The Art of Destroying...

A rather startling statement was made the other day by an associate of mine with whom I happened to travel: “I wish all the tigers would die!”

This was in reaction to a discussion that centered around the fact that there were only 1500 tigers left in India out of the 40 thousand that existed at the turn of the century. The main cause: poaching.

I turned around and asked her why. To which she answered: “Because I don’t like them. They are man-eaters. They kill other animals.”

This, from a 27 year old came as a surprise to me. But then I surmised…she was not very different from the common person who thought the best way to deal with anything that posed a threat, even in the remotest area of one's mind, was to kill it.

Firstly, her reasoning is faulty. Tigers are predators, meant to kill. Going by this logic, should we exterminate all carnivores in the animal kingdom? Well, then, we must kill ourselves, too. We are the worst threat to earth and everything on it, after all! Secondly, the statement, ‘because I don’t like them…” reeks of extreme self-indulgence. Very human, what!

Must we really think we are the centre of the universe? This thought alone is responsible for our sorry state…even in everyday life.

The end of the road trip left me wondering…what are we? My liking or disliking a thing doesn’t make it right or wrong. Or does it?

Is mankind really that great, having destroyed and survived off that single thought…because I….

The art of destroying is unique to human beings.

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