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Revenge Against Nature

The male fascination with killing was and continues to be an exercise in conquest over the animal world. Prehistoric excesses of hunting and animal sacrifice demonstrate a primordial blood lust. The slaughter to extinction of large game that humans engaged in during their first expansions onto new continents exceeds any possible need and can be seen as sheer revenge against nature. At the hand of nature, after all, early Man suffered not only injury but insult. The damaged body can repair and be mollified; but the damaged ego grows vengeful and power-hungry. Man is not satisfied merely to improve the human lot in nature, but seeks to redesign and even displace nature altogether. The humiliated spirit seeks not redress but total vindication. And the same wound that creates the drive for power over nature leads to war between peoples and the brutality of rulers against their own citizenry. When all the great beasts were hunted to extinction, the spear was turned against other men.

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