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This makes me inexplicably happy. For whatever reason, any story about wild animals wreaking havoc on our fiddly human contrivances is incredibly amusing. I'm s

This makes me inexplicably happy. For whatever reason, any story about wild animals wreaking havoc on our fiddly human contrivances is incredibly amusing. I'm sure there's a literary or philosophical term that captures this feeling. This applies doubly so for beavers. I can't quite put my finger on the reason for that; maybe it's because they're so busy and determined, to the extent that all their accidental floodings and property destruction feel entirely intentional and premeditated.

jakeinspace 5y ago
Of course, being a cute and silly looking creature doesn't hurt either
gregsadetsky 5y ago
It makes me think of the recent "Nature is healing" memes (sometimes "Nature is healing, we are the virus"), i.e. Nature is taking back what humans assumed was theirs to keep. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmanuelfelton/coronavirus-meme-nature-is-healing-we-are-the-virus https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmanuelfelton/coronavi... I agree that the "cute/relentless" combo of beavers is quite comical..! See: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/beavers-continue-relentless-march-north-to-patagonia-1.601956 https://www.irishtimes.com/news/beavers-continue-relentless-...
- adventured 5y ago
  It makes me think of how anti-human, self-hatred focused (all notions that humans are a virus derive from self-hatred first, without exception), and irrational those memes are, since humans are nature. Anything we do and anything we build, is nature in action.
  - vernie 5y ago
    I wonder if it coincides with antinatalist attitudes.
  - 6510 5y ago
    What kind of adversary is mother nature expecting that she would spawn such monstrosities? It seems like the most serious case of paranoia. I feel like a means of mass producing bad ideas now.
  - atweiden 5y ago
    Given how thoroughly humanity has polluted this planet seemingly entirely for its own selfish gain, surely from the perspective of “nature” the extinction of humanity would be no great loss. > Anything we do and anything we build, is nature in action. “It’s comin’ right for us!”
    - Baeocystin 5y ago
      We have the Oxygen Catastrophe and the Azolla Event as real-world examples of life killing off a lot of other life. Humans are the first biosphere-changing organism that can actually think about what we do, and maybe not go off the deep end. I think humanity's efforts to do so, as imperfect as they are, are worthy of praise.
      - atweiden 5y ago
        > Humans are the first biosphere-changing organism that can actually think about what we do, and maybe not go off the deep end. Maybe not go off the deep end? David Attenborough would like to have a word [1]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough:_A_Life_on_Our_Planet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough:_A_Life_on_...
- trhway 5y ago
  >a Canadian- made steel trap, pulling it out of the water even at this day and age we're still doing that cruelty of subjecting the animals to the hours/days long medieval torture.
slver 5y ago
I have to admit "happy" was not a word I expected to see in this thread.
viraptor 5y ago
> I'm sure there's a literary or philosophical term that captures this feeling. It's not 100% that, but "schadenfreude" comes close.
sigg3 5y ago
Most of humanity, for most of our existence, have been and are "busy and determined" though. It's easy to forget, but we really should not.
viciousvoxel 5y ago
perhaps not the precise term, but "wabi-sabi" comes to mind; something like the beauty of nature, the impermanence of things, and decay; i.e., an appreciation of nature's tendency towards maximal entropy. also the phrase, "the best laid plans of mice and men."
- jakeinspace 5y ago
  I think that's very close, thank you.
kefabean 5y ago
This reminds me of my neighbour’s recent problem with his fibre (to the premises) broadband here in the UK. After losing internet connectivity, he eventually managed to get a BT Openreach engineer out only to discover the overhead cables had been chewed through presumably by a grey squirrel. Apparently they have a taste for something in the outer casing..

jakeinspace 5y ago

Of course, being a cute and silly looking creature doesn't hurt either

gregsadetsky 5y ago

It makes me think of the recent "Nature is healing" memes (sometimes "Nature is healing, we are the virus"), i.e. Nature is taking back what humans assumed was theirs to keep. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmanuelfelton/coronavirus-meme-nature-is-healing-we-are-the-virus https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmanuelfelton/coronavi... I agree that the "cute/relentless" combo of beavers is quite comical..! See: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/beavers-continue-relentless-march-north-to-patagonia-1.601956 https://www.irishtimes.com/news/beavers-continue-relentless-...

adventured 5y ago
It makes me think of how anti-human, self-hatred focused (all notions that humans are a virus derive from self-hatred first, without exception), and irrational those memes are, since humans are nature. Anything we do and anything we build, is nature in action.
- vernie 5y ago
  I wonder if it coincides with antinatalist attitudes.
- 6510 5y ago
  What kind of adversary is mother nature expecting that she would spawn such monstrosities? It seems like the most serious case of paranoia. I feel like a means of mass producing bad ideas now.
- atweiden 5y ago
  Given how thoroughly humanity has polluted this planet seemingly entirely for its own selfish gain, surely from the perspective of “nature” the extinction of humanity would be no great loss. > Anything we do and anything we build, is nature in action. “It’s comin’ right for us!”
  - Baeocystin 5y ago
    We have the Oxygen Catastrophe and the Azolla Event as real-world examples of life killing off a lot of other life. Humans are the first biosphere-changing organism that can actually think about what we do, and maybe not go off the deep end. I think humanity's efforts to do so, as imperfect as they are, are worthy of praise.
    - atweiden 5y ago
      > Humans are the first biosphere-changing organism that can actually think about what we do, and maybe not go off the deep end. Maybe not go off the deep end? David Attenborough would like to have a word [1]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough:_A_Life_on_Our_Planet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough:_A_Life_on_...
trhway 5y ago
>a Canadian- made steel trap, pulling it out of the water even at this day and age we're still doing that cruelty of subjecting the animals to the hours/days long medieval torture.

slver 5y ago

I have to admit "happy" was not a word I expected to see in this thread.

viraptor 5y ago

> I'm sure there's a literary or philosophical term that captures this feeling. It's not 100% that, but "schadenfreude" comes close.

sigg3 5y ago

Most of humanity, for most of our existence, have been and are "busy and determined" though. It's easy to forget, but we really should not.

viciousvoxel 5y ago

perhaps not the precise term, but "wabi-sabi" comes to mind; something like the beauty of nature, the impermanence of things, and decay; i.e., an appreciation of nature's tendency towards maximal entropy. also the phrase, "the best laid plans of mice and men."

jakeinspace 5y ago
I think that's very close, thank you.

kefabean 5y ago

This reminds me of my neighbour’s recent problem with his fibre (to the premises) broadband here in the UK. After losing internet connectivity, he eventually managed to get a BT Openreach engineer out only to discover the overhead cables had been chewed through presumably by a grey squirrel. Apparently they have a taste for something in the outer casing..