RE: AnimalMomentium #2 - A Post against evil - In Support of Phil Demers - Save smooshi
Q1. ...Maybe.
With implied stakes so high, I would challenge my own belief system first..
For example:
To stand up for those who can't standup for themselves is a most noble cause, but can also be dangerous/wrong.
An animal has no voice , it can't be heard by those who mainly listen with words (humans). If an animal is threatened or hurt by humans, it makes sense to standup for the creature (if it was clearly a victim) as clearly it is an in justice to standby..I mean it can't possibly standup for itself?
However, in nature (natural system) things must learn to stick up for themselves to survive. Should I interfere with such a process, I maybe messing with nature. Take humans if someone is being picked on by someone else, say someone stronger and I smack the stronger person down..what did the weaker person learn?...it depends allot on the situation and how i interpret it.
To me once I am sure as I can be, what i am standing up for is true, I will stand up for it. It maybe possible that if I risk my life in the attempt, I have made the situation worse...I mean there are allot of big problems on this planet, if I threw myself in-front of a car to protect a confused animal, that put itself in harms way, I would no longer be around to influence the people who are trapped by the systems, that likely caused the animal being killed in the first place. I would try and try again to do what is right, if I was unable to make it happen, I would settle with influence it or others as much as I can to make a difference, it may take years!
..Great thought provoking question mate!
Q2. Yes and I did it!. the question for me now is what can I do about it. I mean I can't turn back time. The best I can do is regret my actions and honour the victim. I can't ever forget and will always regret, even if I made up for it 1000 times over I don't want to forget as it is a precious gift (even though I took it without asking and never should have done it), at the cost of another I learned an important lesson. To make mistakes is to be human. To learn from our mistakes and move on is part of nature. We must forgive ourselves for transgressions and not try to convince ourselves its ok to continue, instead we need to be strong and trust our inner voice and stop making excuses like... well everyone else does it...or I won't be cool if I don't participate! or people will judge me if I try to stop in justice...
A difficult question to answer - I will ponder some more.
Its interesting, back only a few centuries or so humans had to be extremely careful in the world during earlier stages in civilization. Particularly the wild west frontiers and the like whether the lack of human population was a fragile thing at best.
Ever since the manifestation and evolution of towns, cities and really anything that provides strength in numbers has rendered that animal threat irrelevant, expect for the odd occasion where hikers or hunters fall prey to the original predators in isolated situations away from the communities of mankind and the protection that provides.
Nevertheless whether you approve of hunting animals in the wild for sport or commerce, humans have become the dominant species on this planet. This was not always so, but i fear the ecological balance is tipping in such a dangerous fashion that we could do irreparable damage to the world we have the privilege to inhabit, be you man, beast, insect etc.
An invisible web connects us all, which does nothing for my arachnophobia ;)
Couldn't agree more mate! well said.
I often think that the over population of humans on this planet is a key issue for us all to be aware and a global strategy is definitely needed ASAP. Until such time, we must as individuals not be selfish and instead act responsibly, thinking carefully about the number of children we need to be having.
Apparently some animals seem to demonstrate more intelligence then humans in this space and naturally stop breeding, i.e. if conditions are not good or their isn't enough resource to sustain they stop breeding until conditions approve and nature is able to repair. I can think of situations where this isn't true though with animals, for example mice (mammals like humans), they will breed to plague proportions, but eventually die out due to disease, stress or starvation. (funny all around the planet humans are experiencing these things now). Fortunately while the damage is massive, nature restores again as the devastation is short lived...Sadly, for humans it's sustained and shows no sign of ending soon...lets explore more in future posts why and what can be done :)