| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
Animal World Takes Revenge on Steve Irwin
"The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin, but
probably not before a whole generation of kids in shorts seven
sizes too small has learned to shout in the ears of animals with
hearing ten times more acute than theirs, determined to
become millionaire animal-loving zoo-owners in their turn."
So said Germaine Greer, feminist Australian writer and
academic, upon hearing the news of the death of famed
"Crocodile Hunter," Steve Irwin. Wow! I wonder if she might
be able to lighten up just a wee bit in her old age.
But if you happen to know who Germaine Greer is, you won't
be too surprised at her hyperbolic response to Irwin's death.
She is the author of the best-selling 1970 book "The Female
Eunuch." The premise of that book was that men hated women
and that the traditional suburban, consumerist, nuclear family
repressed women sexually, rendering them the female
equivalent of eunuchs.
Whatever. It was the kind of stuff that became the
standard-issue rhetoric of radical feminism and is now seen as
little more than an anachronistic knee-slapper. Suffice it to
say that Greer, now in her declining years, is a malcontent and
an iconoclast who decided, for whatever nonsensical reason, to
turn her venom towards the chief icon of the cable television
channel "Animal Planet." She's definitely not your mother's
Germaine Greer anymore.
"What Irwin never seemed to understand was that animals
need space," Greer said. "There was no habitat, no matter how
fragile or finely balanced, that Irwin hesitated to barge into,
trumpeting his wonder and amazement to the skies."
So I guess that whenever some bumbling human is killed by a
vicious croc, venomous viper or other deadly but noble
creature of the wild, it is due to the human's own arrogance
and/or obnoxiousness. The funny thing about Australia,
though, is that there are deadly or dangerous creatures almost
everywhere. Maybe the people should all just am-scray and let
Australia be the world's first human-free, continental animal
preserve. (Except, of course, the Aborigines, who instinctively
know how to be in perfect harmony with nature.)
"Every creature he brandished at the camera was in distress,"
Greer continued.
Right. Somebody pass the Kleenex, I'm getting choked up
here.
In reality, every creature that gets snapped up by a hungry
croc is also in distress, but that's just nature, the inherent
wisdom of which we are simply not wise enough to question. Be
that as it may, common sense says that the stress induced by an
overzealous shutterbug is a lot less than the stress of being
devoured alive.
Greer did manage to get one thing right and that was about
the Michael Jacksonesque stunt Irwin pulled when he fed a
crocodile while holding his baby son during a show at his zoo.
Putting a baby in jeopardy like that was a stupid thing and
Irwin rightfully got hammered for it. But even there, Greer's
priorities were a bit misplaced.
"The whole spectacle was revolting," she said. "The crocodile
would rather have been anywhere else. . . ."
Who gives a rat's patootie where the crocodile would rather
have been? The issue was the baby. Hel-l-o-o!
Anyway, the significant thing about Irwin that Greer left out
of her critique is how he tried his best to get people to
appreciate the beauty of normally hated animals like snakes
and how he implored people not to needlessly kill them out of
misguided fear. I don't know how many people will ultimately
take that message to heart, but the idea that the animal
kingdom was being terrorized by the wildly enthusiastic and
utterly adorable Steve Irwin was surely meant by Greer to be
satirical, wasn't it?
On second thought, and knowing her history, she was
probably totally serious.
"The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin, but
probably not before a whole generation of kids in shorts seven
sizes too small has learned to shout in the ears of animals with
hearing ten times more acute than theirs, determined to
become millionaire animal-loving zoo-owners in their turn."
So said Germaine Greer, feminist Australian writer and
academic, upon hearing the news of the death of famed
"Crocodile Hunter," Steve Irwin. Wow! I wonder if she might
be able to lighten up just a wee bit in her old age.
But if you happen to know who Germaine Greer is, you won't
be too surprised at her hyperbolic response to Irwin's death.
She is the author of the best-selling 1970 book "The Female
Eunuch." The premise of that book was that men hated women
and that the traditional suburban, consumerist, nuclear family
repressed women sexually, rendering them the female
equivalent of eunuchs.
Whatever. It was the kind of stuff that became the
standard-issue rhetoric of radical feminism and is now seen as
little more than an anachronistic knee-slapper. Suffice it to
say that Greer, now in her declining years, is a malcontent and
an iconoclast who decided, for whatever nonsensical reason, to
turn her venom towards the chief icon of the cable television
channel "Animal Planet." She's definitely not your mother's
Germaine Greer anymore.
"What Irwin never seemed to understand was that animals
need space," Greer said. "There was no habitat, no matter how
fragile or finely balanced, that Irwin hesitated to barge into,
trumpeting his wonder and amazement to the skies."
So I guess that whenever some bumbling human is killed by a
vicious croc, venomous viper or other deadly but noble
creature of the wild, it is due to the human's own arrogance
and/or obnoxiousness. The funny thing about Australia,
though, is that there are deadly or dangerous creatures almost
everywhere. Maybe the people should all just am-scray and let
Australia be the world's first human-free, continental animal
preserve. (Except, of course, the Aborigines, who instinctively
know how to be in perfect harmony with nature.)
"Every creature he brandished at the camera was in distress,"
Greer continued.
Right. Somebody pass the Kleenex, I'm getting choked up
here.
In reality, every creature that gets snapped up by a hungry
croc is also in distress, but that's just nature, the inherent
wisdom of which we are simply not wise enough to question. Be
that as it may, common sense says that the stress induced by an
overzealous shutterbug is a lot less than the stress of being
devoured alive.
Greer did manage to get one thing right and that was about
the Michael Jacksonesque stunt Irwin pulled when he fed a
crocodile while holding his baby son during a show at his zoo.
Putting a baby in jeopardy like that was a stupid thing and
Irwin rightfully got hammered for it. But even there, Greer's
priorities were a bit misplaced.
"The whole spectacle was revolting," she said. "The crocodile
would rather have been anywhere else. . . ."
Who gives a rat's patootie where the crocodile would rather
have been? The issue was the baby. Hel-l-o-o!
Anyway, the significant thing about Irwin that Greer left out
of her critique is how he tried his best to get people to
appreciate the beauty of normally hated animals like snakes
and how he implored people not to needlessly kill them out of
misguided fear. I don't know how many people will ultimately
take that message to heart, but the idea that the animal
kingdom was being terrorized by the wildly enthusiastic and
utterly adorable Steve Irwin was surely meant by Greer to be
satirical, wasn't it?
On second thought, and knowing her history, she was
probably totally serious.