Oyvind
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Subject: War, killing and insects
The following is from one of the meetings in our philosophy club (24 May 2005—10-13 yo):
We were talking about war and the casualties of war. One child said that she would have felt terrible if she had killed another human being. It didn't matter whether it was a good or a bad person being killed, neither if someone loved this person or not. Killing him or her was just as bad regardless of circumstances. We thought about it for a while. Then one child said that the tragic thing about people dying is the fact that all humans have feelings in their hearts, and when a person dies these feelings just cease to exist—which is tragic. Animals have feelings in their hearts too. That's why it is a shame when animals die. There is a difference though, according to these children, between animals and insects. When insects die, it is OK because they "don't do so much in the world". However, if an insect suffers, we should take its life so that it may be relieved from suffering.
We were talking about war and the casualties of war. One child said that she would have felt terrible if she had killed another human being. It didn't matter whether it was a good or a bad person being killed, neither if someone loved this person or not. Killing him or her was just as bad regardless of circumstances. We thought about it for a while. Then one child said that the tragic thing about people dying is the fact that all humans have feelings in their hearts, and when a person dies these feelings just cease to exist—which is tragic. Animals have feelings in their hearts too. That's why it is a shame when animals die. There is a difference though, according to these children, between animals and insects. When insects die, it is OK because they "don't do so much in the world". However, if an insect suffers, we should take its life so that it may be relieved from suffering.
Retention of strangeness is the only antidote to estrangement. T. W. Adorno