I Speak for Cecil ... and for us all | Environment/Nature |Axisoflogic.com

Cecil - dead at age 13

“Arguments…cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering the animals are our equals.”

-Peter Singer, Moral Philosopher

Since most of you humans are always trying to hunt down and devour your pyrrhic victories over nature, including over each other, even if we lions like our dear Cecil could speak, you still wouldn’t understand.

For instance, how many of you know of St. Lion who befriended humans? Neither are you probably familiar with the Roman-enslaved Lionocolese, who removed a thorn from the palm of a man and nursed him back to health. When Lionocolese was later thrown into the Roman Coliseum, the beastly but grateful gladiator began to caress Lionocolese. Both were set free.

To be certain, our kind used to be the most common mammalian species after you. But your inexorable rise and the spread of your settlements mirrored our decline in range and numbers. We are now on your endangered list, along with many other living creatures. It was also because of your rapacious settlements and animal herds - which led to the destruction of our natural habitats and food and water scarcity - that your wild imaginations transformed us into a threat to be preyed upon and eliminated. But in fact, you were always the real threat, the true aggressors and killers.

In addition, we lions have learned that you humans know no limits to your destructive nature and your tools which kill all kinds of creatures. (Fortunately, some of you also know no limits to your unconditional love and nonviolent resistance.) This is why we lions have an instinctual fear of humans. You, on the other paw, consider yourselves to be the noblest killers, and no other creature ever contests your claims. No wonder, then, your vicious instinct enslaved us through zoological prisons, amusing menageries for your leisure classes, and confining reservations with predetermined kills that you call a sport.

Despite their similar and unquenchable appetites, we sometimes long for your primitive ancestors and their zoomorphism. Ancient Egyptians, for example, worshipped lioness gods as protectors of the pharaohs. A more peaceful representation of us lions as a protector deity, one of our favorites, was the Hindu god Narasimha. He was half-lion and half-man who aided the poor and oppressed. Your ancestors also revered winged creatures with lion bodies and the head of a woman. Unlike Napoleon who used Egyptian sphinxes for target practice, they recognized the likeness between our two species.

Admittedly, it didn’t prevent some rulers and warriors from becoming socialized predators, tracking and stalking us for the unnatural and ultimate “kill.” They also stole our images for psychological warfare, symbols warning of their absolute power. Still, hunts were more honorable since they fought us with primitive weaponry. Even Greek mythology accepted our superior fighting skills. Hercules, unable to kill a lion, waited until it fell asleep. He then clubbed and strangled it to death. With your modernized “hunts,” you humans love myths and self-deception more than the Greeks. As for us, we survive simply so that others may simply survive. You survive to destroy and kill.

According to our geocentric traditions, the Roman Empire changed your natural ways, as most empires do. Indeed, the Romans hunted us lions (and humans that resisted or rebelled) to extinction in parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa for their euphoric blood-spectacles. But a new faith came along, banning the pathology of your self-adoration and violence, even recognizing that we lions and animals have souls. But over time, a mechanical, automated, soulless, and anthropomorphic faith unleashed you. A for-profit market economy commodified and preyed upon everything, including you humans and the Earth.

Your unquenchable and unsustainable lifestyles have led to wars and mass genocide on unprecedented scales, changing you and your leaders into the most dangerous predator on Earth. Your wildlife trafficking now inflicts pain and suffering among creatures who also have rights and should be respected. Additionally, we lions are shaking our manes over Cecil’s sensationalized death. What about the other lions that are needlessly slaughtered? We also wonder where the media’s uproar was regarding Zimbabwe’s ruler who has caused 4 million refugees. Like Cecil, shouldn’t Zimbabwe human lives matter too?

However, don’t misinterpret what we lions are trying to say. We were outraged when Cecil was illegally lured from his sanctuary and wounded with an arrow. His lengthy and insufferable death, along with being skinned and having his head removed for a trophy, were truly unnatural and socialized crimes against nature. But so are other crimes you allow. Sustaining dishonest leaders and their armies, that invade and decapitate heads of state while skinning millions of people, are also heinous crimes. Like Cecil’s aberrant death, when will your predators with blood on their hands and kill trophies be extradited?

Ironically, we Lions have also been mystified as to why we were not respected as equals, especially among your warring patriarchal societies. Like your dominant males, our males spend their time in indolence, letting their harem of “queens” do the actual work. Though they have a reputation as fierce hunters and “King,” 40 percent of their food comes from scavenging or stealing prey from others. They also rule absolutely, quick to kill any male rival that challenges their pride. In effect, they are just like your elite rulers, who, after defeating opponents, do not hesitate to liquidate his inconvenient heirs.

But again, you will never understand us lions because we don’t need a purpose or crusade, let alone imaginary enemies and wars. Unlike you, the aim of our lives is to simply see and observe. Moreover, the lion that you called Cecil was never Cecil. When you named him after the British corporatist and imperialist, Cecil Rhodes, he actually felt grieved and de-lionized, more imperial insults and genocidal blows like Rome’s. But then your anthropomorphic and hierarchical nature will always rule, and, tragically, it will prevent most of you from experiencing or seeing the natural truth.

To illustrate this point, your early ancestors over-hunted us to extinction in the Americas. Your kind also exterminated the Indian Lion, as well as the Persian and Mesopotamian Lions. In the last century, you killed-off our Barbary Lion ancestors. Whether knowingly or unknowingly, how many other creatures and resources on Earth have you unnaturally killed and consumed? It is obvious that you place a twisted monetary value on all life and the Earth, and that it reigns supreme in your socialized minds and among your concrete jungles. It is also evident your favorite pastime is fighting and war.

When our cubs are born, their eyes are closed. In a few short days they open and, unlike you humans, our eyes remain wide open. Tragically, you haven’t been able to see how you project onto us traits you never tamed, specifically the unnatural and destructive ones. If you could really see, then, you would understand that the truth is nonhuman. Furthermore, you would realize that you only think you have mastered the weapons and violent thoughts you internalize and use. But in natural reality, they have mastered you. The human who unnaturally killed Cecil, for instance, had already planned to do the same to an elephant.

At least we understand our all-too-lion yearnings, and the futility of always pining for unquenchable and pyrrhic victories and a deathless life.

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John‘s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.worldnews.com.