Wild Child and Nature
Early this morning I was watching PBS and there was an interesting Nature program about childhood for wild animals. It was fascinating and disturbing. What was most disturbing was the high mortality rate for young wild animals as they faced disease, hunger, predators, and even being abandoned by their mothers in time of crisis. It was heart wrenching to see these baby animals die but it got me thinking.
How many people have no idea how harsh nature really is? Some people think that nature is gentle and motherly. Those isolated from nature may believe that this is really how things are in the wild.
In reality Bambi would be in frequent peril from hunger, cars, and predators, and later in his life, man.
There has been an increase in wild-animal attacks in North America lately and a shocking number of them are joggers and hikers who are totally unprepared to meet a wild animal, especially one that sees them as a source of protein.
What this means is that so many have no idea how to survive in the wild. Those who romanticize nature frequently have no idea of what it is really like. Those who want to return to an agrarian society would be the first to starve.
While most would never want to go back to a primitive way of living there are those who see it as a paradise. Yes paradise where there is hunger, if not starvation, from late winter to early summer. Where a woman needs to bear 5 to 6 children to assure a steady population, not to mention childbirth being the main killer women. Yes the Luddites want paradise.
Hurricane Katrina showed us what happens when nature strikes hard and the people don't know how to fend or think for themselves. Those people died because the government always cared for them and when the government wasn't there they didn't know what to do. Many of them died because of their own lack on knowledge.
We can see the results of that Volcano in Iceland but imagine one many times worse. Imagine Yellowstone erupting, as it probably will sometime in the next couple of centuries, throwing ash a couple feet deep across the entire globe and the whole planet sliding into a year or more of global winter. Those who survive will do so by a combination of location, preparation, skill, self-reliance, and luck. The survivors will be those who know how to survive and the destruction would be so complete that the government would be over-whelmed to the point of paralysis. Those who are dependent won't stand a chance.
That's nature for you.
How many people have no idea how harsh nature really is? Some people think that nature is gentle and motherly. Those isolated from nature may believe that this is really how things are in the wild.
In reality Bambi would be in frequent peril from hunger, cars, and predators, and later in his life, man.
There has been an increase in wild-animal attacks in North America lately and a shocking number of them are joggers and hikers who are totally unprepared to meet a wild animal, especially one that sees them as a source of protein.
What this means is that so many have no idea how to survive in the wild. Those who romanticize nature frequently have no idea of what it is really like. Those who want to return to an agrarian society would be the first to starve.
While most would never want to go back to a primitive way of living there are those who see it as a paradise. Yes paradise where there is hunger, if not starvation, from late winter to early summer. Where a woman needs to bear 5 to 6 children to assure a steady population, not to mention childbirth being the main killer women. Yes the Luddites want paradise.
Hurricane Katrina showed us what happens when nature strikes hard and the people don't know how to fend or think for themselves. Those people died because the government always cared for them and when the government wasn't there they didn't know what to do. Many of them died because of their own lack on knowledge.
We can see the results of that Volcano in Iceland but imagine one many times worse. Imagine Yellowstone erupting, as it probably will sometime in the next couple of centuries, throwing ash a couple feet deep across the entire globe and the whole planet sliding into a year or more of global winter. Those who survive will do so by a combination of location, preparation, skill, self-reliance, and luck. The survivors will be those who know how to survive and the destruction would be so complete that the government would be over-whelmed to the point of paralysis. Those who are dependent won't stand a chance.
That's nature for you.
posted by shoprat at 4:00 PM
13 Comments:
thought provoking post --
only those who have never been in life threatening situations (and there are more and more of said 'softies') want humans to go back to the "good old days" of no running water- no phones-no cars-BUT--
they would not give up any amenities-- they just want others to ...
C-CS
Reminds me of what my father used to say: "There is no peaceful death in the wild."
Speaking of Infant Mortality:
* the USA is ranked 33 in the world with 6.3 deaths/100k
* of the 32 countries with fewer deaths, virtually all have some sort of socially funded Health Care.
* Canada is 23 with 4.8/100k
* Cuba is 28th with 5.1/100k
* France 12th with 4.2/100k
.... Speaking of living in the 'wild', that is ...
Snerd
good pondering post sr - - those nature shows are good, we enjoy watching - it's amazing how nature works!
Well, this kind of depressed me!
Good thing I rarely watch nature shows..especially if I have to see Bambi die again :-)
Most people in the US anthropomorphize animals horribly; they can't stand to watch nature doing what it does: animals die and are eating by others. It IS the way of nature. But most people just want nature THEIR way: temporarily cute and fuzzy. There's nothing cute and fuzzy about a rock python running its teeth over the top of your skull as it begins to consume your entire body.
BZ
A substation had a malfunction the other night and our power went out for a few hours, and even that I have a hard time thinking of surviving for more than a few days without power, so thinking of life in the wild is incomprehensible to me!
Good, thought provoking post, Shoprat.
When I hear these light-headed liberals talking, who try to say that animals are more "civilized" and peaceful than us evil humans, I get an urge to invite them to a few places I've been that are well off the proverbial beaten track and "introduce them around". :-)
I'm with Seth. Having spent years teaching backpacking to kids, I've seen just about every natural "cruelty" there is to see. We so try to anthropomorphize the animal kingdom that we lose sight of what it is really all about.
With regard to animals, we tend to live in a fantasy world.
let me know when you start posting again-OK?
C-CS
Yeah, a bleak nasty death. That's the "natural rights" that the right wing always talks about.
Hobbes dealt with this.
The difference between the left and conservatives is that the left focuses on the rights of the rulers, and conservatives focus on the rights of the ruled.
missing you...I hope all's okay.
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