It seems to be fashionable to go back to nature, to all things natural, to be a naturalist… as if that were the way to perfection and human peace. At the same time we are invited to embrace the 4th technological revolution as the highest goal to aspire to in our progressive societies. On the one hand, it is sold to us as something indispensable in our lives, and on the other, we are pushed to divest ourselves of it. Once again, ideologies are intermingled like a tangle of threads without knowing exactly where they are leading us.
In this way, peace education goes hand in hand with the love of nature, because if you are one of those who consider themselves to be of the healthy group, those who have “healthy and sustainable living habits”, as they like to call them nowadays, you recycle, you are peaceful (until you get stepped on) and you don’t have many children, but you do have pets, then you are per se a man of peace.
However, the paradox is that, in nature, if we dive into its depths, what we find is a real battlefield between predators and their victims. But of course, the fact that animals are carnivorous and violent goes unnoticed by all these “greens” who seem to live surrounded by little birds and colorful butterflies. We know… the hippie spirit of the 1970s is still in vogue: Make love and not war.
Nature is what it is, both that of animals and that of human beings. To try to change this reality is like trying to look at the sky without recognizing the stars that shine on clear nights.
Chesterton said (a few years ago when the upswing of what was to become absolute naturalism could already be appreciated), “I’m beginning to believe that people today have no idea about life, they expect things from nature that she never intended and are bent on destroying what she really offers them.”
Now they keep us entertained with the conflicts between extensive and intensive livestock farming because the latter, we are told, involves mistreatment of the animal. Or we are served artificial meat on a platter, which, to tell the truth, given the way the animals are hormonally treated, is hardly distinguishable from the real thing. And let’s not forget the little issue of cow flatulence that pollutes the atmosphere or the appetizing crunchy insects… I don’t really understand how we have survived for so many centuries without the advice of all these “environmental and climate change experts” who worship nature as a mother goddess. By the way, for those who use St. Francis of Assisi as an example of someone who loved nature, it should be clarified that he loved and respected nature as our sister according to the original principle of creation, at no time did he say that she was our mother, that Pachamama who wants to supplant our God.
Near the place where I work, there are signs on an old wall that read: “Don’t eat animals, you don’t need them”. You don’t have to be very clever to guess the hypocrisy of these naturalistic ideas wrapped in pacifism. Animals are defended as a supreme value, but abortion laws that murder human lives are applauded. And forgive me, dear reader, for this expression, I can’t help but get annoyed with so much foolishness. Fortunately, with an exquisite plate of Serrano ham and a glass of good wine, I am once again at peace.