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Would you have the same reaction towards a mentally retarded orphan growing into a very strong man? Lenny, from Of Mice And Men? My immediate reaction is horro
by dTal 6y ago
Would you have the same reaction towards a mentally retarded orphan growing into a very strong man? Lenny, from Of Mice And Men?
My immediate reaction is horror at the unspeakable cruelty of selling a person - a participant in society - into caged slavery in the circus. Imagine the feeling of confusion and betrayal he must have felt. Imagine the trauma from suddenly having personhood privileges withdrawn. I don't see any justification for that. The article rather lightly glosses over the gory details of that shameful episode.
- ewmiller 6y agoI think you can acknowledge the evils of the circus during that time and still also acknowledge that a gorilla is far stronger than most adult men, and more difficult to reason with should it get angry or violent.
- bredren 6y agoThis worry over the potential for harm was the justification used in the killing of Harambe.
- camjohnson26 6y agoHumans have been exhibited in this way too in exhibits praised by the scientific community. The practice only died out after the horrors of the holocaust made scientific racism unfashionable. The low point may have been the New York zoo displaying a black man in a cage with monkeys in the early 1900s. The black clergymen who protested were shut down by the city’s mayor. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_zoo https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_zoo