I wish that every state game department would print these words on the back of every hunting licence sold.
ON HUNTERS
"A good hunter's way of hunting is a hard job which demands much from man: he must keep himself fit, face extreme fatigues, accept danger. It involves a complete code of ethics of the most distinguished design; the hunter who accepts the sporting code of ethics keeps his commandments in the greatest solitude, with no witnesses or audience other than the sharp peaks of the mountain, the roaming cloud, the stern oak, the trembling juniper, and the passing animal. In this way hunting resembles the monastic rule and the military order."
ON WEAPONS AND TECHNOLOGY
"...progress in weapons is foreign to the essence of hunting, reason is not a primary ingredient Of it, since hunting cannot substantially progress.
...as the weapon became more and more effective, man imposed more and more limitations on himself as the animal's rival in order to leave it free to practice its wily defenses, in order to avoid making the prey and the hunter excessively unequal, as if passing beyond a certain limit in that relationship might annihilate the essential character of the hunt, transforming it into pure killing and destruction.
HENCE THE CONFRONTATION BETWEEN MAN AND ANIMAL HAS A PRECISE BOUNDARY BEYOND WHICH HUNTING CEASES TO BE HUNTING, JUST AT THE POINT WHERE MAN LETS LOOSE HIS IMMENSE TECHNICAL SUPERIORITY -- THAT IS, RATIONAL SUPERIORITY -- OVER THE ANIMAL.
TO EXTERMINATE OR TO DESTROY ANIMALS BY AN INVINCIBLE AND AUTOMATIC PROCEDURE IS NOT HUNTING. HUNTING IS SOMETHING ELSE, SOMETHING MORE DELICATE.
Topic: Jose Ortega y Gassett (Read 1198 times)
