Conviction, utility and stupidity
[…] the pre-eminent French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, considered ‘the weakness and stupidity of the sheep’ to be so extreme that ‘without the assistance of man, the sheep could never have sub-sisted, or continued its species in a wild state.’ Fortunately, it so happens that ‘this animal, so contemptible in itself, and so devoid
Sheep. Philip Armstrong. Reaktion books.
of every mental quality, is, of all others, the most extensively useful to man.’ Here is another formula central to the human–ovine relationship: the sheer inanity of sheep justifies our use of them.
Can’t we just say it is useful and we are too lazy to go around hunting smarter animals?
Why is it embarrassing to want to eat meat and needing the wool?
Ah right, because then we have to become aware we have been enslaving a fellow being instead of looking up ways to face our wickedness for killing it or ways to make their lives any better in a win-win situation with an inferior1 [oops!] animal.
Only humans are gullible enough to create stories that justify a lot of suffering. For others and ourselves. Remember that when writing. Pasto kalo.
- Sheep are smart enough to notice they have done mischief by eating your plants and to know who will pay attention to their bleating tantrums. ↩︎
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