I was listening to KifaruCast with the Josh Bowman Interview (part 2), and i was struck by the double bind of language when they began to discuss the anthropomorphisation of predators (bears in particular) by the public.
It went down the usual rabbit hole of "people think bears are cute because of cartoons and teddy bears" etc, but then made the move into "and predators like bears are just evil". I think they used that word at least five times in three minutes of conversation.
Now i imay sound like everyone's worst nightmare grade ten english teacher, but to criticize opponents of hunting for ascribing human traits to our prey and then in turn doing the same ourselves, we lose credibility. The old philosophical question of "who is good and who is evil: the rabbit running for his life or the fox running for food to feed it's kits" is moot: they are not human.
They cannot be good or evil. Those are human conditions.
A bear is doing what bears are designed to do.
Just like we as hunters are doing what we are designed to do.
Their methods may be little less sophisticated and "humane", but the outcome is the same.
I have no doubt in my mind that if someone snapped a picture of us at the last second before we send a bullet or an arrow, we have the same look of cold calculation that you see in a bear would be present. And that is neither good nor evil.
It went down the usual rabbit hole of "people think bears are cute because of cartoons and teddy bears" etc, but then made the move into "and predators like bears are just evil". I think they used that word at least five times in three minutes of conversation.
Now i imay sound like everyone's worst nightmare grade ten english teacher, but to criticize opponents of hunting for ascribing human traits to our prey and then in turn doing the same ourselves, we lose credibility. The old philosophical question of "who is good and who is evil: the rabbit running for his life or the fox running for food to feed it's kits" is moot: they are not human.
They cannot be good or evil. Those are human conditions.
A bear is doing what bears are designed to do.
Just like we as hunters are doing what we are designed to do.
Their methods may be little less sophisticated and "humane", but the outcome is the same.
I have no doubt in my mind that if someone snapped a picture of us at the last second before we send a bullet or an arrow, we have the same look of cold calculation that you see in a bear would be present. And that is neither good nor evil.
