The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 6 of 11)

p>If Sununu loses because of Bob's bitterness, I will be organizing a "Burn The Buffoon In Effigy" Rally the day after the election! br> -- Gene Smith br> Contoocook, NH /p> p> ANIMAL ORDER : br> Re: Richard Donley's letter in Reader Mail's After the Sniper : /p>

The juvenile name-calling used by Richard Donley in his grossly disrespectful attack on Jerry Carter indicates an egregious inability or unwillingness to fairly comprehend what Mr. Carter is saying, which seems to be, simply put, that all lives irrespective of age have equal worth, not "higher" (or lower) as Mr. Donley mistakenly accuses Mr. Carter of claiming. Or put another way, a murderer is no more or less a murderer because he kills adults instead of children, or vice versa.

Mr. Donley also errs in his use of the bear and tiger analogy. He claims that humans, like animals, are "genetically programmed" to protect their offspring, "even at the risk of their own lives." While the higher animals do indeed protect their young, there is a limit to their efforts that generally falls short of their risking their own lives. The cheetah mother will try to intimidate and draw away from her cubs the leopard who views them as competitors that must be killed, but will ultimately abandon them instead of engaging the more powerful cat in actual to-the-death fighting. Similarly the wildebeest mother will try to drive the hyena or wild dogs away from her calf, but will in the end flee upon sensing that she herself is in danger. Finally, even the mighty lioness will avoid mortal combat with a marauding male who, in attempting to take over a pride, kills her offspring fathered by other males. The reason for this is that animals are, to once more use Mr. Donley's expression, genetically programmed to save themselves to breed again. From a zoological point of view, the loss of a sexually mature female is a greater danger to the survival of the species, herd or pride than the loss of a calf or a cub. A human, on the other hand, may or may not rationally choose to die trying to protect his or her child. But this is very different from what an animal's instinct tells it to do.

Other examples abound, but these should suffice to expose the pitfalls inherent when comparing man and beast, a practice blindly resorted to in our post-modern society where, to borrow from Buckley, nature and collectivism e.g. "the children," replace God and the individual.

topics:
Bill Clinton, Mainstream Media, Law, Iraq, NATO