Predator Glamour

Predator Glamour


When I was six, I went to a church run school, where I was introduced to bible stories for the first time. There was the creation story, where Adam and Eve eat some fruit, which somehow, was bad. Then, when they have kids, there is a competition for God’s favor: one son eats animals, the other one eats a plant based diet. I still remember being shocked that God liked the meat eater better! That was the beginning of my suspicion that something was wrong here.


This strange headspace has continued to this day. Everywhere on this violent planet, cultures admire the predators. Hawks, eagles, lions, tigers, bears, sharks. It is a plus if they are poisonous, like cobras, scorpions, or sting rays. We love to name cars, sports teams, and weapons systems after the predators. What is the attraction, the source of this admiration? A predator is a murderer and a thief, violently stealing life force from its prey.  

What is to admire in that? Who can blame animal predators that act on instinct, shaped by long evolution, fitting into their place in nature. Seems like the vultures deserve more admiration, then, for cleaning up the rotting bodies dropped by animals who have moved on and no longer need them?




Why is it that we seem to think if we are not the top killer, we must then be the prey, the victim, the loser? Why this duality? Why do we have to be the biggest baddest scariest predator?




The whole predator-prey duality is the same coin with two sides. We need to rise above the binary. Violence or hate can’t be defeated with the same; only love can encompass and then transcend the binary. As long as we are enthralled with the predator-prey duality, we will not be empowered to garden this beautiful world as the true leaders we fancy ourselves to be. 




We will just be the top predator, living in the self created chains of our fear, destined to be displaced in that role by the next predators to come along.




I have difficulty finding the right words to describe what we are on this planet, if not the apex predator. The masters of the planet? The property managers? The owners? Every description is stuck in this binary of predator and prey, dripping with rankist, dominator based, hierarchical language. 




We are in charge of running the planet? Ruining the planet, maybe. 


We aren’t even in charge of ourselves. We may say we want to have mastery over ourselves, but a lot of damage is being done right now by efforts to have control, not of ourselves, but to exert control over other people. And all of the creatures, and the environment, and even the future of all life on earth!

Maybe we are the keepers of the garden?




Why not be instead, the comprehensive cooperative compassionate gardener? Who is more wise, indeed, more truly powerful? Every positive loving thought, or love motivated action is ten times more creative and powerful than a negative violent one. 




Who is truly worthy of our admiration, the mother who spends years pouring gentle love and attention into the next generation, or the fighter who can kill some hapless animal or person in a single swipe? The gardener who skillfully and patiently works with nature to bring nourishment to many, or the hunter who pounces on prey like a lion?


 We are needed to take responsibility for the whole planet now, with loving care. There is no place for the nonsense of the glamorizing of predatory behavior anymore. Somehow, we must get out of this binary trap. 
The only way to rise above the dominater-victim duality is to stop being the predator and start being the gardener. To give a care, and take care for the whole thing. To think comprehensively, to take whole systems into account when making decisions.  To move in cooperation with the beings and other life forms who together make up ecosystems. To be aware of the trajectory of our actions on the axis of time lines that reach into the future, that have evolved to carry forth the wisdom experience of the past. To truly be in charge of our resources, instead of charging around destroying stuff.




“You can’t take sides when you know the Earth is round” -P. Sun