On Hunting and Humanity

It has been trending lately, to scorn at hunters, at people who are in those pictures with dead animals, with a gun in their hands, a smile on their face and a pride in their stance. I agree with all that scorn, and I support everyone disparaging them, and yes, shame them etc. etc. I am in no way, in next few lines, trying to portray the other side of the story or something like that. I just want you to indulge with me in a bit of a brooding.

I mean just try to remember that feeling of disgust or hate when you last saw a picture of a hunter and his/her hunt. If you don't, just go back and look at it. What comes to your mind, - I hope for the context of this article - hate? I mean what could be , at the source, at the root of this hate? It could be, 'such beautiful creatures killed for nothing, in vain, sheer stupidity of humanity, no other species kill without reason...' and many such thoughts. And I am not talking about the matters of the mind, that is,  killing an 'endangered species', legality of the thing or even any moral bindings attached to it, I only talk about matters of the heart, that feeling, of disgust or of hate on these abominable creatures, or the extent to which humanity can degrade themselves.

Humanity, I guess this is what we sometimes forget, that we share something with these despicable beings, that we are essentially the same species. (From a broader angle, that of the martians, or even a narrower one, that of any other species on earth, would they, do you think, would they fail in distinguishing between Mr. Singh or Mr. Khan, as we do between 'that black horse', and 'look at this stripy one'. But I digress, and put this in parenthesis.) We are essentially the same species, yes. Don't you think that you are a product of your environment, as Jack Nicholson said in that movie? Don't you think, difference between a suicide bomber and you, sitting and reading this, is only a matter of place, in the conditions you were born? Even if you don't, you should at least be with me on that there is some role, if not major, played by the environment. When you hear or read or witness about something horrible, you think how can a person, of which stuff you yourself are made of, can stoop so low. Don't you think you were equally capable of doing the same thing, if you were swapped with him in the cradle?
But yes, as all capitalists think, how can any of this be useful? Well, I think, it may alleviate your anger or hatred, and might bring in some compassion, not for a psychopathic mass murderer, but for, I don't know, maybe a thief. And better assess the crime and punishment.

Anyway, back to the hunting business. When you see that a man or a woman holding a gun with pride on his or her face with a dead beautiful creature, you are filled with hate. And no, wait, don't jump ahead, I am not going to connect you with them on the account of humanity. That above paragraph, I guess doesn't say what I want to say exactly.
You know I was reading somewhere, "Both salvation and punishment for man lie in the fact that if he lives wrongly he can befog himself so as not to see the misery of his position", by Tolstoy in fact, in the voice of an extremely irrational person. Anyway, I think that holds for our senses too. These five senses we have, are both salvation and punishment for us, punishment, as it befogs us of the hypocrisy, of the apparent failures in rationality and in logic, of the bias, of the prejudice, of living in illusions and so on. It is a salvation, for who can live in that state of misery, who can at all times be  reminded of what an idiot, of the highest order, they are. Senses are not the reasons that we commit such stupidity, there can be and are others, but senses are just a kind of a veil.

What I am getting at is, the picture that is painted in your head, of the dead bleeding beast, beautiful at that too, and an arrogant idiot with a gun with a foot on it, this picture, in essence, if you remove the masks of your senses, is only signifying a human killing a living being for sport. For sport, or for pleasure, for luxury, not a necessity, not a need. And when you are sitting on a table, celebrating, carousing, drinking and eating that tasty, utterly delicious, mouthwatering, fully cooked (not at all disgusting looking), embellished chicken, do you think twice? what, yes, umm, what, no... okay... (Eddie Izzard style)

Anyway, again, don't be an idiot, I have nothing against eating chicken, and everything against hunting. Five senses to the rescue!