The pig has had a remarkably successful career in human language — almost entirely against its will.
We made it greedy, dirty, vulgar and shameless, then placed it in conditions of our own making and pointed to the result as proof. A convenient arrangement: manufacture the evidence, name the vice, and let another species carry the accusation.
Perhaps that is why Churchill’s old observation still feels so precise. The dog looks up to us. The cat looks down on us.
The pig simply looks back.
And equality, as it turns out, may be the most uncomfortable position of all.