My wife said that to me this morning. I gave request a lot of thought and composed the following reply:
I know that you come from Japan and from an "urban" environment but there are some things you need to understand.
First, humans have been farmers and animal herders/keepers for about 5,000 years. That seems like a long time, but humans have been hunting, in one form or another for Five Million Years. That's 1000 times as long as we have been farming and keeping animals. There is a strong bias between men and women when it comes to hunting too. After all, among our ancestors it was the men who did the hunting while the women gathered fruits, nuts, grains, and vegetables. Men tend to have more of an inclination to hunt than women (although there is some sign that's changing--a lot of women hunt these days). Culture can modify that somewhat. You have groups saying over and over again that "hunting is bad" and people start to believe it and suppress the natural urge to hunt. It's quite possible that a lot of the emotional problems many people have today comes from that very suppression.
Then there's the practical aspect. The world is not a safe place. It never has been. While Japan has been relatively safe for most people over the last few decades, that is an artificial condition. A good part of the reason that Japan is safe is that thre are large US forces stationed there to keep folk like Russia or China from deciding to add Japan to their collection. Another thing to consider is that while crime is low in Japan, the cost of that is a society where the suicide rate is among the highest in the world. The very parts of Japanese culture that makes people "safe" from others, causes emotional stresses and problems that make them more dangerous to themselves. Think about that: it's possible to fight back against a criminal, particularly if one is allowed to be armed, but it's a lot harder to fight back against the kind of problems that make suicide seem like a rational option.
As a real world example: I have been having a lot less problem with depression since I have been going fishing, both by myself and with Athena and since I started on these hikes/hunting expeditions.
Back to the world being a dangerous place. Numerous times over the course of history, great civilizations have collapsed completely. It wasn't always external wars that did it. Numerous civilizations tore themselves apart from within. What you see around us, the cities, the roads, the hospitals, the stores filled with food, can all vanish remarkably quickly. Economic collapse, war, race/class strife, poor decisions in energy policy, all sorts of things can stop food moving from the farms to the cities. The average city has only about 3 days worth of food on hand at any given time. While it's not particularly likely to happen any time soon, once it does happen it's too late to prepare for it. And so I feel the need to obtain the skills to provide food for our family in the event of disaster. Seeing that you and Athena (and Reio if you ever get him home) are fed is important to me. A large part of why I'm doing the things I'm doing is against the need to provide for you.
Now, squirrels. Yes, we have Nemo [our Chinese dwarf hamster], who is distantly releated to squirrels--about as closely related to squirrels as Mika-chan, Hoshi, and Sumisu [our goldfish] are releated to the Salmon you like to eat. The squirrels I would behunting are not the half-tame animals you see in parks or trees around town. These are wild animals. They get into farmers' crops and eat food that might otherwise end up in the store for you and me and Athena to buy and eat. The more squirrels and other animals eat, the less there is available for us and the more the food in the store costs. There's a reason that folk who spend a lot of time in the woods often refer to squirrels as "tree rats" because that is what they are. Yes, they're cute in urban parks or in a tree outside the window, but left unchecked in large numbers they rapidly become pests. The thing is, squirrels breed fast (like most other rodents). The main predators that kept squirrel population in check (wolves, wildcats, hawks, eagles, etc.) are largely gone and without hunting their populations would grow to the point that they would become a real problem. The State government watches the population of various wild animals and sets hunting seasons and limits based on what's needed to keep healthy populations. Folk who hunt are actually doing an important service in keeping the rest of the population healthy.
What I say above about squirrels is true about rabbits, deer, ducks and geese, and pretty much every other wild animal that's not on an endangered list (and it's not generally hunting that renders an animal endangered) out there. Hunting is important to keeping animal populations down to a healthy level.
So when you add everything up: the biological history of the human race, the need to prepare against possible future disasters, and the need to keep a limit on wild animal populations I hope you'll see why I consider learning and practicing hunting to be important. I hope you will be able to put your emotional response aside and support me in this. To help with that, I'll make a point of keeping the more unpleasant aspects discrete so that you don't have to deal with them directly. It would be good if you also learned--although that would be a very large step and I won't ask it of you now--so that if disaster happened, you would be able to obtain food if I became injured or ill. But, as I said, that's too big a step to ask of you now, so we'll leave that aside.
Anyway, I love you and Athena very much. That's a large part of why I'm doing this.
I know that you come from Japan and from an "urban" environment but there are some things you need to understand.
First, humans have been farmers and animal herders/keepers for about 5,000 years. That seems like a long time, but humans have been hunting, in one form or another for Five Million Years. That's 1000 times as long as we have been farming and keeping animals. There is a strong bias between men and women when it comes to hunting too. After all, among our ancestors it was the men who did the hunting while the women gathered fruits, nuts, grains, and vegetables. Men tend to have more of an inclination to hunt than women (although there is some sign that's changing--a lot of women hunt these days). Culture can modify that somewhat. You have groups saying over and over again that "hunting is bad" and people start to believe it and suppress the natural urge to hunt. It's quite possible that a lot of the emotional problems many people have today comes from that very suppression.
Then there's the practical aspect. The world is not a safe place. It never has been. While Japan has been relatively safe for most people over the last few decades, that is an artificial condition. A good part of the reason that Japan is safe is that thre are large US forces stationed there to keep folk like Russia or China from deciding to add Japan to their collection. Another thing to consider is that while crime is low in Japan, the cost of that is a society where the suicide rate is among the highest in the world. The very parts of Japanese culture that makes people "safe" from others, causes emotional stresses and problems that make them more dangerous to themselves. Think about that: it's possible to fight back against a criminal, particularly if one is allowed to be armed, but it's a lot harder to fight back against the kind of problems that make suicide seem like a rational option.
As a real world example: I have been having a lot less problem with depression since I have been going fishing, both by myself and with Athena and since I started on these hikes/hunting expeditions.
Back to the world being a dangerous place. Numerous times over the course of history, great civilizations have collapsed completely. It wasn't always external wars that did it. Numerous civilizations tore themselves apart from within. What you see around us, the cities, the roads, the hospitals, the stores filled with food, can all vanish remarkably quickly. Economic collapse, war, race/class strife, poor decisions in energy policy, all sorts of things can stop food moving from the farms to the cities. The average city has only about 3 days worth of food on hand at any given time. While it's not particularly likely to happen any time soon, once it does happen it's too late to prepare for it. And so I feel the need to obtain the skills to provide food for our family in the event of disaster. Seeing that you and Athena (and Reio if you ever get him home) are fed is important to me. A large part of why I'm doing the things I'm doing is against the need to provide for you.
Now, squirrels. Yes, we have Nemo [our Chinese dwarf hamster], who is distantly releated to squirrels--about as closely related to squirrels as Mika-chan, Hoshi, and Sumisu [our goldfish] are releated to the Salmon you like to eat. The squirrels I would behunting are not the half-tame animals you see in parks or trees around town. These are wild animals. They get into farmers' crops and eat food that might otherwise end up in the store for you and me and Athena to buy and eat. The more squirrels and other animals eat, the less there is available for us and the more the food in the store costs. There's a reason that folk who spend a lot of time in the woods often refer to squirrels as "tree rats" because that is what they are. Yes, they're cute in urban parks or in a tree outside the window, but left unchecked in large numbers they rapidly become pests. The thing is, squirrels breed fast (like most other rodents). The main predators that kept squirrel population in check (wolves, wildcats, hawks, eagles, etc.) are largely gone and without hunting their populations would grow to the point that they would become a real problem. The State government watches the population of various wild animals and sets hunting seasons and limits based on what's needed to keep healthy populations. Folk who hunt are actually doing an important service in keeping the rest of the population healthy.
What I say above about squirrels is true about rabbits, deer, ducks and geese, and pretty much every other wild animal that's not on an endangered list (and it's not generally hunting that renders an animal endangered) out there. Hunting is important to keeping animal populations down to a healthy level.
So when you add everything up: the biological history of the human race, the need to prepare against possible future disasters, and the need to keep a limit on wild animal populations I hope you'll see why I consider learning and practicing hunting to be important. I hope you will be able to put your emotional response aside and support me in this. To help with that, I'll make a point of keeping the more unpleasant aspects discrete so that you don't have to deal with them directly. It would be good if you also learned--although that would be a very large step and I won't ask it of you now--so that if disaster happened, you would be able to obtain food if I became injured or ill. But, as I said, that's too big a step to ask of you now, so we'll leave that aside.
Anyway, I love you and Athena very much. That's a large part of why I'm doing this.
Rat stew by any other name? I'll pass.
