Why We’re Killing Off All Wildlife

Our apparent role as anti-natural transformers of the wilderness.

Benjamin Cain
The Apeiron Blog
Published in
8 min readJul 21, 2021
Image by Pixabay, from Pexels

Every now and then a World Wildlife Fund advertisement will appear on television, warning about the harm we’re doing to endangered species such as elephants and asking for financial support to help preserve wild species.

It’s easy enough to summon feelings of empathy when you see pictures of distressed animals, and when you realize that we’re at the start of a Holocene extinction event caused by human dominance of the planet. But the trend in history — from the beginning of sedentary societies and the domestication of plants and animals to scientific modernization and capitalistic expansion — indicates that collectively and subconsciously, we may resent the existence of wild animals.

Our collective behavior indicates, at least, that we prefer not just to be the dominant species, but for all other species to be either extinguished or domesticated, which is to say enslaved to us. That is, we mean to eliminate the opposition presented by nature, which comes to a head in the form of wild animals, by turning those animals into pets or livestock. The alternative is to reduce them to collateral damage caused by the expansion of our cities and farms, or to roadkill or to the endangered species you see in WWF ads.

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Published in The Apeiron Blog

An easy to read philosophical space that aims to elicit discussion and debate on matters of the universe.

Written by Benjamin Cain

Ph.D. in philosophy / Knowledge condemns. Art redeems. / https://benjamincain.substack.com / https://ko-fi.com/benjamincain / benjamincain8@gmailDOTcom

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