Why is it that I find the more gruesome scenes in nature documentaries so hard to watch, when I myself am an animal? A meat-eating animal at that. Why do I notice a reaction that seems to implicitly reject the axioms of natural selection, a system I cannot opt out of? This internal hypocrisy has been puzzling me a bit recently, and in this post, I want to dissect my intuitions a bit.
One convenient and intuitive explanation for the reaction I observed within myself comes from the fact that my brain can’t help but feel the pain of the prey animal featured in the documentary. But I actually think that there is more to it than just empathy.
Something that came to mind is that perhaps part of that reaction stems from the fact that we operate in rules-based systems and so live largely removed from mortal violence. Society has devised pretty elaborate procedures to ensure relatively fair outcomes for everyone (it’s definitely still work in progress). Just as a quick refresher, consider the fact that the animal kingdom does not have courts, insurance, healthcare, or institutionalized social safety. These are all human inventions because we do not like the alternative. So I think part of the gut reaction arises from the unexpected reminder that the default system in nature is one free of safety, justice, and any sense of certainty.
Of course, we also choose to be ignorant about the “struggle for survival”. When was the last time you had to provision your own meat? Few of us can say to have ever gone through the full process. The anonymous meat package from the supermarket removes us wholly from the fact that we still operate within the sometimes brutal bounds of nature, whether we like it or not. Maybe one day we can all successfully do without animals for food, but for now we still largely live like predators so sophisticated that they have forgotten how to hunt.
The question I want to ask though, is whether this rejection of where we come from is an asset or a risk? I currently hold that it’s a bit of both.
Arguing against human ignorance is easy-pickings. Of course we should not forget that when it really comes down to it, we are just like any other animal fighting for survival. We are not special and our societies are not special either. History tells us that the rules we like so much are actually very fragile, and can be undone in a heartbeat. We should never forget that we are not above nature, simply part of it. The relative stability many of use live in today requires constant maintenance, and should not be taken for granted.
On the other hand, I think it’s interesting that we collectively seem to have this internal drive to create societies with special properties that deemed desirable. Ones where altruistic behaviors extends far beyond kinship, or any sort of personal relationship. For example, the nameless bureaucrat signing off your insurance claim has no interest in you whatsoever, probably has never met you, and yet they are technically doing you a significant favor. Over millenia, people have, whether intentionally or not, tinkered on how to organize large groups of people in a way that allows living together in relative peace and prosperity. So in a really weird way, the fact that you do not really know where your supermarket meat came from shows that you are part of a system that has offered you the luxury of not having to know. And just maybe, being so pampered allows us to think about where to take things next? After all, we never feel that our societies have arrived at an optimal state.
So in sum, what I conclude from this thought experiment of sorts is that nature documentary have a real knack for reminding us what the default setting for life is like. Perhaps more philosophically, this might reinforce that resisting a return to these unstructured circumstances requires constant and continuous effort thanks to our self-destructive tendencies. At the same time, we’re never happy and always want things to be better so it’s not like we can stop tinkering either. Maybe with all of this in mind, I will be better able to appreciate the reaction from within me the next time I see a lion approaching an unsuspecting gazelle…
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