Speaking Truth to Nature
Bob Simon, the wildlife correspondent for 60 Minutes, offers an unvarnished perspective on naturalists and wildlife biologists, and why he loves animals. Earlier this week, he was interviewed by Ann Silvio, an editor with 60 Minutes Overtime. Check out the short video segment. Meanwhile, here’s the good stuff.
Silvio: Is there something about doing animal stories that is more pleasurable than doing a people story?
Simon: An animal is never duplicitous. An animal will never get involved in gratuitous cruelty. And it’s very refreshing to go see them after you’ve spent a lot of time interviewing politicians.
Talk about nailing both human and animal nature in one punch! In another exchange towards the end of the short segment he makes another interesting observation:
Silvio: You’ve met a lot of people who devote their lives to a particular species, but also a particular small community of animals.
Simon: That’s right. These are wonderful people. I’ve never met one of these people who have devoted their lives to animals that I didn’t like. And they’ve all got quite a bit in common.
Silvio: Like what?
Simon: They don’t like people very much.
“.. An animal will never get involved in gratuitous cruelty…”
LoL….I take it he does not have a cat.
I take it that he’s unaware that chimps are excruciatingly violent against other tribes, that dolphins will ram baby dolphins and other types of porpoises to death in what looks like a game of ocean volleyball, that yes, cats play with their prey, as do packs of wolves, and hyenas…and baboons…and that male lions assuming alpha status in a pride will kill the cubs…
@Ken Green
Exactly. Chimps have one reaction to non-tribemates: homicide.
Simon:“They don’t like people very much.”
Ah yes, nothing like anthropomorphizing indifferent animals to assuage one’s alienation from one’s self and society.
See: Treadwell, Timothy
This guy needs to meet a few cats.