selective compassion

[miriam_e]

Insects and arachnids are both arthropods. They are animals with their skeletons on the outside. They are very different from us vertebrates with our internal skeletons and soft, fleshy exteriors. Spiders are poisonous and feed upon mostly insects. Wasps are poisonous and many of them find spiders to feed to their young. There is a kind of equivalence in lifeform and lifestyle.

So why did I let a wasp escape out my kitchen window tonight away from the spider?

I like spiders and I like wasps... but I somehow felt more compassion for the pretty wasp and saved it, condemning the equally pretty spider to go without a meal.

Why?

Comments

[greylock.livejournal.com]

So, Kirk vs Picard style??? I'm at a loss. :)

Briefly speaking: Kira-era Trek (well, Kirk) would say "Damn the Prime Directive, we're here to interfere" and would save the wasp because it was life, Jim, whereas Picard-era Trek would moralise over the rights and wrongs of the Prime Directive, and might well allow the wasp to die in the name of ideology.

I could explain further, but it comes down to the difference, broadly, between Action and Debate.

I could have, 15 years ago, further drawn parallels between Trek and US attitudes to foreign policy, but the bit of my brain that remembers such things as Great Thinkers has been dulled.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Thank you. That is very interesting. I'll have to ponder that some more... especially the concept of popular entertainment reflecting US foreign policy.

I've often worried about the US moving more and more to becoming a warrior culture. I hope we don't follow that scary trend.