I found myself wondering today when the steady stream of discoveries about orca violence will chllenge our society's love of them, and of other wild predators. Consider:
- orcas like to use young sea lions as playthings, among other things tossing them high into the air
- in the North Pacific, "Two groups of killer whales are engaging in a terrifying, bloody cannibalistic war beneath the ocean's surface, where gangs of the colossal creatures are attacking and eating each other."
- drone footage has confirmed that packs of orcas regularly hunt and kill larger whales
- orcas rob human fishermen, sometimes on a massive scale
- orcas ram and sometimes sink boats, apparently for fun
But this remains the age of "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig," when we want to admire and love wild predators.
Among much of the modern population, human violence of any sort is increasingly unacceptable. So why do some vegetarian, pacifist-leaning, football-hating leftists love orcas, wolves, and tigers?
Is this maybe an outlet for the darker impulses of people who cannot cheer any human violence? Of an admiration of strength in people who cannot admire boxers or dictators?
An expression of longing for complete freedom?
Just a sign of human complexity, and the unfathomable ways of our minds?
I wonder.
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