As a Species We Are Insane

Originally published under the title:

Best read in conjunction with the post above.

A Short Conversation With Paul Watson or, Mankind Is a Bollocks

The more I get to know this fellow, Paul Watson, the more he is my kind of bloke. I particularly like his take on the Jesoids, if they worried about this life a bit more and not the next, the world might be a better place.

And the auld feller, Farley Mowat, he ain't too far behind the door either.

And Teddy is back.

A short conversation between Farley Mowat and Paul Watson at Cape Breton Island Nona Scotia.

From the documentary A Pirate For The Sea.

Transcript by Teddy.

FM: I’ll tell you what I think is going to happen, I’m convinced of this. I don’t like to be convinced of it because I’m a living organism, I’m full of optimism of life, but I see the next great extinction which will then be the sixth in line since life appeared on this planet. We will be the cause and the recipient of this extinction. But in the process of course, everything else is probably going to get screwed up. How do you feel?


PW: No, I agree with that completely, that we are the last surviving species of hominid and we haven’t done too well so far, and now we are about to take down hundreds of thousands of species with us. We have created this mythology where everything revolves around us. That we are the centre of creation, that it doesn’t really matter what we do to the rest of the world. The other problem of course is, a large percentage of humanity is living this pie in the sky fantasy where they believe real life begins when they die and they go to some afterlife somewhere so that….


FM: It doesn’t matter a hell of a lot what you do here.


PW: Yeah, the planet’s expendable.


FM: Yep yep.


PW: In fact I’ve actually had some Christians come to me and say, you know you’re interfering with God’s plan. That God has ordained that these resources are here to be used while we’re here, and Jesus is going to be upset if we don’t use these resources he’s provided for us.











FM: Individuals must be relatively selfish, err in order that their species will survive, and the species must be selfish, but these things are very very relative and must be coordinated, must be taken into context with all other forms of life. If you separate them out as we have done and say, we are the only animal, the only form of life that is entitled to this self interest, we may pursue it as far as we choose, we must pursue it as far as we choose, then that is the recipe for suicide.


PW: As a species we are insane we’ve…


FM: We’re not insane a political? sense, we are out of control; in my opinion. Our whole structure is out of control, we don’t know what the hell we’re doing but we’re doing it as fast as we bloody well can.


PW: Right.


FM: Ah well, perhaps there’s hope for us in heaven.


PW: Laughs