Thar' She Blows...

There is a country -- one country -- that is hunting aboriginal creatures for science. It is killing a small percentage of these beings each year during a certain season when they are foraging for food. They say their research cannot be done except by killing these creatures. No small number of people outside this country strongly dispute this argument, and assert it is but a foil to obscure the fact this country wants to feed its citizens the flesh of the innocent creatures. In its defense this country says it is not appreciably affecting the total population of these creatures by its research. Obviously, it has no sense these creatures have individual worth. Finally, in response to well verified reports that the flesh of these creatures finds its way into the markets and grocery stores of this country, this country insists it is within its rights to harvest a species that has traditionally been a source of food for centuries.

This country consider itself exempt from the proscriptions accepted by all the other countries of the world (there are a few exceptions) that have now agreed it is immoral to kill these large brained sentient creatures for any reason, particularly for food. But like far more technically primitive countries that continue to harvest bush meat -- which usually means monkeys, apes, and sometimes even gorillas -- and despite the obvious sophistication of their primate victims (to say nothing of how similar they are to humans), this country that continues to harvest the aboriginals of our planet also sees its traditions as taking precedence over any increased understanding of the natural world that has entered human knowledge and consciousness. It is as if this society has decided to follow the ways of its ancestors and ignore human advancement. And perhaps not unsurprisingly, this country becomes quite indignant and righteous when its practices are discussed openly in public. They not infrequently assert their point of view, awareness, and understanding is superior to that of everyone else. It's as if they simply cannot acknowledge an error, that it is too demeaning, too humiliating, to do so.

This country has chosen to defend its actions politically and wage a campaign in support of its traditional practice by finding small largely helpless countries and providing them various forms of aid in exchange for their political support. Apparently they find no burden in exploiting the helplessness of small poor countries as a method to perpetuate their traditional violence against these aboriginal creatures. It seems as though they have chosen to adopt a role of being a bully not just against those aboriginals who they harvest each year, but against all who object to this practice.

Perhaps the people of this country suffer from an inferiority complex since it seems they also cannot accept the findings of those in the psychological sciences who have shown that bullies and those who feel humiliated often suffer from some deep unrecognized and certainly unacknowledged sense of inadequacy. Thus it appears, despite their often loud assertions to the contrary, that they are constantly comparing themselves to all others around them and by that measure find themselves inferior. So in response to this deep existential anxiety and sense of inferiority, they engage in arrogant postures and irrational actions including ones such as this practice of killing. Almost certainly there is no way that their continuing to do this will make them feel superior. Rather, they are condemned to burden their children with heavy indoctrination in their way of thinking lest these new members of society finally be forced to face the error and violence of this traditional and arguably barbaric practice.

Perhaps someday all this will change and this country will join the community of nations who understands humanity has a sacred obligation, one that also returns to it many benefits, to nourish every sentient being. Part of humanizing ourselves is recognizing when traditions more based on our animal origins can be put aside. We all carry such an ancestry. We all are working on advancing ourselves from whatever position we find ourselves in. What is not understood -- and this applies to individuals too -- is that each society, particularly those that cling to abuses out of some sense its identity will be lost if it ceases doing so, fails to appreciate the extent to which it perpetuates its own suffering (and feelings of inferiority) by such practices. Perhaps someday this nation that insists it has a right to continue its violence will recognize how much it is burdening its people by continuing these abuses. We all who are not so burdened hope this awakening will come soon.