On 04-12-2007, at 11:40 AM, michael hunter wrote:
What about the sacrificial pigeons Scot?
Well, I would hazard that being in a predator/prey relationship is a
perfectly natural order. After all, the individual pigeon does have a
chance of escape from the predator. The major problem I would have
with it is mostly about the propagation of a feral species (I assume
here that 'pigeons' means 'rock doves'), and a general one about the
impact of agriculture on native species. So, yes it's concerning,
however I don't think it's on the same level of personal culpability
as the rock-chucker, who was only doing it because it upset his sense
of aesthetics (a mere trifle compared to the life and death matters of
human food supply, no?).
Additionally, and I didn't say this straight up because I thought it
would be too much of a distraction - I think the rock-chucker displays
a terribly stuffy view of "fine music" whereby it has an entirely
fossilised relationship to the space it is performed in - contrast,
for example, to John Cage's 4'33".
Which is to say I not only have an issue to the behaviour as it
concerns cruelty to an animal and disturbance (in both counts) of a
native animal's natural behaviour but also I have an aesthetic
objection as well - it reduces nature to merely a passive visual
"backdrop" over which music is performed. A most curious reaction to a
performance of Beethoven, one of the greatest Romantic composers!
Romanticism, as anyone who has seen a Caspar David Friedrich painting
should be able to attest, most certainly does NOT think of nature as a
merely passive recipient of man's actions - quite the reverse, it's
all about the sublime, untamed, natural elements that overwhelm man
and his intellect. And here we have a person who thinks he can
appreciate "Beethoven" in a natural setting while driving off the
untamed natural elements he deliberately chooses to set the
performance in. In other words, an intellectual pygmy of the highest
degree.
regs,
scot.
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
