Jim Macdonald has left a new comment on your post "A delightful trip into the park":
Mike,
Like a lot of your comments, I have answered this sort of thing previously. I have no problem with beings being what they are, humans included. What I have problems with is humans doing things which go outside the bounds of reason, creating an artificial system of justice in which to enforce their decisions. The boundaries that keep the bison penned into Yellowstone are artificial and without merit. If people kill buffalo because that's what people simply do, that's one thing. Hundreds of buffalo would die in buffalo jumps (see the area around Dome Mountain near Tom Miner Basin as one example of a natural buffalo jump). That's not the issue. The issue is the reason why; and for whatever reason (that philosophy stuff you push away with the wave of your hand), that's what you never actually respond to. There is a connection between reasons and action in the human life; when the reasons are contradictory, then we all needlessly suffer.
In a world where we aren't acting that way, buffalo and humans will still die. There is no utopia, but we will be better off to an important degree - we won't feel entitled to enforce one narrow particular view of all beings, where some are more entitled than others. We may kill and eat buffalo out of urges related to our senses and not some abstract and incoherent sense of justice (which is what we do now).
And, people do confuse that, right? A lot of people will shout out at us - "Buffalo taste good" thinking they're getting under our skin (and not even knowing that some members of the group even eat buffalo). They think this is just about simple sense experience, but in fact that's not why buffalo are being killed. In truth, we are way beyond that world. You talked a long time ago about overpopulation. Yeah, that's right - the overpopulated world comes from a world that imposed its will on the earth and was able to grow much more food than otherwise would be natural, built giant machines, built therefore giant machines of death. Who isn't like a caged buffalo in this world? But, we like to pretend it's still about simple things - the way it should be.
You can't just fight for buffalo; you have to fight against the world that keeps everyone caged by our sophistication (stupidity). The buffalo is just one way into that, one that is closer to my experience.
Posted by Jim Macdonald to Jim's Eclectic World at 5/31/08 9:51 AM __________________________________________________
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About Me
- Jim Macdonald
- Hi, my name is Jim Macdonald, and I have an odd assortment of interests. In no particular order, I love Yellowstone, I am an anti-authoritarian activist and organizer, and I have a background in philosophy, having taught at the college level. My blog has a lot more links to my writing and my other Web sites. In Jim's Eclectic World, I try to give a holistic view of my many interests. Often, all three passions show themselves interweaving in the very same blog. Anyhow, I think it's a little different. But, that's me. I'm not so much out there, but taken together, I'm a little unusual.