In my opinion, the documentary "Grizzly Man" was by far the most enlightening, entertaining (in the most intellectual sense possible) and haunting video we have seen in class. There are three scenes in particular that I will discuss: His personal dialogue about girls, his desperate plea for rain, and finally Herzog's commentary for one of the final scenes. I felt that Treadwell's personal discussion while walking on the beach was incredibly significant, because he said things that he would most likely never have said had he remained a part of mainstream society. This private dialogue, this soliloquy, was essentially Treadwell revealing the things he was far to embarrassed to reveal in public (he was even embarrassed when talking to the camera, he seemed nervous and needed to laugh to reassure himself). This is a stellar example of a man breaking the bounds of society and speaking his thoughts without the anxiety of what other people will say or think.
Treadwell's desperate cries for rain within the confides of his tent I feel illustrated an astonishing analogy between one man's lapse into wishful thinking and the human species' lapse into religious ideology. Treadwell proved to be the quintessential illustration of man's primal capacity for spirituality, a desire to fill doubt with the supernatural, an urge to plead with, to beg, to blame an omnipotent, omniscient deity for earthly events. I feel that in those few moments of primal rage and confusion, Treadwell betrayed all semblances of society and reverted to a simplified state of being, he reenacted our ancestors' journeys into religious thought and unreason.
Herzog's final comment was devastating: "In all the hours of video, not once did I see the same fascination reflected in the bears' eyes, only the quiet indifference, only concern at the thought of the next meal." This statement was at once heartbreaking and infuriating. To finish, I would like to pose a question: Did Treadwell see something we do not or did he simply delude himself into seeing kindred spirits where there were simply bears?
Sunday, 16 March 2008
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
Arctic Tale
Arctic Tale was an incredibly well-filmed documentary, a realistic depiction of the life of a polar bear cub and a walrus family. I feel that in general the documentary served as a vivid illustration of the effects of global warming and the perils that many animals are forced to endure as part of their struggle for survival. There is one scene in particular that I’d like to reflect on: Auntie’s sacrifice. I think that this scene alone is enough to considerably rattle the minds of those who would doubt animal sentience, such an act of self-sacrifice is not common, and is very strange from an evolutionary perspective. The desire to preserve one’s genes though offspring is only so powerful, I am doubtful as to whether or not that primal urge alone was enough to make her make such a sacrifice (especially when you consider that Auntie was not Seela’s mother). I felt that this scene was particularly telling and very powerful. I’d also like to reflect for a moment on the narration strategy. I feel that the over-sentimentalizing of the animal’s interactions led the audience to a premature conclusion. The scene where the polar bears remained by the side of the dead cub was a stellar example of this; the narration led you to believe that the mother and daughter were grieving for the deceased son, associating human emotions with the polar bears’ actions. I think that the narration was an exaggeration of the animals’ interactions, indeed the most powerful moments were not carried at all by the narration; the actions spoke more than words, actions like Auntie’s sacrifice imparted that which the narration could not have hoped impart, the actions spoke for themselves.
Sunday, 9 March 2008
The Rise of our World
Aled Lines
Mr. Brent Loken
Global Ethics
January 22, 2008
The Rise of our World
I awoke to the gentle drumming of rain drops falling upon the moist dirt and slick rocks that cluttered the entrance to our cave. We had discovered this particular den nearly two weeks ago, when we traveled here from the north, in pursuit of our food supply. I looked around at the other inhabitants of the shelter, my tribe. There they were, sleeping, shivering as a result of the gentle breeze and the damp ground they slept upon. They were healthy enough, save for one, a very old man, must have been 25 years of age, he lay in the far corner of the cave, sweating profusely. He looked on the verge of death; he had killed a wild dog several days previously, and had consequently been attacked by its canine relatives. The attack had left him with a bleeding leg, the blood flow stopped eventually, he seemed to have recovered well. Within a week however, he had succumbed to a strange sickness, which the tribal elders declared was the gods’ punishment for harming the jackal. He had been cursed indeed, his wound had turned black, in contrast to the rest of his disfigured leg, which had become bloated and pale, he constantly sweats now, he simply lies there, in a state of semi-consciousness, waiting for gods to cure him, or to be allowed to die. I sighed in dismay, he was a good man, kind to the rest of the tribal family, had the date trees we usually harvested from had not been particularly unfruitful that week, he would not have ventured out that morning in search of prey (or come back to us that day with his left calf torn and bloody). Such are the perils of this fickle lifestyle, and such are the wishes of our fickle gods. I closed my eyes, lay down on the cold, damp dirt, and fell asleep.
I was harshly aroused from my slumber, the woman that had woken me beckoned for me to follow, I was lead out of the cave. It was a glorious day, the sun was bright, the great river that flowed by the cave was glistening, its crocodilian denizens were floating serenely on the surface. I heard the sound of soft sobbing, and turned to find a young lad, barely 8 years of age, kneeling before the still-moist body of the sick man; his father. We all felt his pain, our tribal society was tightly knit, we all shared a deep emotional bond, we depended on each other for everything, we rarely encountered others of our kind, we needed each other to survive. I felt a pang of anger, why had the dates not been there that day? Why had our friend ventured out in search of food? Why did we simply accept that it was the gods will, why did we not care for him? Nevertheless, I mourned with the rest of the tribe, and helped the elders heave his still-supple form into the river, where he would be devoured by the animals. I stayed outside for a long time after the rest of the tribe had retreated into the shelter, looking around at my surroundings. We had been here before, it was part of our biannual rotation. I liked this land, I did not want to leave it any time soon, but life must go on, the tribe was due to leave in little over a week, and I had no choice but to follow. I turned to return to the shelter, and noticed a single date that had fallen beneath a tree, I picked it up, broke it open to find a stone inside, which I buried (for no particular reason) just outside the cave, where several hours previously, I had for the first time seen the dead man, lying in the blazing sunlight.
It has been many years now, since that fateful day by the river. I am now an elder, not a single person whom was in the tribe at that time remains, they have fallen victim to the elements, to nature, to the gods, to starvation. I alone remain, I have seen much death, I have been surrounded by famine, I have discovered a way to cure it. We are nearing the cave I slept in so many years ago; it is there that I shall unveil my plan.
It has been three more days, We arrived at the river cave this morning, we settled in our cave, the younger men just left to hunt, the elder women cared for the children, and the younger women ventured outwards to gather food. I’ve sat by the entrance of the cave for many hours now, leaning against the trunk of a towering date tree; the very one I myself planted all those years ago. I will tell them tomorrow, at sunrise.
This might very well be the most important day in the history of our tribe. I unveiled my revolutionary plan today. At sunrise, I called a tribal gathering, and presented to them my plan.
“Gather round, comrades, today shall be the most memorable day of our lives. We have come and gone from distant lands, we have pursued our food source for many decades now. We have lost friends, comrades, family members to the elements, to the animals, to the gods, many have starved, many have been mauled by wild beasts, many have been frozen, but many more, so many more have fallen prey to the strange afflictions and curses placed upon them by the gods. Why? Do you not wonder why? Why is it that we pursue the cattle through the plains, through the deserts, through the grasslands? We have lost many a friend on these annual journeys, why? I propose that we revolutionize our current life style. I shall begin with our food source. We have for many years known that where we plant a seed, a tree will grow. We have all witnessed the conditions and circumstances, under which certain types of plants flourish, we have sufficient knowledge of the ways of the world to begin better life to shape a new, better life. We move from place to place every few weeks, never staying in a single place for very long. We have the knowledge; we need the will to use it. I believe that we can abandon our current lifestyle, we do not need to migrate from place to place, from oasis to oasis, from shelter to shelter. We need to begin by gathering plants, burying their seeds, and segmenting the land. Many years ago now, long before any of you had been conceived, I buried a single seed, on this very spot. That single seed has since blossomed into the titanic tree you now stand beneath, a testament to our tribe’s strength, and the key to a better future. If we begin by planting seeds in specific areas, they will eventually flourish, as will we. We know what trees grow in repeating cycles throughout the year, I propose that we mimic those natural cycles, and create our own simulation of a plant ecosystem, which we can use as a steady food source. The largest problem of our current lifestyle is that we do not have a steady food source, when the food fluctuates, so do our numbers. We must change this! How many of you have lost family, friends, comrades to starvation? I have, I have lost many, in order to better our lives, we must create a steady food source, one on which we can depend. This philosophy can also be extended to the taming of wild beasts. Why do we pursue the cattle through mountains, plains, deserts? We must change, we should build cages, fences, enclosures, we can capture cattle, and raise them in our enclosed areas, they will carry on reproducing, which will ensure that we have yet another steady food source. If we can put the animals in these enclosures, we can nurture them, feed them, shelter them, they will thrive, we can then begin to govern our own food supply, we can begin to govern our numbers, we can determine our survival.
I mentioned earlier that we must begin our new, more stable lives by creating for ourselves more stable sources of food. This is how I propose that we life in a single place; we build our own shelters. We now resort to caves, trees and various other natural obstacles as protection from the biting winds or the glaring sun, we can, nay, we must change this if we are to flourish! We must construct shelter, we may begin by gathering grass, mud, and branches. Branches will serve as the foundation, mud and grass as reinforcement.
That, my friends, is how we begin our transformation. How though, must we conduct ourselves in this new world? Our philosophy will base itself around compassion. Are you not frightened by the prospect of losing those you most care for? Do you not think we should spare others from the same anguish? I propose that when we meet our kin in other tribes, we educate them, we tell them of our new ways, we teach them how life safely, protected from the elements, sheltered from starvation. My only regret is that we may not save them from the judgment of the spirits; I feel that this is worth explaining. Do we not know the approximate intensity of injuries that should result in death? Why, then, do so many of us suffer but a tiny wound, insignificant to most of us, only to fall into an enigmatic stupor, one from which none of us arouse. Why do the wounds, previously crimson, slowly become black and cursed? Why is it that the area surrounding the wound becomes pale, bloated, and eventually useless? Why do these people, in the period of a mere week, succumb to those strange symptoms, only to perish as suddenly as the symptoms arose? It is not a capability of the animal, for surely no beast is capable of such a monstrous feat, it is the will of the gods, we may not, we cannot interfere with such curses. I sincerely wish I knew of a way to save people from this ghastly fate, for surely if we somehow developed the capability to perform such miracles, it would be because, and only because, the spirits had willed it. It is not within our ability to cure people of such curses, we can cure them of starvation however. How many hundreds can we save by providing food to all? How many of you have bore children, only to watch them perish before they have lived but a week? How many of our brothers and sisters have died before they have had the chance to live? We can change this now, with our new philosophy of food production we can fulfill our ambitions, we can save our kin. I believe we should also spread our philosophy to all others that we find, we can save ourselves now, I believe that it would be the height of irresponsibility and immorality to keep this knowledge from others. If we keep this knowledge, we will be remembered as devils, selfish devils, demons whom discovered the secret to life, and kept it to themselves, what is far worse is that we will live forever, forever cursed with the burden of the world despising us, we will live as outcasts, forever alien, forever damned. We begin to act on our central precept of compassion by sharing our knowledge with all those around us. Will they despise us for this? No, they will love us, for who, short of the idiot, the villain, or the lunatic would refuse such knowledge? We can change the world, we must begin by changing our current way of life, the world will quickly follow.
I believe I am hearing the ramblings of discontent amongst you. “Is this not unnatural?” you say, “Isn’t this mindless extermination?” you ask. There comes a point, brothers and sisters, when we must ask ourselves a simple question; are we, or are we not a part of nature? If we are, it logically follows that, by definition, nothing we can do can be defined as “unnatural”. You seem to think that there is, perhaps, a law that we are breaking, a biological law. This could not be more false; we are as much a part of the biological community as any other creature that walks, crawls, swims or flies on this earth, our actions cannot be deemed unnatural unless we too are to be considered outside of the normal boundaries of nature. We will not be exterminating our competitors mindlessly. What we do is all that is required of us to survive. We need more food than our competitors, so we do what we must to assure our access to food. You may say that we mindlessly exterminate the jackals that try to steal our food source. We do not, we drive them away, we kill those that intrude upon our territories, but exterminate we do not. Is this any different from the lion killing the occasional hyena that intrudes upon it’s territory in search of a fresh kill? No, it is not, we obey the laws of nature just as well as any other creature.
As we are now on the topic of laws, there is a slight digression that I feel is necessary; we must discuss how we are to live. We live quite well at the moment, do we not? I feel that we have no real problems discerning whether or not our actions are moral. We do, however, need a standardized set of rules for governing our moral behaviour. Let me explain why; We live in relative peace and tranquility now, we all have a powerful sense of moral obligation to our fellows, we all possess human solidarity, that unspoken moral urge to think of the clan, not only of yourself. This does extremely well in governing our everyday lives, but I do believe we need a set of laws, standardizing our ethics and rules. We have no basis now to persecute one who has acted in a manner contrary to our expected morals, we cannot in good judgment and justice punish an individual who has killed another. If we standardize our morals in a code of laws, we have a safeguard against the occasional sociopath or psychopath who disregards all normal boundaries for ethical behaviour and acts in contempt of our expected standards, we will have a justifiable method to ascertain our natural rights to a peaceful existence. Allow me to provide you all with a hypothetical situation: A man becomes intoxicated from the fermented juices of a fruit, he becomes a problem, he begins to harass the other members of our tribe, therefore, we restrain him by tying him to a tree until he sobers up. He and his family rise up against us the next day, demanding retribution, declaring that we had no right to forcefully restrain him (regardless of what common sense dictates). We would then be faced with a rather difficult and fragile scenario would we not? If, however, we had a code of conduct dictating what we must do with those of us who become inebriated and potentially harmful, we would be in a clearly defined, morally justifiable position. We could show them our laws and the corresponding punishments, we would be out of such a tenuous position. That is but one amongst many possible scenarios where the standardization of laws becomes more than a prerogative, it becomes a necessity. This becomes even more necessary when we begin to incorporate notions of private property into our lives, I do not think I need to elaborate on that, common sense tells us that we need a guide to how to live, and logic tells us that we should make it standardized, and available to all, thereby eliminating the possibility of selective quotations and subjective punishments.
This, my brothers and sisters is how I propose that we begin to alter our lives, as well as the course of history. We begin by planting seeds and domesticating animals to create a stable, reliable food source. We then proceed by building our shelters to shield us from the elements. FInally, we create a constitution, a code of conduct, written by us all, upheld by us all, designed to ensure that our natural rights are protected. We must also try to better the lives of those around us, by spreading our knowledge, this will better their lives tenfold. This, comrades, is how we save ourselves, this is how we change our world forever.”
It has been many more years since that memorable day when I presented my tribe with my plan to change the world. I look around me now at the smiling faces, at the children playing in the stream, children that would have long ago starved had we not access to a steady food source. I look at the other tribesmen, happy in their knowledge that there will be food aplenty for their offspring, for their friends, for their family. I look at my brethren, content in their knowledge that their rights will be defended by our code of laws. I look around at all the happiness and joy around me, joy that would never have been had we continued to live as hunter-gatherers, smiles that would never have shone had we continued our old lifestyle, children that would never have lived had we not changed. My life is nearing to a close now, I can feel it in the weariness of my fragile frame, I am dying, not of starvation, but of old age, a rare way to die, most of us used to die of starvation, even now many of us die as a result of terrible afflictions, not I, I have lived a good life, a long life. I take pleasure in the fact that during my final days, when I sit outside the cave, under the colossal tree, I may look around at the tribe that I call my own, and manage to conjure a smile at the thought that the tribe, so much like the tree I sit under, will outlast me by far, will flourish, and will continue to do so for many years after I am gone and forgotten. I take a final look around, take my final breath, and close my eyes forever.
Mr. Brent Loken
Global Ethics
January 22, 2008
The Rise of our World
I awoke to the gentle drumming of rain drops falling upon the moist dirt and slick rocks that cluttered the entrance to our cave. We had discovered this particular den nearly two weeks ago, when we traveled here from the north, in pursuit of our food supply. I looked around at the other inhabitants of the shelter, my tribe. There they were, sleeping, shivering as a result of the gentle breeze and the damp ground they slept upon. They were healthy enough, save for one, a very old man, must have been 25 years of age, he lay in the far corner of the cave, sweating profusely. He looked on the verge of death; he had killed a wild dog several days previously, and had consequently been attacked by its canine relatives. The attack had left him with a bleeding leg, the blood flow stopped eventually, he seemed to have recovered well. Within a week however, he had succumbed to a strange sickness, which the tribal elders declared was the gods’ punishment for harming the jackal. He had been cursed indeed, his wound had turned black, in contrast to the rest of his disfigured leg, which had become bloated and pale, he constantly sweats now, he simply lies there, in a state of semi-consciousness, waiting for gods to cure him, or to be allowed to die. I sighed in dismay, he was a good man, kind to the rest of the tribal family, had the date trees we usually harvested from had not been particularly unfruitful that week, he would not have ventured out that morning in search of prey (or come back to us that day with his left calf torn and bloody). Such are the perils of this fickle lifestyle, and such are the wishes of our fickle gods. I closed my eyes, lay down on the cold, damp dirt, and fell asleep.
I was harshly aroused from my slumber, the woman that had woken me beckoned for me to follow, I was lead out of the cave. It was a glorious day, the sun was bright, the great river that flowed by the cave was glistening, its crocodilian denizens were floating serenely on the surface. I heard the sound of soft sobbing, and turned to find a young lad, barely 8 years of age, kneeling before the still-moist body of the sick man; his father. We all felt his pain, our tribal society was tightly knit, we all shared a deep emotional bond, we depended on each other for everything, we rarely encountered others of our kind, we needed each other to survive. I felt a pang of anger, why had the dates not been there that day? Why had our friend ventured out in search of food? Why did we simply accept that it was the gods will, why did we not care for him? Nevertheless, I mourned with the rest of the tribe, and helped the elders heave his still-supple form into the river, where he would be devoured by the animals. I stayed outside for a long time after the rest of the tribe had retreated into the shelter, looking around at my surroundings. We had been here before, it was part of our biannual rotation. I liked this land, I did not want to leave it any time soon, but life must go on, the tribe was due to leave in little over a week, and I had no choice but to follow. I turned to return to the shelter, and noticed a single date that had fallen beneath a tree, I picked it up, broke it open to find a stone inside, which I buried (for no particular reason) just outside the cave, where several hours previously, I had for the first time seen the dead man, lying in the blazing sunlight.
It has been many years now, since that fateful day by the river. I am now an elder, not a single person whom was in the tribe at that time remains, they have fallen victim to the elements, to nature, to the gods, to starvation. I alone remain, I have seen much death, I have been surrounded by famine, I have discovered a way to cure it. We are nearing the cave I slept in so many years ago; it is there that I shall unveil my plan.
It has been three more days, We arrived at the river cave this morning, we settled in our cave, the younger men just left to hunt, the elder women cared for the children, and the younger women ventured outwards to gather food. I’ve sat by the entrance of the cave for many hours now, leaning against the trunk of a towering date tree; the very one I myself planted all those years ago. I will tell them tomorrow, at sunrise.
This might very well be the most important day in the history of our tribe. I unveiled my revolutionary plan today. At sunrise, I called a tribal gathering, and presented to them my plan.
“Gather round, comrades, today shall be the most memorable day of our lives. We have come and gone from distant lands, we have pursued our food source for many decades now. We have lost friends, comrades, family members to the elements, to the animals, to the gods, many have starved, many have been mauled by wild beasts, many have been frozen, but many more, so many more have fallen prey to the strange afflictions and curses placed upon them by the gods. Why? Do you not wonder why? Why is it that we pursue the cattle through the plains, through the deserts, through the grasslands? We have lost many a friend on these annual journeys, why? I propose that we revolutionize our current life style. I shall begin with our food source. We have for many years known that where we plant a seed, a tree will grow. We have all witnessed the conditions and circumstances, under which certain types of plants flourish, we have sufficient knowledge of the ways of the world to begin better life to shape a new, better life. We move from place to place every few weeks, never staying in a single place for very long. We have the knowledge; we need the will to use it. I believe that we can abandon our current lifestyle, we do not need to migrate from place to place, from oasis to oasis, from shelter to shelter. We need to begin by gathering plants, burying their seeds, and segmenting the land. Many years ago now, long before any of you had been conceived, I buried a single seed, on this very spot. That single seed has since blossomed into the titanic tree you now stand beneath, a testament to our tribe’s strength, and the key to a better future. If we begin by planting seeds in specific areas, they will eventually flourish, as will we. We know what trees grow in repeating cycles throughout the year, I propose that we mimic those natural cycles, and create our own simulation of a plant ecosystem, which we can use as a steady food source. The largest problem of our current lifestyle is that we do not have a steady food source, when the food fluctuates, so do our numbers. We must change this! How many of you have lost family, friends, comrades to starvation? I have, I have lost many, in order to better our lives, we must create a steady food source, one on which we can depend. This philosophy can also be extended to the taming of wild beasts. Why do we pursue the cattle through mountains, plains, deserts? We must change, we should build cages, fences, enclosures, we can capture cattle, and raise them in our enclosed areas, they will carry on reproducing, which will ensure that we have yet another steady food source. If we can put the animals in these enclosures, we can nurture them, feed them, shelter them, they will thrive, we can then begin to govern our own food supply, we can begin to govern our numbers, we can determine our survival.
I mentioned earlier that we must begin our new, more stable lives by creating for ourselves more stable sources of food. This is how I propose that we life in a single place; we build our own shelters. We now resort to caves, trees and various other natural obstacles as protection from the biting winds or the glaring sun, we can, nay, we must change this if we are to flourish! We must construct shelter, we may begin by gathering grass, mud, and branches. Branches will serve as the foundation, mud and grass as reinforcement.
That, my friends, is how we begin our transformation. How though, must we conduct ourselves in this new world? Our philosophy will base itself around compassion. Are you not frightened by the prospect of losing those you most care for? Do you not think we should spare others from the same anguish? I propose that when we meet our kin in other tribes, we educate them, we tell them of our new ways, we teach them how life safely, protected from the elements, sheltered from starvation. My only regret is that we may not save them from the judgment of the spirits; I feel that this is worth explaining. Do we not know the approximate intensity of injuries that should result in death? Why, then, do so many of us suffer but a tiny wound, insignificant to most of us, only to fall into an enigmatic stupor, one from which none of us arouse. Why do the wounds, previously crimson, slowly become black and cursed? Why is it that the area surrounding the wound becomes pale, bloated, and eventually useless? Why do these people, in the period of a mere week, succumb to those strange symptoms, only to perish as suddenly as the symptoms arose? It is not a capability of the animal, for surely no beast is capable of such a monstrous feat, it is the will of the gods, we may not, we cannot interfere with such curses. I sincerely wish I knew of a way to save people from this ghastly fate, for surely if we somehow developed the capability to perform such miracles, it would be because, and only because, the spirits had willed it. It is not within our ability to cure people of such curses, we can cure them of starvation however. How many hundreds can we save by providing food to all? How many of you have bore children, only to watch them perish before they have lived but a week? How many of our brothers and sisters have died before they have had the chance to live? We can change this now, with our new philosophy of food production we can fulfill our ambitions, we can save our kin. I believe we should also spread our philosophy to all others that we find, we can save ourselves now, I believe that it would be the height of irresponsibility and immorality to keep this knowledge from others. If we keep this knowledge, we will be remembered as devils, selfish devils, demons whom discovered the secret to life, and kept it to themselves, what is far worse is that we will live forever, forever cursed with the burden of the world despising us, we will live as outcasts, forever alien, forever damned. We begin to act on our central precept of compassion by sharing our knowledge with all those around us. Will they despise us for this? No, they will love us, for who, short of the idiot, the villain, or the lunatic would refuse such knowledge? We can change the world, we must begin by changing our current way of life, the world will quickly follow.
I believe I am hearing the ramblings of discontent amongst you. “Is this not unnatural?” you say, “Isn’t this mindless extermination?” you ask. There comes a point, brothers and sisters, when we must ask ourselves a simple question; are we, or are we not a part of nature? If we are, it logically follows that, by definition, nothing we can do can be defined as “unnatural”. You seem to think that there is, perhaps, a law that we are breaking, a biological law. This could not be more false; we are as much a part of the biological community as any other creature that walks, crawls, swims or flies on this earth, our actions cannot be deemed unnatural unless we too are to be considered outside of the normal boundaries of nature. We will not be exterminating our competitors mindlessly. What we do is all that is required of us to survive. We need more food than our competitors, so we do what we must to assure our access to food. You may say that we mindlessly exterminate the jackals that try to steal our food source. We do not, we drive them away, we kill those that intrude upon our territories, but exterminate we do not. Is this any different from the lion killing the occasional hyena that intrudes upon it’s territory in search of a fresh kill? No, it is not, we obey the laws of nature just as well as any other creature.
As we are now on the topic of laws, there is a slight digression that I feel is necessary; we must discuss how we are to live. We live quite well at the moment, do we not? I feel that we have no real problems discerning whether or not our actions are moral. We do, however, need a standardized set of rules for governing our moral behaviour. Let me explain why; We live in relative peace and tranquility now, we all have a powerful sense of moral obligation to our fellows, we all possess human solidarity, that unspoken moral urge to think of the clan, not only of yourself. This does extremely well in governing our everyday lives, but I do believe we need a set of laws, standardizing our ethics and rules. We have no basis now to persecute one who has acted in a manner contrary to our expected morals, we cannot in good judgment and justice punish an individual who has killed another. If we standardize our morals in a code of laws, we have a safeguard against the occasional sociopath or psychopath who disregards all normal boundaries for ethical behaviour and acts in contempt of our expected standards, we will have a justifiable method to ascertain our natural rights to a peaceful existence. Allow me to provide you all with a hypothetical situation: A man becomes intoxicated from the fermented juices of a fruit, he becomes a problem, he begins to harass the other members of our tribe, therefore, we restrain him by tying him to a tree until he sobers up. He and his family rise up against us the next day, demanding retribution, declaring that we had no right to forcefully restrain him (regardless of what common sense dictates). We would then be faced with a rather difficult and fragile scenario would we not? If, however, we had a code of conduct dictating what we must do with those of us who become inebriated and potentially harmful, we would be in a clearly defined, morally justifiable position. We could show them our laws and the corresponding punishments, we would be out of such a tenuous position. That is but one amongst many possible scenarios where the standardization of laws becomes more than a prerogative, it becomes a necessity. This becomes even more necessary when we begin to incorporate notions of private property into our lives, I do not think I need to elaborate on that, common sense tells us that we need a guide to how to live, and logic tells us that we should make it standardized, and available to all, thereby eliminating the possibility of selective quotations and subjective punishments.
This, my brothers and sisters is how I propose that we begin to alter our lives, as well as the course of history. We begin by planting seeds and domesticating animals to create a stable, reliable food source. We then proceed by building our shelters to shield us from the elements. FInally, we create a constitution, a code of conduct, written by us all, upheld by us all, designed to ensure that our natural rights are protected. We must also try to better the lives of those around us, by spreading our knowledge, this will better their lives tenfold. This, comrades, is how we save ourselves, this is how we change our world forever.”
It has been many more years since that memorable day when I presented my tribe with my plan to change the world. I look around me now at the smiling faces, at the children playing in the stream, children that would have long ago starved had we not access to a steady food source. I look at the other tribesmen, happy in their knowledge that there will be food aplenty for their offspring, for their friends, for their family. I look at my brethren, content in their knowledge that their rights will be defended by our code of laws. I look around at all the happiness and joy around me, joy that would never have been had we continued to live as hunter-gatherers, smiles that would never have shone had we continued our old lifestyle, children that would never have lived had we not changed. My life is nearing to a close now, I can feel it in the weariness of my fragile frame, I am dying, not of starvation, but of old age, a rare way to die, most of us used to die of starvation, even now many of us die as a result of terrible afflictions, not I, I have lived a good life, a long life. I take pleasure in the fact that during my final days, when I sit outside the cave, under the colossal tree, I may look around at the tribe that I call my own, and manage to conjure a smile at the thought that the tribe, so much like the tree I sit under, will outlast me by far, will flourish, and will continue to do so for many years after I am gone and forgotten. I take a final look around, take my final breath, and close my eyes forever.
Fast Food Nation: A Review
To be completely honest, the movie Fast Food Nation left me feeling disappointed. I feel that the movie was clearly biased against fast food industries, and that the arguments from the movie lost considerable momentum as a result of the biased director. I have a sneaking suspicion however, that the book upon which the movie was based would be far more convincing than the movie itself, and that the arguments and accusations leveled against such fast food industries would be far better supported. I am extremely skeptical about the conditions of slaughterhouses as portrayed in that movie. I have trouble believing that the cows are eviscerated, disemboweled, and finally killed. Why on earth would any mentally stable person go through the trouble of torturing their bovine victims in such an elaborately gruesome manner? It is not in the farmer’s best interest to inflict as much pain as is humanly possible (an impression one would naturally get were he or she to only watch the movie Fast Food Nation), a farmer sees the cows as money, not victims, it is in a farmer’s best interest to simply be done with the business as quickly as possible; the cattle’s value is a monetary one, not an emotional one. Overall, I found that the most believable part in the movie was that there were incredibly high levels of feces in the pulverized hamburger meat (I do not know whether that says more about my skepticism or the movie’s believability). I feel that it always weakens a documentary considerably if it is clearly portrayed with a distinct bias towards one side. I shall remain skeptical until I am presented with unequivocal evidence that conditions in slaughterhouses are indeed as gruesome and gory as they were portrayed in Fast Food Nation. I shall refrain from believing until I am given proof that when one walks into a killing room he is “ankle deep in blood”.
Aside from the melodrama taking place in the slaughter house, the movie documented the lives of Mexican immigrants coming to the United States and trying to begin a new life. In my opinion, this was a far more interesting parallel plot to follow. The Mexicans’ tales brought to light many social issues associated with the risks of illegal immigration. The administration within the slaughterhouse was rife with corruption, the desperate measures to which the immigrants had to resort were, in my opinion, far more disturbing than any scene from the slaughterhouse. The mental anguish and familial tension illustrated by the immigrants’ tales were emotionally devastating, and were far more effective at tugging that the heartstrings of the audience.
Aside from the melodrama taking place in the slaughter house, the movie documented the lives of Mexican immigrants coming to the United States and trying to begin a new life. In my opinion, this was a far more interesting parallel plot to follow. The Mexicans’ tales brought to light many social issues associated with the risks of illegal immigration. The administration within the slaughterhouse was rife with corruption, the desperate measures to which the immigrants had to resort were, in my opinion, far more disturbing than any scene from the slaughterhouse. The mental anguish and familial tension illustrated by the immigrants’ tales were emotionally devastating, and were far more effective at tugging that the heartstrings of the audience.
Ethical Responsibilities
It should be unequivocally clear to all who consider the question of ethical responsibility being extended towards animals that it is tremendously important that we extend these rights towards our fellow inhabitants of the planet. When we realize that gap between us and other animals is far smaller than we had previously assumed, it logically follows that there will be a growing imperative to extend humane treatment towards animals. Literary critic and journalist Christopher Hitchens has a tendency to refer to people as “mammals”, which seems strange until you give it a moment’s thought. It is emotionally (and for some, intellectually) jarring to hear another one of our species being referred to as a mammal. It does detract somewhat from our ignorantly assumed and vigorously enforced position at the top of the zoological hierarchy when we hear one of our own being referred to as a mere mammal. After one spares a moment of thought to consider this question, there is nothing at all strange about it, we are mammals, we are animals, we are not very different from our cousins in the wild. I believe that it is an imperative that we extend certain ethical responsibilities towards certain groups of animals. It seems that the gap between “us” and “animal” is simply a gap of the mind (I use the term literally), all that separates us from other animals is the fact that we have more advanced cognitive capabilities, which is a result in a large brain size relative to our body size (vocal mechanics also play a role in our separation from animals, as they provide the means to proliferate information). When we recognize the sheer number of similarities between ourselves and other animals (we have an unfortunate tendency to focus on the very few differences) it becomes very clear that our commonly excepted notion of ethical treatment towards humans must be extended to other animals. It is becoming increasingly clear that characteristics we once assumed were uniquely human are exhibited in our primate cousins. Chimpanzees have been demonstrated to be capable of emotions, even of violence that mirrors our own behaviour (hopefully they will never reach the sorry state we have reached). Examples of such behaviour can be easily found through internet searches for videos of chimpanzees, such videos have become increasingly more accessible since Jane Goodall’s fervent advocating of chimpanzee rights.
Revelations
We recently watched “The Gods Must be Crazy” in Global Ethics class. The purpose of this was to attempt to draw connections between materials in the movie and the ideas discussed in Ishmael. I feel that the first sequence of scenes were the most telling of all; they demonstrated a distinct parallel between taker life and leaver life. They analyzed taker life-style simply by describing a single day in the life of a taker, “you begin your day...you then re-adapt yourself to a work environment... you look busy... you take a break... you look busy...” etc. This can hardly be described as a serious effort to dismantle taker life, yet it results in a “reductio ad absurdum” of taker culture, it breaks taker culture down by exposing the absurdity of certain elements. As a stunning contrast to the bustling cacophony that is taker culture, leaver life is depicted by the film as being tribal, placid, harmonious, nearly as paradise, where the notion of private ownership is unknown, where nobody hurts anybody else. I disagree with this view, I’d argue that the notion of the “noble savage” is naive and false. Were one to accept this tenuous proposition, one would need to (at the very least) suggest that violence was less wide-spread in those societies than it is now; this could not be farther from the truth. Lawrence Keeley conducted tests in the New Guinea highlands, and he found that the chance of dying as a result of homicide ranged from 15%-60% in foraging hunter-gatherer societies, while the United States and Europe had barely a 5% chance, including both world wars. This suggests that leaver life is not nearly as idillic as it is made out to be. I’d argue that Daniel Quinn is wrong in his interjection that only takers systematically eliminate their enemies. Takers, unless I am mistaken, are those who exempt themselves from the biological law and endow themselves with the false knowledge of who shall live and who shall die, they are also the only people who systematically eliminate their immediate competitors. There is an inconsistency here; the leaver tribes of the New Guinea Highlands seem to, by all accounts, eliminate their competitors to secure food sources, they even go the extra mile and eliminate some of them completely to prevent future troubles with rival tribes, yet we have no problem calling these people leavers. I do not think that leaver life is quite as good as Daniel Quinn makes it out to be. I am not in any way advocating taker life-style, I am simply saying that there is a slightly disingenuous (or perhaps ignorant) misinterpretation of leaver lifestyle, which, I feel, must be discussed. The next pivotal scene was when the terrorists attempted to assassinate the prime minister, it demonstrated with crystalline clarity how catastrophic group-psychology can be when coupled with terrible taker technology. Here we have a human social conflict (I will not exempt leavers from this type of violence) which comes down to competition for resources, once you wade through all the mundane politics, the true source of this violence is trying to survive in a world full of competitors, which has been transformed into a calamity of diabolical proportions by the technological revolution of the takers. This scene decisively showed how, beneath all the inanities and inconveniences of taker life, there lurks a hidden danger, one that has been exacerbated tremendously by the application of 20th century weaponry. I feel that those are the two key connections to make between Ishmael and “The Gods Must be Crazy”, those two sections, though initially appearing to be satyrical, light-hearted fun, held tremendous symbolic value. Those two scenes demonstrates two things: 1.) The stark contrasts between taker and leaver culture. 2.) Leavers and takers face similar problems, takers simply cause a greater impact due to technological advancements.
The Diversity of Life
We spent a good portion of our last class individually coming up with ideas as to the definition of the biological law to which Ishmael was hinting. We seemed to reach a general consensus as to the nature of this law, that each species (us excluded) only takes what is necessary to survive. I found myself agreeing with most of my classmates' sentiments, save for one comment, that mother culture tells us that we are exempt from the concept of "survival of the fittest", that we are told by mother culture that we are separate from other species, I found myself immediately disagreeing with that assumption. Mother culture does not tell us that we are separate from this concept, I'd argue that it is quite the opposite, Mother Culture tells us that we are included, that we are a part of the law just like any other species, that it is our divine right to seize the reins of nature and reap the benefits of biological domination (indeed, why should we not? We are, after all, assumed to be the fittest.). Mother culture manipulates the idea of "Survival of the fittest", it twists, warps, mutilates this concept into the self-gratifying, arrogant piffle that flows through the propaganda-clogged pipelines that we call mass-media, it manipulates the concept into a heavenly mandate to do as we please with the world we dominate. Needless to say, such assumptions have been proven unequivocally false. I found many aspects of the reading fascinating, they reminded me of my independent studies into basic ecology and evolutionary biology. I am very interested by the idea of a food chain, and that fluctuations at a certain level could cause extreme ramifications at another level. Ishmael's lesson about diversity was ironically the least foreign (yet simultaneously the most interesting) concept in the book so far. I'd done studies about diversity before, about generalized species as opposed to specialized ones, about the diversity of life forming a "back-up plan" so to speak, that a wide range of ecological niches (or, more specifically, the filling of those niches) nearly guarantees life's survival, as most global catastrophes are not destructive enough to wipe out all life on Earth. The resilient nature of the biological community relies upon its diversity, anything that lessens the diversity of life lessens the chances that life will withstand an apocalyptic calamity. Take the Burgess Shale community for example, we have a perfect example of a diverse biological community (a community, Stephen J Gould would have argued, more diverse than that of all life on Earth today), there was, most likely, a landslide in the mountains overlooking the marine Burgess Shale community, this will serve as a global catastrophe for the purpose of this example, yet one creature, a seemingly insignificant worm by the name of Pikaia survived, and gave rise to the phylum we know today as Chordata. The diversity within that community was such that a single calamity was not enough to totally extinguish the spark of life. Life survives, that is its law, life continues, propagates, radiates, from submerged volcanic vents to the perishing tundras of the Arctic, ever resilient, that glorious flame, sometimes diminished, but never extinguished.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)