Monday, July 30, 2007
Wasp in a Bottle
All religio-ethical systems have a weak point. In my opinion, monotheism (and Christian style monotheism especially) falters on the old Omnipotence Paradox: "Could God create a rock so heavy even He could not lift it?" (although I personally prefer the Simpsons version: "Could God create a burrito so hot even He could not eat it?")
Long-time readers will recall that I like to think of myself as a Buddhist (whether I do a good job of that is an open question.) But sometimes Buddhist ethics can be tricky. Its major weakness, I think, is passive aggression.
Take bugs, for example. Strict interpretation of Buddhist ethics suggests that you should never knowingly, intentionally kill anything, but with bugs this is not always practical and Buddhism is first and foremost a practical religion.
I thought I had it cased when I devised my own qualified rules about bugs: Never intentionally kill a bug unless it is a) a demonstrable health hazard, such as cockroaches (which fortunately I've never had to deal with) or b) an aggressive insect, such as a mosquito or wasp, in which case one's natural defensive reaction can be interpreted as the insect's bad karma rather than one's own.
But at an outdoor BBQ last night I encountered a real poser. A wasp flew into an empty champagne flute whose opening was almost totally covered by a slice of lemon. The wasp managed to wrangle its way in but then couldn't get out and started to buzz itself into a panic.
Now, if I had set this as a trap for the wasp, that would obviously be bad, but it was just an accident. Once the wasp was in the trap, though, was I under any kind of obligation to help it? After all, the wasp had clearly landed in its predicament due to its own bad karma, the inate greed and aggression that led it back to the picnic table over and over again, despite our many efforts to shoo it away.
If it was a nice bug, like a ladybug or a spider, there would be no question. I routinely go out of my way to save spiders. But wasps are so mean, well, one less flying around is a good thing, isn't it?
This ethical question is not as trivial as it may appear. Just bump it up from the bottom to the top of the evolutionary chain and see how tricky it gets. If a psycho killer landed in prison or, perhaps more to the point, was trapped in a burning building, what's the ethical response? Should you help or not? Free him, knowing he'll likely kill again, or let him die thereby engaging in negligent homicide yourself.
I know most people will find it laughable to ponder the fate of bugs and its not as though I lost any sleep over it or anything. But what would you do, dear readers? Assume that you had to treat all life consistently and state reasons for or against freeing the dreaded wasp.
Or, if you prefer, talk about other funny, kooky religio-ethical dilemmas.
Or talk about funny BBQ anecdotes. Whatever ;-)
posted by Mentok @ 9:29 a.m.,
3 Comments:
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At 3:01 p.m.,
Bathroom Hippo said...
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That's quite a dilemma for a Buddhist. But for me...that's no dilemma at all. Let the bastard die. What wrath hath he done? Just because he's a wasp we should kill him? Just because he's a muslim we shouldn't let him on a plane? This is a common misconception. Wasps are jihadists (a terrorist group) not Honeybees or Bumble-bees (nice bees).
I hate wasps. -
At 7:24 p.m.,
said...
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wasps are jihadists. ha!
my ethics regarding the killing of bug life is that if the bug is outside, in its realm, well, then i don't really have the right to kill him, unless he's trying to bite me. if he's in my domain, though, it's a little iffier. i'll try to get him back outside safely, esp. a spider, but those little ants that come in under the door jamb and are trying to eat my house out from under me--they suffer a far worse fate.
cockroaches always meet with death. no qualms. i pray i don't come back as a cockroach in my next life. ;-) -
At 9:54 a.m.,
Mentok said...
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hippo - yes, but have you ever tried to look at it from the wasp's perspective ;-)
marcy - yes, your standards sound about the same as mine. Numbers have an influence. An ant here or there, fine, but a lot of them becomes an infestation and then I kick in the "health hazard" rule.
You should've seen what I went through the time we had a few mice. I didn't want to use poison (for a bunch of reasons) but the non-lethal traps weren't working, so I switched to the sticky traps but then did my best to free the mice from the traps and release them to the wild. Sadly, it didn't always work, but I figure making the effort earned some good karma.
When you think about it, mice on the whole do not have a lot of bad karma, unlike wasps. They just settle in quietly, they're not aggressive, they do their best to stay out of the way. Quite well-mannered guests, really, except for the shitting all over and eating all the food bits.
