Nov

8

Bambi Syndrome, from T.K Marks

November 8, 2010 |

I finished reading a fine book last evening, and one of its closing philosophical points made me think of an old friend, Doug. It involved hunting, and his explanation one time to me that uninformed opponents of such appear to be burdened with some sort of Bambi Syndrome. Also known as BS, in the jargon of clinicians.

That is, the overwhelming majority of these opponents would have no problem with consuming mass-produced animals, but are seemingly appalled when somebody else more humanely cuts out the middleman, and cramped cages and pens.

That is a more than fair observation as there would seem to be an obvious paradox at work here. And probably one with parallels to other endeavors as well, which is why it is always prudent not to be reflexively judgmental about things about which we may not readily understand.

The person in the book echoing Doug's point was Eric Clapton, of all souls, in his autobiography.

An intense volume, it's Clapton tale of long redemption, going from a $2000 a day heroin habit, to a two-bottle a day liquor problem that he eventually found even more debilitating, as hard as that might be to imagine.

But rather than gloss over his troubled past, he vivisects it for all to see, with some of the scenes he gets into absolutely brutal to behold. It's amazing this guy is alive and sane, no less as wonderfully alive and lucid as he clearly appears to be.

It would seem obvious why Doug, a wildlife biologist and lifelong Vermont outdoorsman, wouldn't be burdened by Bambi Syndrome. But when reading Clapton's account of his life, it was interesting to note how the tortured artist came to his epiphany.

It seems that when he finally emerged from the thick woods of his various addictions, he found himself with much time on his hands, so he walked into the real woods.

With a bang.

pp. 294-295:

The tour of America took me through the autumn, and then on my return to England, I delved into a new hobby that was to equal fishing as an obsession in the years to come. My friend Phillip Walford, who is the river keeper on the stretch of the river Test that I fish, had always said that I should take up game shooting, if only for the logical reason that the shooting season starts when fishing season ends…I am a deep-end person, and in just a short time I was ordering braces of fine English guns and driving all over the country to shoot on different estates, gradually improving my skill and having the time of my life.

Clapton continues:

Ethically it was never a problem for me, and it is the same with fishing. My family and I eat what I catch and shoot. It is fresh and healthy and we love it. I am a hunter; it is in my genes, and I am quite comfortable with that. I also support a lot of other countryside pursuits, quite simply because I believe they are an important part of our culture and heritage, and need protecting, usually from people, or movements of people, who have little understanding of the delicate economic balance of countryside communities and have watched too many Disney movies.