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Forums → WEPR → Wouldn't Hurt A Fly
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Just some crazy 'food-for-thought' topic.
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I sit at a desk, studying for a class I never wanted to take. I am concentrating on deciphering yet another passage when it happens again. I hear a fly buzz past my ear. This fly has been harrying me all evening. Be it by buzzing startlingly, landing on me, or landing on my food. I swat at the fly, curse it, and continue my work. Soon, it begins to buzz again. This time, it buzzes right up to the desk and lands. It begins to rub its front legs together the way flies do. I raise my book to put it out of my misery. But then I pause.
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Should I kill this fly? Its only crime has been to mildly inconvenience me. Who am I to hand out such a punishment for such a crime? It never even tried to annoy me; its very nature is what bugs me. Can I kill a creature because it unintentionally annoys me? Is its relative insignificance justification enough for this act? Should I kill a mouse for the same offense? What about a cat? A dog? A man?
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During my moment of hesitation and contemplation, the fly buzzed off, never to bother me again. Maybe it got the message.
- 34 Replies
I don't say that when you see some insect or a mouse, you have to kill it. I am just saying that when something enters your house and you can't throw it out of there, then you may have to kill it.
if something makes an lion or a tiger or a snake mad, they lash out to stop it, if they're hungry they eat an herbi/omnivore
the only difference is that humans have reasoning... which could lead to preserving or a mass extinction of every species, so i'd say we defy nature
nature always happens in some sort of cycle, humans are the X-factor, if you squash this fly it won't feed a spider which won't feed...something that eats spiders which won't feed a carnivore, at this point it could be good or bad EX.
1. Tiger dies because of starvation
2. You're not killed by a living tiger
so... if you could tell the future it'd be great, but things that humans stereotypically think are insignificant are actually important
should you? that's an opinion.
Some would say that the killing of anything, be it insect, arachonid, avian, mammel, or even plant leaves a stain on the soul that can never be washed away.
Personnally I've swated quite a few flies in my life and probably a thousand times as many mosquitos. Does this mean that I am tarnished forever? Or is it just the natural outcome of self-preservation instinct? Am I a bad person because the thought of little fly feet prancing around on my ham and cheese sandwich makes me lose my appetite?
The fact that we are intelligent enough to ask things like whether or not killing a fly is moral is the defining factor of our species (yes even more defining than thumbs). I think the most telling thing is how killing a fly makes a person feel. Most people probably don't think twice or feel anything with regards to killing a fly, they see the fly as insignificant and thus unworthy of emotional response on their part. Some people feel sad or guilty for ending the fly's life even though they know that flies lead a naturally short life span and can spead illnesses. Some view the fly as thier enemy, a lowly and filthy creature that wreaks havoc on their peaceful existance, thus it's destruction brings them a sense of victory and maybe even joy. No one can really say which perspective is correct or if any of them are. Which perspective would you rather see it from?
It's the ultimate oxymoron to believe reason is separate from nature. Since when is something entirely contained within something derived from nature, unnatural?
What sets morals then your own mind? Do what you please
I'm going to ban you because I feel like it :P
...well actually no I don't, but I feel that the amoral stance falls to the criticisms I've posted on the previous page.
Before I answer, I'd like to say wow Xzeno! Are you a writer, because you definetely should be!
It just goes to show how barbaric and selfish the human race is, killing just because we are annoyed by a living creature. Flies land on our food, buzz in our ears, swarm our backyards, but unintentionally. When they swarm our backyards, it's their home. And when they make their way into our homes, they explore.
They don't fly in thinking, "Check out that human over there. He looks calm, so let's change that. BUZZ BUZZ! Ooh, a sandwich! Let's poop on it just to bug the crap out of this innocent human. Fun..." No, they are merely exploring you, and when they see the sandwich laying on your plate, they think food and go for it. They don't know it's your sandwich, as far as we know flies have no conscience. All they have is instinct. And instinct says if you see food, eat it.
Let's move up another level. Mice. They steal our food, once again, because of instinct. We destroyed their ancient home and replaced it with a city. So how else will they aquire food besides getting it from us? But no, we lay mouse traps for them. And what more, we mock their starvation by placing a piece of cheese on the trap. Giving them hope for life, then snatching it away...
But no one thinks that. We, as humans, subconciously think anything smaller than a chihuahua doesn't deserve to live. We have reason, a conscience, a very advanced mind. We only care about further progressing life as humans, and anything standing in our way just doesn't deserve our sympathy, and we kill it.
When I read the title I thought this would have been about the Obama swatting a flything that happened but apparently its another morale question. Personally I wouldn't mind bombing my house to kill every bug in it. I guess its just a matter of all the bug bites I have, but flies repopulate in such an abundance that killing one wouldn't really matter to me. Their life spans are so small that they would die within maybe a month or two or even sooner anyways. I believe the typical life span of a fly is about 25 days from what I have heard.
deathgate, replace human with something like a tiger would do (can't find another good animal)
if a hyena tries to get what tigers have just killed, tigers'll kill the hyena
the hyena gets the leftovers as do flys with trash
don't think humans are the only animal that follows this
Obama swatting a fly
Yeah, I saw that and I just want to say that the PETA are just a bunch of wussies for not wanting the fly to die. For god's sake its just a fly. They don't have to piss there pants about.
this is a very interesting topic. one side of me tells me that it is a petty crime and that the fly should live. i wouldn't kill a person if they were annoying me. but then there's the other side, the side that tells me that flies or annoying abominations, provocative creatures who are calling, shouting at you to kill them. with this side in control and without hesitation i kill the fly until his guts paint the ground.
the moral is, i'd say it depends.
Before I answer, I'd like to say wow Xzeno! Are you a writer, because you definetely should be!I'm glad you think I'm good. I've worked hard to become so. Speaking of writing and doing research for writing:
the hyena gets the leftovers as do flys with trashI found this comment quite bemusing. (I just used the word 'bemusing' correctly, like only a complete asshat would!)
Hyenas are no more scavengers than a lion is. Hyenas sometimes steal lions' meals, but no more often than lions steal theirs. This is because these to predators are in direct competition.
Now, onto the subject at hand:
First off, I would argue that flies do not spread death and pestilence wherever they go. While they are hardly sanitary, I doubt that they contribute significantly to the spread of disease.
Second, why is their relative insignificance ( IE "there's millions of flies!" reason to kill them. There's millions of cats. Heck, cats are an invasive species in most places. Killing them helps the ecosystem.
But no. Cats are (undeniably) smarter. Is it that cats are smarter, or are they just more familiar. Cat are creatures with which we can empathize. We can read their body language; they can read ours. Nobody mourns a dead fly. A dead cat is different. People do mourn dead cats, even if they had no knowledge of the cat's existence beforehand. Why is that?
Well that post was rambling and incoherent. Cut me some slack, I'm multitasking! (Albeit not well.)
First off, I would argue that flies do not spread death and pestilence wherever they go. While they are hardly sanitary, I doubt that they contribute significantly to the spread of disease.
Well...let's put this into perspective.
[url]http://www.clermonthealthdistrict.org/VectorBorneFlies.aspx[/url]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housefly#Housefly_as_a_vector_of_disease[/url]
Most likely the reason you believe that flies are not a significant vector for disease transmission is because you live in the first world, and we have a range of factors from insecticides and sanitary measures and the result of good social engineering (i.e. running water etc.) that counter this. However that doesn't stop flies themselves from being significant vectors...it just means you only see the results of that in poorer socioeconomic areas and 3rd world countries.
This doesn't necessarily constitute a reason to kill flies of course. What constitutes a reason to kill anything? I mean, the same goes for the death penalty.
This doesn't necessarily constitute a reason to kill flies of course. What constitutes a reason to kill anything? I mean, the same goes for the death penalty.
Now there is a statement that is probably infinately dabatable. Is it justified to to use the death penalty in cases of murder? Does the "eye for an eye" technique set a good example or is it fighting murder with murder? The conclusions people come to with regard to those questions would no doubt be very different conclusions reached by applying similair questions to the life of a fly. Does the fly deserve execution for it's well known reputation as a biological threat? Is the life of a single fly really meaningful when compared to the prolific manner in which flies reproduce?
Omg...stupid ppl likeing files -_-
Who actually said they like flies? It's not really a matter of liking or disliking the flies. What it comes down to is the moral implications of killing something even if we feel it to be a "lesser life-form".
Obama swatting a fly
Just an odd little note. I actually heard the Obama/fly story for the first time when I was writing my first response on this thread. It was weird.
Sorry for the double post just had to throw in these two comments.
Can I kill a creature because it unintentionally annoys me? Is its relative insignificance justification enough for this act? Should I kill a mouse for the same offense? What about a cat? A dog? A man?
I value the life of a human much higher than that of a fly which is why I'd have no qualms killing it.
You also imply that all actions need to have some sort of moral justification. What if I am horrified by the act of killing flies, and yet do so anyway? In addition, what is this moral justification needed for? To appease your own conscience or some outside body eg. law?
Flies are anoying and dont have any good thing
we always killed them so why should we change that its not like they are a endangered species
Really people should think less about killing a stupid fly and just kill it
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