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What’s a life worth?
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I am interested in bonsai trees and a friend of mine accused me of being cruel
for keeping trees in small pots and pruning them. She’s a vegetarian, but I didn’t
make the obvious riposte.Another friend of mine is against bullfighting but is happy to eat chicken without
enquiring about its provenance.The World Wildlife Fund (or somesuch) asked me to donate money to save the
Asian snow leopard from extinction – apparently there are only 43 left in the whole
world (it might be 44). I asked if they had a campaign to stop Rentokil from poisoning
millions of rats.Are all lives equivalent? Or is a human more important than a dolphin? Is a dolphin more
important than a snake? Is a snake more important than a slug? Should we save slugs but
put bleach in the loo and kill billions of bacteria? Is fruit acceptable food, but a lettuce
unacceptable because it results in the plant’s death?justaguy wrote:
Pete.
You have to much time on your handsNo I don’t. I just use what time I have to think,
read, entertain, tittilate, learn, educate, philosophise,
analyse, amuse, share, love and work.PeteTheBloke wrote:
justaguy wrote:
Pete.
You have to much time on your handsNo I don’t. I just use what time I have to think,
read, entertain, tittilate, learn, educate, philosophise,
analyse, amuse, share, love and work.Pete, there’s not enough tinme in the day for all of that.
BM wrote:
PeteTheBloke wrote:
justaguy wrote:
Pete.
You have to much time on your handsNo I don’t. I just use what time I have to think,
read, entertain, tittilate, learn, educate, philosophise,
analyse, amuse, share, love and work.Pete, there’s not enough tinme in the day for all of that.
For you there’s not. I agree.
Let’s bypass the Pete-the-super-bloke inference …
Back to your initial thought … do humans have the right to take the lives of other animals (and vegetables) to further their own purposes? Is their position at the top of teh food chain adequate justification?
What is the alternative? For right or wrong we started out our evolution as carnovores and our metabolism (certainly for youngsters) requires the concentration of proteins that meat provides. Equally, are our children to go hungry (and suffer malnutrition)?
For me, the key issue is excess (says the fat man with the love of beer!) and the never-ending increase in population. How will we feed another 1-2 billion humans when we can’t even adequately feed the current population?
I had a friend once who wouldnt eat anything that grew in the ground !
another friend also wouldnt eat white food !
Oh Yea,
meant to mention . . . self preservation . . . it is hard wired into our systems.
Well you don’t have to have any big moral reason to save the Snow Leopard, just perhaps like variety,
spice of life and all that.BM I know many Indians [edit: according to wikipedia about 31% are veggies ] who haven’t eaten meet, they seem to get by fine. From the point of view of feeding everyone, veggie is the way to go (but I like my meat).
Martin
BM: if you made a superbloke inference that’s just the way you read it,
I didn’t mean to imply it.Every vegetarian is well-versed in the arguments in my experience. I
sometimes tease them but I only get into a debate if they start slagging me
for eating meat.As for the snow leopard, I don’t really give a damn. I don’t want anything to be
killed needlessly, but I refuse to get sentimental about totemic furry creatures.Battery chickens suffer much more than your average bull; I’m more concerned
about the suffering of people to be honest.I wouldn’t have problem eating snow leopard, making a tasty leopard ragu, leopard stew or use it for a topping on a pizza. Or even leopard sausages with fighting bull blood sauce, then some dolphin and snake as dessert. Hmm… I’m off cooking.
Out of sight, out of mind….thats seems to be the issue in my view.
A little anecdote, a wild cat had kittens in our garden recently: we went to considerable effort (and expense) to ensure that the kittens were looked after and placed etc, mainly as we didn’t want the guilt of throwing them in the canal. The thought did strike me, why can’t I get so concerned about the many people around the world who live in terrible conditions…..and the answer is, cause they’re not next door.
(ps, from now on I am awarding a prize for the best smart ass answer when I post in GC).
Who is going to cry over the passing of the last human?
It’s a particularly modern human quality,
to bemoan the passing of whole species-Whatever happens, the planet will just get on with it.
If, as Jonathan Schell mused in ‘The Fate of The Earth’
human beings are responsible for the destruction of the planet,
or if a nuclear winter is brought about by more natural causes,
such as another major asteroid strike,
then all will not be lost, the world will still continue with rats, hard shelled insects, and some grasses.Who cried for the dinosaurs, until we came along?
jb7 wrote:
Who cried for the dinosaurs, until we came along?
The Archeo-Petetheblokyota species did.
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