Posthuman Blues

Remote control rifle range debuts

"A Texas company is considering letting web users use a remote-controlled rifle to shoot down deer, antelope and wild pigs."

I have an idea: Why don't we all have neurosurgery that neatly and efficiently excises the part of our brains responsible for empathy? I mean, why not just get it over with?

I'm a vegetarian; I find the idea of eating chunks of dead animals distasteful, and honestly marvel a bit at people who don't. But I typically shut up about it because when people ask why I don't eat meat, I figure I'll invariably come across as self-righteous and abrasive if I tell them the truth. So I say I don't eat meat for health reasons, which is partially true.

At least casual meat-eating seems innocuous enough; it's hard if not impossible to get emotional about an anonymous slab of beef, especially when it's been cooked, marinated, spiced, salted, and buried under tufts of parsley in an attempt to disguise its true identity. Hunting is different. Hunting -- which, contrary to myth, is not a "sport" in any sense of the word -- demands that the participant actively suppress his or her capacity for empathy in favor of a dose of farcical "accomplishment," a bit of macho street-cred.

In a sane world, efforts like remote-control hunting would show just how gutless and imbecilic hunting really is. Unfortunately, this isn't likely to happen; in our world, people will be lining up for this shit . . .