Thursday, March 19, 2009
Yellowstone Buffalo
The clip about the Yellowstone Buffalo illustrated Megedly's point about why emotion is needed to get people to act. The clip about the buffalo did a great job illustrating the horrors of hunting. However, I do believe that the clip was more of a piece of propaganda. It is this reason why the clip should also be viewed with the side of the hunters. The Yellowstone Buffalo are one of the only free ranging buffalo in the country. That fact alone means that the Buffalo should be protected. However, the film failed to bring up the fact that in order to maintain the free range that they were becoming over populated because of conservation efforts. The clip did point out that they were over hunted and this is the failings of the government. However, I believe that while the film was effected in portraying the idea that buffalo need to be saved it failed at when giving all the facts. Thus, it is a great example of Megedly's idea that there needs to both emotion and rational. The situation with the Yellowstone Buffalo also supports Leopolds idea of a harmony in life because it supports the idea that killing is necessary to support the lively hood of some of the heard.
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I agree with the statement that even a protected herd needs to be balanced out. I don't think that it's possible for the buffalo to come back in the numbers that they once were, because, as the video pointed out, there simply isn't room anymore -which is sad. This is where reason and emotion must balance each other out. One can feel that it is wrong to decimate the buffalo, that they must be protected to the best of our abilities; however, reason dictates how it must be done. You love buffalo, but you don't go around killing any possible predators, forcing people to vacate their homes so as the allow for more grazing space.Just as their needs to be balance for the buffalo in their environment, so too must their be balance between our sentiments and the actions we take on their behalf. It's much the same way a parent must treat a child. Emotion would dictate that the child, loved so completely and unconditionally, should be spoiled rotten, given any and every indulgence there is, and then some. Reason, however, forces us to set limits for the child's own good, even if it perturbs the child at times. We don't do this because we've been able to separate our emotions for the child from our knowledge about raising children, but represents a synergy of the two faculties. We reason out the best possible way to raise our children to be good people because we love them. And we are ok with denying our kids certain indulgences because we know it's good for them.
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