The hunter and the hunted.

A 39 year old American has been killed by a grizzly bear he was hunting. Steve Stevenson was mauled to death by the bear, after his fellow hunter, Ty Bell, had shot and injured it. They had tracked the wounded bear, but it seems that the bear found Stevenson first. It is notable that Ty Bell first shot the grizzly – a threatened species in that part of America, with only 30 surviving in the mountain forests of North Eastern Idaho and North Western Montana – having mistaken it for a black bear. After Stevenson had been killed, Ty Bell shot the bear multiple times and killed it.

Now, what struck me about this situation is my reaction to it. I have no sympathy at all for the dead hunter. The reason for this should be clear: Steve Stevenson has the moral status of a murderer. I am not saying that a grizzly bear is equivalent to a human – but I am saying that a grizzly bear is entitled to the right to live, without some dumb American (and they were dumb, because they were unable to distinguish a grizzly bear from a black bear – and because grizzlies are known to kill humans, if wounded...so they were even dumber to follow it after first shooting it) coming along and killing it. The right to life should be extended to all higher animals in our environment. It should be seen as essentially immoral – and, one hopes, illegal - to go hunting for wildlife. I can see no benefit, to the world, to life or even to humans, in hunting. Indeed, the only outcome of hunting is the endangerment of our fellow species and the immediate murder of individual members of them. Hunting is, if you pause to reflect on it, an abhorrent “sport”.

In a way, there is little to distinguish hunters from serial killers – the only difference is the species they target. I would not be surprised if it were much the same impulse that drives both types of people: the thrill of the kill. A hunter exults in killing other animals - often quite beautiful and special animals, which should be protected, not murdered. Steve Stevenson is dead, however, I do not believe he should be mourned, or missed – because he chose to live his life as a killer, of higher life forms, for sport. He saw fun in chasing down an innocent animal, who would otherwise, most probably, never harm a human, and killing it. Instead, however, the grizzly bear killed him. This, interestingly, does not make the bear a killer – for the bear acted in self-defence. If one considered the bear as equivalent in moral status and reasoning as a human, the bear would be seen as morally the higher being – and legally innocent of any crime.

Once upon a time, hunting was the means by which man secured food, for himself and his family. In such times, hunting was understandable and to be accepted. Now, however, hunting has transformed into a thrill for a certain type of adrenalin junkie – the more sadistic ones. Hunting has become the means by which those who find fulfilment in killing, have a real world outlet for their impulses. It is curious to me, that such behaviour is not seen as aberrant, for it could not be more so. How can someone exult in the murder of a fellow animal? It is a savagery I cannot accept. What is especially galling about this particular case, is that the victim of this hunt – the grizzly bear – is from a threatened species and should most definitely not be hunted.

Upon Steve Stevenson’s death, bear experts spoke of the need for programs to teach hunters how to distinguish black bears from grizzly bears. The implication of this, of course, is that it is OK to kill black bears. To my mind, these “bear experts” have completely missed the point. Bears should not be being hunted, at all: no higher animal should. These “bear experts” should be calling not for training for hunters – but for hunting to be banned altogether – indeed, I think hunting, except for food, in times when there is no alternative, should be criminalized, all the world over. Our world is not just for humans – it is for all that lives – and we humans should make room on this planet for all the other life forms that do not immediately threaten our own existence.

I have a mischievous, but curiously appropriate thought. If these hunters like hunting so much and have such a great desire to kill something...why don’t they hunt each other? The problem of hunting would soon go away – and all the world’s wildlife would be much the better for it.

Incidentally, Ty Bell should be prosecuted for killing the grizzly bear, since its hunting is illegal in the Lower 48, in the USA. It is only legal to kill grizzlies if human life is endangered - and before he shot the bear in the first place, that was not so. So, I hope to see Ty Bell jailed, for his crime against a fellow animal.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

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This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

The monster within the USA.

Monsters come in great variety. There are many ways to be evil. One way, is simply not to care whether one’s fellow men live or die – for that way leads to very dark worlds indeed.

In a CNN Tea Party debate hosted by Wolf Blitzer, recently, the audience glimpsed the true nature of some modern Americans.

Wolf Blitzer asked Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who is a doctor, oddly enough, how society should respond if an uninsured 30 year old has an accident and goes into a coma and needs intensive care for six months. Ron Paul was blunt and rather brutal. He argued strongly that the government should not be responsible. “That’s what freedom is all about, taking your own risks,” Paul said. His voice was overwhelmed by the uproarious audience applause. He continued, “this whole idea that you have to prepare to take care of everybody...”.

“Are you saying that society should just let him die?”, pursued Blitzer.

At that point, the audience gave its answer. They were shouts of “Yeah!”, from those who watched, attended by, rather unbelievably, LAUGHTER.

To my mind, those shouts were horrifying. They signalled that, in some quarters, Americans harbour attitudes to life which would have blended well with the Nazi administration of World War II. They hold life in such low value, that they LAUGH at the idea it should be allowed to slip away, unopposed. Truly, they are monsters. Yet, these monsters, would just call themselves “true Americans”...and have no real knowledge of the callousness of their own position. If this is what the Tea Party is all about, then America has some serious issues to worry about. How would it be, were people who so little value life, to come to power? What kind of society would they build, founded on the celebration of death, as if it were a humorous matter?

Modern America can, at times, seem like a study in heartlessness. At some point, in its history, a wrong turning was taken, such that it is, now, in some quarters, so concerned with “me”, that no-one else matters – even if they die unnecessarily and avoidably. America has become a nation of individuals who care for nothing and no-one but the self. Unfortunately, however, a society cannot be built on universal selfishness. The kind of society that emerges when no-one cares for anyone else, is so heartless, so cruel, so aggressive, so cold and so unremittingly mean, that no-one would ever wish a life there, upon anyone. Yet, that is precisely the kind of society that America promises to come, guided by “thinkers” who believe that the state should not intervene to save a life and that it is “every man for himself”.

There is merit in the European ideal of nationalized medicine. At least, in Europe, the state would not stand by, whilst such a hypothetical 30 year old, died. European healthcare systems would intervene to preserve that life, believing it to have great value and be worthy of great efforts to save. That is a more humane outlook. In America, however, if you are uninsured – and basic insurance for an average family runs to well over a thousand US dollars a month, I am told, if independent of a company plan – then some people would prefer to let you die, than require the state to intervene and try to save you, should you fall catastrophically ill.

It is interesting to consider the different varieties of human society and see the values on which they are built. Europe is built on a regard for human life that seems quite clear – and on a wish to achieve equality of some kind. America, on the other hand, is built not on the value of human life in general, but human life in particular: one’s own life, at the expense, even, of all others. I am not sure that any society following the American model of outlook on life, is a sustainable society. Life should be cherished, wherever it is found and whatever its condition. None of us have any more valuable a possession than our own lives. What kind of world is it, therefore, where society would stand by and let a young man die, without attempting to intervene, for the want of a rather expensive insurance policy? Surely the fault here is in constructing a society which does not provide universal healthcare for all, regardless of wealth. The fault, here, in this imaginary scenario is in America itself. It is not the failing of the young man that he lacks health insurance he probably could not afford – but it is the fault of America for requiring that he be insured in the first place. Healthcare should be a universal right – not the privilege of those with the wealth to afford it. If this is not so, societies constructed on the basis of wealth, determining health care access, become very inhumane, indeed. They are not societies at all – but simply life long scrambles for supremacy over others. They are latter day jungles. Is that the kind of society modern man should choose to live in? Should not care for the lives of all, be at the root of our civilizations? If it is not, is it possible for human beings to thrive in such cold conditions? Can a happy and moral life be found in such circumstances?

The audience of the Tea Party debate placed no value on human life. Might I suggest that American readers, in turn, place no value on the Tea Party? This position would seem the rational response to a political movement informed by a denial of the value of life, at least in this example.

Let us build a world in which all human life has value. All the alternative worlds, that do not, are nothing but varieties of horror. Mankind had enough of such horror in the 20^th Century. Let not Man be visited again, by such horrors, in the 21^st Century – at least no more than we already have.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

The obscenity of cake.

There is nothing more obscene than cake, in a world of widespread hunger.

I shall explain the remark. A couple of days ago, I was in one of Kuala Lumpur's many splendid malls. This particular one, is a small, but stylish one, near where we live. As I made my way past its shiny shopfronts, one caught my eye. There, to my left, was an array of multi-coloured, delicately crafted, promisingly textured cakes. Each one was well presented, like some culinary gift, all decorated with little bows, and most inviting to the eye. Suddenly, and unexpectedly, a sense of disgust welled up in me. It was an emotion I had not felt before, on seeing a cake, but in that moment it was very clear: the whole idea, the very conception of a "cake" was an obscenity. Here we live in a world in which millions, indeed billions of people, really do not have enough to eat, to keep themselves well nourished. No doubt millions every year succumb to starvation and the diseases associated with malnutrition, including untold numbers of babies. Yet, there I was, standing before a shop that sold nothing but expensive cakes - a food that had been divorced from the notion of nutrition, and existed in a world of pure pleasure.

Consider that for a moment, please. What kind of world have we built, in which a privileged, relative few, have access to fake foods, that have no real nutritional value, and are made purely to induce pleasurable sensations - whilst multitudinous others go without sufficient food and nutrition to maintain their health and even life. It is both absurd and profoundly obscene.

The eternal purpose of food is to nourish life. Yet, modern man has created foods of no nutritional value, but which serve to entertain and delight: food has become a medium of pleasure, divorced from its primal role of sustaining life.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not some kind of puritanical anti-hedonist. I am quite content with the idea that people should enjoy their lives. However, what I am not content with is that a modest few of humankind should eat empty foods just for pleasure, whilst others die for the lack of basic true foods. That, to me, is an indicator that Man, as a whole, particularly the people of the developed world, have lost any moral sense, that they might once have had.

When the world is viewed, widely and all sides are considered, at once, it can be seen that to create foods without nutritional value, simply to evoke pleasure, when many others are dying for the lack of foods WITH nutritional value, is an unrecognized kind of evil. It is, if you like, a taunting of the impoverished. It is saying: "We have such abundant food and resources, that we can create foods that could never sustain life, and would in fact kill us, if we ate nothing but them, just because of the pleasure they give us."

Cakes mock the very idea of food. They also mock those who could never conceive that foods could exist, that only serve to bring pleasure. They mock those who have no food at all. There is something callous about cake: it offers pleasure, but has no substance. Were one to eat nothing but cake, one would as assuredly "starve" as one who ate nothing at all...and what kind of "food" is that? How can "Mankind" apportion limited resources to creating a food totally unable to sustain life, an "unfood" if you like, whilst millions die for the lack of real food?

Seeing those cakes, taught me something. It showed me another way in which modern man has lost any sense of proportion, lost any understanding of what is meaningful, important or worthy of effort. It is not worthy of Mankind to create dead foods, just so people can feel a momentary pleasure at their "eating". There is something very decadent and sad about a race that would actually do that. Whilst millions die, without real food, millions of others, eat empty foods that, ironically, would kill them, if that was all they ate. There is a madness in that, so common, that everyone fails to see it. I hope, however, that my words might awaken in you, an understanding of the innate obscenity of cake.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/
Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/
Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)