Well, if you had watched the movie, this blog is nothing about it...:)... I have a question for you. From childhood, how many bacterias, fungi, and similar micro-organisms have you killed ? Expanding the scope further, how many ants, mosquitoes, spiders and such small insects have you killed? Expanding the scope still further, how many dogs, cats, chicken and the like have you killed? Think about it...
My educated guess would be, the answer to the first question should be in the order of billions, the answer to the second question should be in the thousands and hopefully, the answer to the third question should be zero. It is interesting to think that, we, as humans, irrespective of whether we boast about eating vegetarian food or not, kill a lot of small bugs and not even think about it twice. Sometimes, we even take pride in it. However, we have major protests and animal rights activation group when the size of the animal gets larger. When it comes to humans killing humans, we even sentence the killer to death. Are we as a society, okay with killing innocent creatures and are against the killing of bigger animals. I just dont understand. My guess is that, it is probably the suffering that we cant tolerate. If we were able to see how an ant or a spider suffers, through audible sound and action, we probably wont kill them again. But, thats not an excuse...is it? Hold on a second... I just hit a spider that crawled under my desk.. I rest my case...
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Intolerable Cruelty
Posted by Suresh Sankaralingam at 3:09 PM
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5 comments:
I am amazed, the same thought has crossed my mind many times whenever I think of myself as a vegetarian. I have killed many roaches intentionally in the past and not to mention the millions of ants. I don't like to kill roaches, but I can't stand to be in the same room knowing there is Mr.Roach in that corner on the ceiling and will pounce anytime in a full blown attack. So, it is basically the survival of the fittest! That is not an excuse, though.
It doesn't haunt me that I killed the roach. A year back I killed a dog (accidentally). It ran in front of my car in a 60 mph zone and I could not react fast enough, it has plagued me since. Is it the size that determines what we can kill or not kill with a clear conscience? Good question. I don't have the answer, but I'd like to explore that topic further.
This topic came in my mind recently when they announced that they will be taking out the extinct classification of grizzlies in Montana. This means they can be hunted legally. A lady commented that she felt relieved because Grizzlies were walking around in the parking lots. Ironic because, few years ago that was the bear's homeland before people destroyed its habitat and paved roads!
Sadly, I realize many times I am no different from that lady. It pains me.
Well, what to do, if the ants/spider invade my privacy ?
Im not going in search of spiders/ants to kill them! Some spiders are freaky and dangerous. Atleast, if it could make me like a spiderman, I can withstand one biting (see.. even then, only one bite is allowed) But does it ? No.....! If they maintain their space.. I do maintain mine! :-)
On a serious note, its really difficult to follow ahimsa 100%.
I was reading an article on yoga-sutra, which says, even cursing a person, is considered ahimsa. Consider a person sitting close to you and smoking with a hatred on his face(and the person looks like pasupathi (villain in recent tamil movies)
Will you go and request him to smoke somewhere else ? Well, I stand there and curse him or move from there. Thats all we can do!
As I mentioned, its difficult to follow, 100% ahimsa. I would say, whenever you can, follow it.
If there is way to transform ourselves to lilliputians and survive for a couple of days, we will be able to see what goes on in the other side of the world. That would also mean that, if we were lilliputians, may be the so called smaller organisms would kill us without much thought. So, it is probably okay if we kill them..:)... Regarding the big-animals and small-animals, as long as we understand that this is an issue and we all agree on it, we are probably okay... (like one of those quality stuff, as long as there is a process, we r ok).
I killed a squirrel in an expressway once. Felt very bad about it. I tried to steer my car around it and it followed the same path as well. Oh well... However, I dont feel bad about killing snails. They eat all my plants and I commit cold blooded murder to get rid of those little critters...Spiders, well, if I dont have anything to do and I see a spider, I kill it...just for the heck of it...;)... I also do creative experiments with the bug-spray....
Mindframes,
I have the seen precision with which you kill snails and spiders.Sometimes, even flies.Its pure animal instinct ,I guess. I try my best not to kill anything knowingly as ofcourse, I feel bad about it. But,once in a while,I flush down a spider or two in the sink and even feel proud about it .Well,humans are supposedly in the top of the food chain anyway.
Have you seen the movie"Honey,I shrunk the kids"?.You will see an ant trying to trample the children in that.As Darwin says, "It is survival of the fittest" and it maintains the eco balance too.IT IS MEANT TO BE.
I used to return the stray ants to its group when I was a kid. As I grew, I handed over that job to innocent kids and took the next role of killing the groups.
I feel little guilty in killing anything.(including ants)
Difference between Vegitarians and Non-vegetarians will sum up this dilemma I guess.
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