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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 devoidof 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. Sheep. Philip Armstrong. Reaktion books. Can’t we just say it is useful and we are too lazy to go around hunting smarter…
