While chatting with a drunken neighbor the other day the discussion of native songbirds being displaced by non-native intrusive species came up. You know - how European Sparrows and Starlings and such have displaced the original American Buntings and Tanagers and such? They've been doing it for hundreds of years now encouraged by the encroaching landscapes of agricultural and suburbian growth.
He intensely tells me how he hates these intrusive birds and says he takes a gun out and shoots them every chance he gets.
Him being an aggressive, redneckish, self confessed drunkardly sort of person, I was surprised to see him have such a passion for native species ala the "environment."
I was surprised just to hear him act like he liked anything really other than beer.
Thinking I was in some kind of normal semi-intelligent conversation, I started reasoning with him how, "Well, these other birds are creatures of nature also and just want to eat... blah blah ... the earth changes, animals migrate... etc... I'm not sure despising, trapping and shooting all of them is the answer... and so on"
Foolish me.
He got extremely irrate, looked at me in appalled disgust and said, "Why you're nothing but just a God-damn hypocrite!"
He hollared at his wife he was soundly going home now and stomped off. I thought he wanted to punch me. (We were at least friendly acquaintences before that.)
I didn't know what to say and really felt dumbfounded.
I don't believe I've ever been called a hypocrite before. It didn't make sense. How can you be a hypocrite about basic nature and the environment with a "things-like-to-eat" stance.
(I have a degree in Environmental science and I sacrifice much to live in the Texas hill country wilderness where I live. I love animals and nature. I never use pesticides. I gave up hunting cause I don't like killing, and I'll carry a spider or insect out of the house to set it free outside instead of killing it.)
I pondered for weeks why he so vehemently dispised and rebuked me so under his "realization" that I was hypocrite.
Then it finally dawned on me.
This was some kind of religion to him.
He's a member of some kind of Green Goddess cult.
It's religion. How else could one become a hypocrite, except within the confines of some kind of a religious proclamation?
(By the way, he works for a construction company that claims to be very eco-friendly and has the green image built into their marketing.)
It seems to me that this poor soul is entangled in the same mess that many other people are all around the world - they have a problem with sharing. I've been all around and I have discovered that many people have difficulty recalling that their family history once came from some other place. But since they live in the US now, or wherever, it's home and always has been and no one came tell them any different. This intolerant and narrow mentality applies to so many people here in the US and in other parts of the world. If this neighbor of yours hates intrusive birds so much, just imagine what he thinks about the poor immigrants from Mexico or even you because I bet, to him, you are a foreigner. It's such a shame...
ReplyDeleteWhat struck me odd was this US vs. THEM mentality with the religious zeal and righteousness of the "green" movement.
ReplyDeleteYou are on the money when pointing out the whole intolerence issue. He seems basically a hateful person at heart hiding under a "Save the planet" banner.
It fuzzies the lines between the words "liberal" and "conservative" .... like "I'm intolerent of intolerant people", or "If you're not 'Green' then you obviously don't care about the planet therefore we should burn you at the stake.
I just didn't know that the "Green movement" had hypocrites.
Yeah, it's frustrating to run into people that behave like this but truth be told, we are all hypocrites in the end. If it's not one thing, it's another. The difference, I believe, is how visible and or the frequency of our hypocrisy not whether we are hypocrites or not. Am I wrong?
ReplyDeletePeople like this man, though frustrating, encourage me to reflect upon my own flaws because why should I complain about the splinter in one man's eye when I have a log in mine. But I complain nonetheless, at least I do about people like Bush and the like. For some reason I have convinced myself that the log in his eye is much larger than mine - which is untrue.
I met a girl the other day who wanted to shot all the birds in her tree because they pooped on her truck. I was speechless but I think I recommended that she park her truck somewhere else...I say, kill your neighbor with kindness and maybe mention how wonderful nature really is. Then maybe God might soften his heart.
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