and turned the diners into pigs... Except for the reluctant Ulysses, who sensed some malice. Seeing his metamorphosed sailors, he begged Circe to return them to human form.—Are you sure —the sorceress asked him— that he will want to re-humanize himself who knows what it means to be an animal?The pig who had been the sailor Grillus resisted there with firmness. He had discovered that it was more comfortable to live off the gifts of generous nature than to rush into the labors of humans in harsh Ithaca. Animals, he said, live surrounded by what they need, while man, insatiable, does not stop working. Besides, animals use neither tricks nor deceptions when they fight. Nor do they need to remain continuously busy with superfluous desires. They are more frugal and moderate.—You should know, Ulysses —Grillus continued—, that all of us, far from considering ourselves inferior to you, despise you, because, evidently, what is said about your cunning is false. You reject outright the possibility of becoming a better being than you are. You behave like a child, but while you lie with Circe you tremble with fear, and you fear waking up turned into a pig, a wolf, or who knows what. And us, who have all our needs satisfied, you want to convince us to abandon what we have and embark with you, regaining the condition of sailors exposed to all dangers. Man is the most tiring and unfortunate of all creatures.—It seems to me, Grillus, that the metamorphosis you have undergone, besides ruining your figure, has disturbed your reason, because you have it full of absurd and wild opinions.—You’d better stop insulting and start dialoguing, if you want to understand why, after having experienced both kinds of life, we prefer the porcine.Fénelon dedicates to Grillus one of his Dialogues des morts, precisely titled, Ulysse et Grillus. What he tells us is that Grillus has plenty of arguments to remain a pig: "I find food everywhere, even in the least desirable places. Lawyers and wars, and all the other problems of life, mean nothing to me. I don't need a cook, nor a barber, nor a tailor, nor an architect. I am free and can satisfy my desires at a very low cost. Why should I recover the heap of human needs? A pig's homeland is where there are acorns. Don't talk to me anymore about reason, because if you look at the lives of men, you see nothing but madness. Isn't it better to be stupid than an evil fool? I much prefer to be a big, fat pig, satisfied with my filth, than a weak, vain, frivolous, cunning, deceitful, and unjust man, who expects to be, after his death, a sad shadow and a dissatisfied ghost with his condition".Also a notable philosopher, Pyrrho, found the porcine life so enviable that he put it forward as an example of a successful philosophical life. During a sea voyage he was taking with his disciples, a great storm broke out that frightened all the passengers, except for Pyrrho himself and a pig, which experienced it with a composure of spirit very rarely seen among men.—Thus, unperturbed, the wise man must remain in the face of dangers —said Pyrrho.Commenting on this anecdote, Montaigne asks: “Should we conclude that this advantage of reason, of which we are so proud and thanks to which we consider ourselves masters and emperors of the rest of creatures, has been granted to us to torment us?”We close this minimal porcine morality with Fosco Maraini. In the book Secret Tibet he assures that, since the rule of a community of monks only allowed eating the meat of marine animals, they decided to rename the pig as wild whale and they could eat sausages without scruples, which makes us think that, often, humans observe our farm animals as a living pantry. In fact, another philosopher, Chrysippus, maintains that the gods placed a soul in pigs to preserve their meat, as if it were salt, because the pig, he adds, is born to be sacrificed.
