Can there be nature conservation without higher principles of good, of love and empathy, and of decency of treatment to all living things whose lives we now acknowledge as every part intertwined with our very own and that without them we cannot possibly survive as a human race?
Conservation is not enough.
"The grand question remains whether most people actually want hearts to be tenderer or harder."
- Joseph Wood Krutch, philosopher of humaneness, once said so beautifully.
Teach our children well. Teach them to have a heart of tenderness, a heart for justice. In Nature, we learn love and reverence for life. We teach them to celebrate and value life. What better way to teach goodness and justice than to start young and learn to feel for the weak - the animals that cannot talk and defend themselves against cruelty - and defend them.
If we give our children this priceless gift of love and empathy and a heart not just soft but strong for the weak, we give them a society that is loving, caring and strong. We build upon what we built in them which they in turn build on.
Violence begets violence. Children learn fast.
Show them inhumane treatment of animals, we sow in them the seed of cruelty - even a disrespect for human life.
Show them callousness, they learn callousness. Shallowness of thought and selfishness of heart take root.
Our society deserve kind and caring children. Our children deserve a humane society.
Can nature conservation do without higher principles? Can we be so careless as to introduce a disease of heartlessness. As a caring Singaporean, I must say a resounding NO.
What about you? Don't you care?
Has conservation grown old and cold and the spirit dead?
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