[Sorry I've been away from the board for a bit--that time of year for this particular teacher]
Looking back at my childhood, in light of the class, I think I have found a source for a lot of my disconnection with nature. I’m not saying that this is the sole source, but that humanism pervades our childhood entertainment even, blurring the line between the human and nonhuman animal. How, then, can we truly see the animal for what it is worth?
Now, I am not going to avoid these. In fact, my little boy will watch these shows and see these images. I just find it interesting how we use these nonhuman animals in human ways as a way of educating.
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May 4, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Brandy Lewis
Well, I totally see your point that the line between human and nonhuman has been blurred. Does that have to be a bad thing? What if the personification of animals brings our children to feel animals are more like them? If they see animals as human-like maybe they will treat them better. Perhaps this is a stretch, but I remember seeing Fern Gully as a child and the personification of nature affected me so much that I cried when I saw a damaged tree. I just knew it was in pain. I am not trying to discount your post. I agree with you, but I just want to shed light on another possibility.
May 5, 2009 at 2:59 pm
rmassengale
I don’t think it’s a matter of good or bad, but a matter of fact as to what we do. I do think that personifying nature is a way to bring it closer to us; it allows us to understand that which is beyond us. For you, and for many, Fern Gully did that. And I also have my landmark anthropomorphic moments in which nature was brought into a realm of human perception and understanding.
But. My point is that in that association there is also a disconnection from perhaps the true nature of Nature as it exists. I don’t necessarily mean that we grew up expecting pigs to wear shirts and rabbits to talk to us, but we do project human emotion and sentimentalities on animals. We warranted dogs the ability to exact revenge, for example, when scientists have concluded that dogs do not process it.
So, I don’t know if it is a matter of What is right or wrong, but What is at stake and Why? I’m only suggesting that maybe our anthropocentric tendencies begin during the foundational stages of our lives.