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I did not appreciate life as a young person. It is only in recent years that I am absolutely enthralled by the beauty of life. Seeing how complex life is, it is

by hi41 7y ago

I did not appreciate life as a young person. It is only in recent years that I am absolutely enthralled by the beauty of life. Seeing how complex life is, it is surprising that it even exists. I sometimes question my own motivations about how I frivolously I have lived my life without paying much attention to suffering in the lives of other living beings. I also feel powerless in front of the huge economic forces that I have to come to depend on for my sustenance. I wish we were better equipped to comprehend the suffering in another life. I know it only when I am told explicitly. I see all the painful ways we hunt and find it extremely painful. And much of civilization thinks of hunting as a sport. Causing pain to another species is sport!

gbjw 7y ago
You can make concrete changes now. Vote with your dollar. Do not support industries that flippantly disregard the beauty and sanctity of life in its many forms.
- apta 7y ago
  It's an important start, but sometimes it just feels like it's not enough, especially if people have certain beliefs that they hang onto without being able to defend them, for fear of a slippery slope situation. Take for example smoking. It's absolutely disgusting how they just throw their cigarette butts on the ground when they're done with them. So, not only is it a harmful activity to engage in for the individual at hand, it also harms people nearby, as well as the environment as the trash they leave behind is not biodegradable. No idea what can be done about this.
  - katbyte 7y ago
    Not a smoker but I have a friend who is, and he diligently collects his butts for proper disposal.. but I think he is in the minority.
- otabdeveloper4 7y ago
  Like the abortion industry? Whoops, sorry, crimethink!
  - V-2 7y ago
    Right on the money :)
i_haz_rabies 7y ago
I think you'd be surprised how many hunters appreciate the beauty and fragility of nature to a much higher degree than the average person. Who else sits in the woods for hours and hours and studies the patterns of animals and weather? There are some dumbasses who just like shooting guns, but a lot of hunters are also conservationists.
- ajuc 7y ago
  I guess that depends on the person and on the country, but system is certainly broken at least in some countries. For exmample in my country hunter's organisation is something like NRA - it's the only easy way to have access to weapons, and a lot of people participate just to shoot. They treat state forests as farms - feeding animals so there's overpopulation and then they can shoot them using the excuse that there's too many...
- Falling3 7y ago
  Sure hunters can be conservationists; losing nature means losing their source of entertainment. But that doesn't mean they appreciate nature and it certainly doesn't mean they respect individuals, which they obviously do not.
  - fiblye 7y ago
    Do you consider this statement to be true for all animals with carnivorous behavior or hunting instincts?
    - Falling3 7y ago
      Are you asking if I think, for example, lions respect deer as individuals?
      - jeffdavis 7y ago
        Or maybe: "Does someone who buys meat at the store respect individuals more or less than someone who hunts?"
simplecomplex 7y ago
Eat vegan and ignore the haters.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
agumonkey 7y ago
At the risk of sounding new-age.. I think man really is full of himself. We think of nature as something simple and marvel at our creations but if you look at it with slightly cold eye, you'll see how everything is complex, subtle, and full of beauty. Wood fiber, feathers, even plants. It's highly intricate weaving of threads giving structure, color, function .. it's not that different from pieces of electronics to me.
- peterlk 7y ago
  For anyone who wants a concrete experiment to challenge your ideas of just how complex nature is, try making a cell. Just one cell. From scratch with nothing but ions and proteins. If you find that to be achievable (there's likely a Nobel prize in it for you), try making one that divides. Now imagine that somehow an elephant can be encoded in the ions/proteins of just two cells. Humanity has never built anything that even comes close to such complexity. And then to imagine that ecosystems operate on the complex interactions between these immensely complex organisms.
  - canada_dry 7y ago
    > Humanity has never built anything that even comes close to such complexity. Which is why the idea of using something like Crispr to mess with genes is fraught with so many unknown issues and risk.
    - robbiep 7y ago
      Just because I’m not a skilled enough developer to code Linux from scratch doesn’t mean I can’t make a patch for it. Also doesn’t guarantee that I won’t generate unintended consequences Point being - you don’t have to be capable of making the whole to make modifications. (But in any complex system, there are likely to be unintended consequences) A good example would be immune modulation for cancer therapy - ipilimumab and it’s ilk are miracle workers for many, however because of the complexity of the immune system in a proportion of patients there is a cascade of multi organ failure kicked off by the treatment

by hi41 7y ago

gbjw 7y ago

You can make concrete changes now. Vote with your dollar. Do not support industries that flippantly disregard the beauty and sanctity of life in its many forms.

apta 7y ago
It's an important start, but sometimes it just feels like it's not enough, especially if people have certain beliefs that they hang onto without being able to defend them, for fear of a slippery slope situation. Take for example smoking. It's absolutely disgusting how they just throw their cigarette butts on the ground when they're done with them. So, not only is it a harmful activity to engage in for the individual at hand, it also harms people nearby, as well as the environment as the trash they leave behind is not biodegradable. No idea what can be done about this.
- katbyte 7y ago
  Not a smoker but I have a friend who is, and he diligently collects his butts for proper disposal.. but I think he is in the minority.
otabdeveloper4 7y ago
Like the abortion industry? Whoops, sorry, crimethink!
- V-2 7y ago
  Right on the money :)

i_haz_rabies 7y ago

I think you'd be surprised how many hunters appreciate the beauty and fragility of nature to a much higher degree than the average person. Who else sits in the woods for hours and hours and studies the patterns of animals and weather? There are some dumbasses who just like shooting guns, but a lot of hunters are also conservationists.

ajuc 7y ago
I guess that depends on the person and on the country, but system is certainly broken at least in some countries. For exmample in my country hunter's organisation is something like NRA - it's the only easy way to have access to weapons, and a lot of people participate just to shoot. They treat state forests as farms - feeding animals so there's overpopulation and then they can shoot them using the excuse that there's too many...
Falling3 7y ago
Sure hunters can be conservationists; losing nature means losing their source of entertainment. But that doesn't mean they appreciate nature and it certainly doesn't mean they respect individuals, which they obviously do not.
- fiblye 7y ago
  Do you consider this statement to be true for all animals with carnivorous behavior or hunting instincts?
  - Falling3 7y ago
    Are you asking if I think, for example, lions respect deer as individuals?
    - jeffdavis 7y ago
      Or maybe: "Does someone who buys meat at the store respect individuals more or less than someone who hunts?"

simplecomplex 7y ago

Eat vegan and ignore the haters.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

agumonkey 7y ago

At the risk of sounding new-age.. I think man really is full of himself. We think of nature as something simple and marvel at our creations but if you look at it with slightly cold eye, you'll see how everything is complex, subtle, and full of beauty. Wood fiber, feathers, even plants. It's highly intricate weaving of threads giving structure, color, function .. it's not that different from pieces of electronics to me.

peterlk 7y ago
For anyone who wants a concrete experiment to challenge your ideas of just how complex nature is, try making a cell. Just one cell. From scratch with nothing but ions and proteins. If you find that to be achievable (there's likely a Nobel prize in it for you), try making one that divides. Now imagine that somehow an elephant can be encoded in the ions/proteins of just two cells. Humanity has never built anything that even comes close to such complexity. And then to imagine that ecosystems operate on the complex interactions between these immensely complex organisms.
- canada_dry 7y ago
  > Humanity has never built anything that even comes close to such complexity. Which is why the idea of using something like Crispr to mess with genes is fraught with so many unknown issues and risk.
  - robbiep 7y ago
    Just because I’m not a skilled enough developer to code Linux from scratch doesn’t mean I can’t make a patch for it. Also doesn’t guarantee that I won’t generate unintended consequences Point being - you don’t have to be capable of making the whole to make modifications. (But in any complex system, there are likely to be unintended consequences) A good example would be immune modulation for cancer therapy - ipilimumab and it’s ilk are miracle workers for many, however because of the complexity of the immune system in a proportion of patients there is a cascade of multi organ failure kicked off by the treatment