Stefan:

>
> I agree stronly! I know several Instinctos who admit that they are not able
> to kill an animal themselves to get the meat. I consider this to be a dis-
> integration of neo-cortex and bodily need. Mostly I give these people the
> advice to be vegetarians until they are able to do the kill. (Nobody was
> ever pleased to hear that.)
>

I agree that eating animals and never killing any sounds like cheating
to me. When eating meat, our appetite, our willingness to eat should
prevail over the reluctance to kill the animal.

Personally, I rarely had occasions to do that myself. The largest
animal I killed was a lobster (last New Year's eve). I admit that it
wasn't so easy; however, I didn't care about suffering or morality,
nor did I feel like a murderer (a human killing another human
generally does it for "bad" reasons, such as jealousy, greed,
etc...). What was a bit disturbing was the sight of the two parts
(head+body) moving vigourously, even 5 minutes after the animal had
been decapitated!

Some of the inhibitions to killing/violence are learned: kids (and
chimps) are naturally violent, they fight, bite each other, pull each
other's hair. Even when adults fight, they don't do that, because it's
too "efficient".

But some inhibitions are instinctive too. Two predators of the same
species (e.g. wolves) never use their most powerful weapons and/or
techniques against each other: without inhibitions, their species
couldn't survive (K. Lorenz has written a very interesting book about
agression in the animal reign).

Anyone will admit that pressing a button to release a thermonuclear
bomb on a 1 million persons-city is "easier" than strangulating a
single man to death. Killing a chicken with the hands (and a knife if
necessary) is also easier than biting it on the throat; trampling a
bug (with shoes) is less disgusting than crushing it between two
fingers. All of that is not a question of morality or suffering. My
opinion (but I am not sure about it) is that the closer we feel the
mutilation of an animal, the stronger the response to the stimulus -an
instinctive, stupid behavior, as stupid as birds being frightened by a
fly on the ceiling because they "believe" it is a predator.

Of course, I don't think lions have any inhibitions to killing a
gazelle, they can do it naturally, without cruelty nor staggering,
like perfect samurais [Au fait, comment ça va, Denis?].
I guess there is something like a "predation instinct". But we
are not lions, that instinct is not so much developed in us, thus
there is a conflict between contradicting pulsions. I think we
shouldn't feel guilty about the contradiction between appetite+absence
of moral restrictions, and learnt disgust+instinctive inhibitions.

Nevertheless, I also think that any meat-eater should experience
killing (with bare hands or knife, not just a gun) et least once, but
of course not at each time (I suppose that among hunter-gatherer
tribes, only young and middle aged males participate in hunting, and
give portions to the women, children and elderly). Using simple tools
is OK and *natural* too (I can hardly imagine Paleolithic humans
hunting mammoths without tools).


Best wishes,

Jean-Louis