{"id":1126,"date":"2008-07-28T21:49:32","date_gmt":"2008-07-29T01:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=1126"},"modified":"2018-08-13T14:35:17","modified_gmt":"2018-08-13T18:35:17","slug":"monday-july-28-2008-red-in-tooth-and-claw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=1126","title":{"rendered":"Monday, July 28, 2008 \u2014 Red In Tooth and Claw"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rabbit_Wallpaper_3\"<\/a>I could write, tonight, about some of those things that Nature uses to suck you in, like the pleas\u00adant sun\u00adset I just saw. It was mel\u00adlow, rather than spec\u00adtac\u00adu\u00adlar. A glow\u00ading tan\u00adger\u00adine sun descend\u00ading slow\u00adly behind the ridge, with clouds daubed onto the sky by some minor 17th cen\u00adtu\u00adry Dutch mas\u00adter. The sort of sun\u00adset that makes you feel the sphere of the Earth rolling under your feet, but does\u00adn\u2019t look like it was con\u00adjured up by Indus\u00adtri\u00adal Light &<\/span> Mag\u00adic. But I would rather write about the nas\u00adti\u00ader side of Nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

I already had a taste of it, a few days ago, when I suf\u00adfered five hor\u00adnet stings, two of them on the back of my hand. This seemed exces\u00adsive. I was\u00adn\u2019t doing any\u00adthing to antag\u00ado\u00adnize the hor\u00adnets. I have the utmost respect for hor\u00adnets. I would vote for one, if it ran for Par\u00adlia\u00adment in my rid\u00ading. But the hor\u00adnets appar\u00adent\u00adly don\u2019t have the same \u201clive and let live\u201d phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy, and I\u2019ve had to spend three days typ\u00ading with a right hand that looks like it was drawn by a bad cartoonist.<\/span><\/p>\n

But far more dra\u00admat\u00adic was what hap\u00adpened this morn\u00ading, as I went to the mail\u00adbox. The lane from the house to Devel\u00adop\u00adment Road (a road not\u00aded for its dirth of devel\u00adop\u00adment) is closed in by a small for\u00adest of tall spruce and birch. As I walked, I saw an extra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnary sight: a black rab\u00adbit fly\u00ading among the trees. It rose from the ground and fol\u00adlowed a straight line ris\u00ading upwards about thir\u00adty degrees, mov\u00ading at about 30kph, and dis\u00adap\u00adpeared into the sky. This dra\u00admat\u00adic action was accom\u00adpa\u00adnied by a sharp screech.<\/span><\/p>\n

I did not actu\u00adal\u00adly see the red-tail hawk that most prob\u00ada\u00adbly was respon\u00adsi\u00adble for this appar\u00adent\u00adly super\u00adnat\u00adur\u00adal event. It\u2019s the only thing oth\u00ader than a bald eagle that could have car\u00adried off a fair\u00adly large rab\u00adbit with such ease, and its chaot\u00adic brown, beige and white colour\u00ading would have ren\u00addered it near invis\u00adi\u00adble in the woods. As it was, the blur\u00adry flut\u00adter of the preda\u00adto\u00adry rap\u00adtor hard\u00adly reg\u00adis\u00adtered in my vision, while the stark out\u00adline of the rab\u00adbit was clear\u00adly vis\u00adi\u00adble, and appeared to lev\u00adi\u00adtate from the earth and zoom by like a bizarre canon-ball. It looked more like some\u00adone\u2019s pet than any wild hare or rab\u00adbit. Wild rab\u00adbits around here are not black. This made me shud\u00adder. I have a pet rab\u00adbit at home, and I could not help trans\u00adfer\u00adring my affec\u00adtion to this hap\u00adless victim.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nature is not all fluffy cot\u00adton\u00adtails and painter\u00adly sun\u00adsets. The world is harsh and cru\u00adel, and almost all ani\u00admals die hor\u00adri\u00adble deaths in the wild. They are torn apart and eat\u00aden, usu\u00adal\u00adly while still half-alive, or they die a slow and ago\u00adniz\u00ading death of star\u00adva\u00adtion, or mis\u00ader\u00adable deaths from dis\u00adease. There are no retire\u00adment homes for elder\u00adly for\u00adest ani\u00admals, no atten\u00addant nurs\u00ades hov\u00ader\u00ading around their deathbeds. No flow\u00aders or eulogies.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, as much as I delight in nature, it is not Nature\u2019s Plan that I want to see for human kind. Nature\u2019s Plan con\u00adtrolled us for thou\u00adsands of years\u2026 we sick\u00adened and died in hor\u00adri\u00adble plagues, were devoured by preda\u00adtors, and were dis\u00adpatched with steely cyn\u00adi\u00adcism by the same Nat\u00adur\u00adal Wis\u00addom that decides that ten thou\u00adsand tur\u00adtles will hatch on the seashore, and only one hun\u00addred make it to the sea. Nature\u2019s Plan was for us to live in ter\u00adror and mis\u00adery, just long enough to breed anoth\u00ader gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion, then die at the age of thir\u00adty. Phooey to Nature\u2019s Plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

What we are slow\u00adly build\u00ading for our\u00adselves, thanks to human con\u00adscious\u00adness, is a dif\u00adfer\u00adent sort of thing, that has not exist\u00aded before on this plan\u00adet. We can appre\u00adci\u00adate nature, and see the beau\u00adty and majesty of it, pre\u00adcise\u00adly because we have bro\u00adken the rules and made some\u00adthing of our\u00adselves that is rather dif\u00adfer\u00adent from what came before us. Nei\u00adther the red-tail hawk nor the poor rab\u00adbit, I\u2019m sure, spent any of their spare time appre\u00adci\u00adat\u00ading the sun\u00adset, though they each must have their own sorts of plea\u00adsures and pains. I don\u2019t want to live the life of the hawk or the life of the rab\u00adbit. I want some\u00adthing better.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you look at the tale of human his\u00adto\u00adry, you see most human beings bare\u00adly able to live beyond the imme\u00addi\u00adate threat of star\u00adva\u00adtion, trapped between two kinds of preda\u00adtors \u2014 micro\u00adscop\u00adic pathogens, and aris\u00adtoc\u00adra\u00adcies of own species. Before we turned our minds to sci\u00aden\u00adtif\u00adic inves\u00adti\u00adga\u00adtion and rea\u00adson\u00ading, half of us were casu\u00adal\u00adly killed or debil\u00adi\u00adtat\u00aded by bac\u00adte\u00adria, virus\u00ades and fun\u00adgi. Most of the oth\u00ader half were enslaved, exploit\u00aded or mur\u00addered by rene\u00adgade humans who turned against their own species, imi\u00adtat\u00ading the actions of the micro\u00adscop\u00adic pathogens. The kings, emper\u00adors, dic\u00adta\u00adtors, aris\u00adtoc\u00adra\u00adcies, gen\u00ader\u00adals, mul\u00adlahs, popes, sul\u00adtans, par\u00adty boss\u00ades and com\u00admis\u00adars are, after all, mere\u00adly larg\u00ader ver\u00adsions of bubon\u00adic plague bacili, exploit\u00ading our weak\u00adness to feed on us, killing many of us in the process, only tem\u00adpered by the need to pre\u00adserve enough of their hosts to repeat the process. Democ\u00adra\u00adcy, art, sci\u00adence, and rea\u00adson are the med\u00adi\u00adcines, the pub\u00adlic health mea\u00adsures, the vac\u00adcines with which we fight these pathogens. The ulti\u00admate aim of this med\u00adi\u00adcine is not to pre\u00adserve nature\u2019s bal\u00adance or nature\u2019s plan, but to beat the system.<\/span><\/p>\n

The argu\u00adment of all tyrants has been that their crimes are noth\u00ading more than Nature\u2019s com\u00admand, that they are the hawks and we are the rab\u00adbits, and that the Gods bless their palaces and their armies and their secret police as the Gods bless the crea\u00adtures of the for\u00adest in their per\u00adpet\u00adu\u00adal blood\u00adbath. I\u2019m sure that ver\u00admin such as George W. Bush, Jr., or Hu Jin\u00adtao see them\u00adselves as glo\u00adri\u00adous eagles, soar\u00ading above us. I would like to dis\u00adil\u00adlu\u00adsion them. I want to arm the rab\u00adbits with ground-to-air missiles.<\/span><\/p>\n

And when the rab\u00adbits are safe, liv\u00ading in free\u00addom, I\u2019ll appre\u00adci\u00adate the sun\u00adsets even more.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I could write, tonight, about some of those things that Nature uses to suck you in, like the pleas\u00adant sun\u00adset I just saw. It was mel\u00adlow, rather than spec\u00adtac\u00adu\u00adlar. A glow\u00ading tan\u00adger\u00adine sun descend\u00ading slow\u00adly behind the ridge, with clouds daubed \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-as-blog-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1126"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8445,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126\/revisions\/8445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}