Re: Can Someone Explain Hunting to Me?
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What bothers me is the thrill of the hunt, the thrill of the kill, that some describe, the "sport" of it.
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Man is an omnivore, and as such is a predator. It is one of the many things he is designed to do. The pleasure is in doing something that one is designed to do. The desire to hunt may be stronger, because of nature or nurture, in some than in others, but it isn't the specific act of killing that's the "thrill" (normally), it's the pleasure of complying with one's basic function.
I haven't hunted in years, but I can remember being a teenager when the season changed to Fall. The air would change, the sunlight would change, the smells would change and the urge to walk around with a gun would become overpowering. It wasn't unusual for me to take off with no more than two shotgun shells, and to come back hours later with them unspent and feeling satisfied with my day.
I still fish. (It's interesting that this thread is about hunting and not hunting & fishing. Is that because fish are cold blooded, and thus further removed from our sympathy?) But anyway, I still fish. As Myrtle did, I rejected hunting after I got back from Vietnam, but I've change since then--grown more stoical. When I catch a trout destined for the pan, I say, Sorry buddy, your time has come, and think no more of it. His time to die has come as all of ours will. And so it goes. (Couldn't resist, Kurt!)
I some ways, trying to intellectually understand the appeal of hunting (and fishing) might be similar to trying to intellectually understand sex: essentially futile. I'll be glad to spend hours explaining the appeal of certain women, but when all is said and done, I probably don't have a clue about what is going on in my head when I fall in love--or simply get an erection, for that matter.
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