Martinez resident Heidi Perryman looks over at the beaver dam inside Alhambra Creek in downtown Martinez Calif. Friday Nov. 2, 2007. The beavers who took up residence a few month ago in Alhambra Creek have built a dam so solid that it has rendered useless the city's millions of dollars in flood control improvements.
I wonder if the nature-lovers will still think they are cute little critters once they have muddy water in their living rooms.
There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who “love Nature” while deploring the “artificialities” with which “Man has spoiled ‘Nature.’ “
The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of “Nature”, but beavers and their dams are.
But the contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity.
In declaring his love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beavers’ purposes) and his hatred for dams erected by men (for the purposes of men) the “Naturist” reveals his hatred for his own race, i.e. his own self-hatred.
In the case,of “Naturists” such self-hatred is understandable; they are such a sorry lot.
But hatred is too strong an emotion to feel toward them; pity and contempt are the most they rate.
As for me, willy-nilly I am a man, not a beaver, and H. sapiens is the only race I have or can have.
Fortunately for me, I like being part of a race made up of men and women, it strikes me as a fine arrangement and perfectly “natural.”
LAZARUS LONG
Joe Flaherty, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, John Candy, Dave Thomas, Harold Ramis.