Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The importance of being a predator

I was walking by a house nearby where a couple of young women live. They're both really sweet and we always chat. As I came by with the dogs, they were out in the garden and one of them, knowing that our oriental lilies are thriving, asked for advice.

Her problem—as is the problem of everyone with oriental lilies around here—is that hers are being eaten by red lily beetles. I said, "They're pretty easy to deal with really. They are slow moving clumsy bugs so five minutes a day picking them off the plants is all you need to do to control them."

And she asked what did I do with them after picking them off. I said I squished them between my fingers. She made a face at that so I said that, if that bothered her, she could just drop them on the patio and step on them. "They're so slow and stupid, it's no problem."

That wasn't helping.

So I said, "If you don't like squishing them, just fill a bucket with soapy water and flip them into it." (The soap takes away the surface tension on the water so they drown quickly.)

That was worse. What she wanted to do was pick the beetles up and carry them somewhere else so they could live happy and fulfilling lives but spare her lilies.

As I say, these young women are really sweet but they think that way about a lot of things. There are a lot of others just like them.

No culture with this sort of attitude can or should survive.

It is important to be a predator. Instead of recognizing this, we've made it a dirty word.

Update: Many thanks to The Fourth Checkraise for the linking.

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