Hunting and Bullfighting!

My comments to:

Art Janov's Reflections on

On Going Hunting     (Click to access)

Hunting and Bullfighting!

In my layers of pain filled memories all the way down to the one being strangled and almost suffocated to death, is one, which has caused me many fits, anxieties and feelings of sorrow; when, at the age of 11, I killed a beautiful songbird with a slingshot. I was alone in the park close to my home when it happened, no one to impress. I just wanted to prove to myself that I mastered my homemade weapon. I immediately repressed the feeling of what had happened, and I hastily buried the beautiful bird in a little soil and put some leaves over... 10 years passed before, suddenly, I lived the memory in combination with a fit / hallucination, and I finally could feel the sorrow when I “saw” the little dead garden warbler and “felt” it’s still warm body.

I never became a hunter, not even during the years when I had my own farm with a hundred acres of forest. I leased the hunt to hunters with a license, because it was a necessity to control the population of animals, such as deers and elks. Many critics don’t know much about nature’s balance, animal’s populations. Without hunters, the ratio of animals, available space, available food would be thrown off. As humans, we are supposed to be the intelligent part of the evolutionary food chain, which needs a certain equilibrium.

You may be right that your congressmen belong to a minority, who goes hunting just for the fun of killing. What I, however, over the years have noticed is your, often documented, attitude towards neurotic, inclusive psychopathic, politicians. What a world it would be if all our politicians were running for office to serve, not to be served. A feeling politician (with a good communication between his right and left brain) never would forget his/her duty to serve the people he/she represents. I think that one important reason why we do not have politicians creating necessary values for us is that we do not think much about the values of our politicians when we elect them. We have the politicians we deserve. We are not doing our duty as citizens in a democracy. The politicians can / were never meant to be the parents many of us never had!

Like Hemingway, who taught me to try to be honest when writing, I love bull fights. I’m not proud of it, but I cannot deny that being in “Plaza de Toros” in Valencia together with 25.000 other spectators when one of the top bull fighters is performing is an emotional “trip”. I agree with you; it is ineffably cruel. The bullfighter does not win every time, and the bulls are not taken away from a suffering family. These are poor excuses from my side. The bullfights will disappear with time. Even if I’m attracted to them, I vote for a ban of the bullfights. That is my duty in and for a democratic society and a tribute to my daughter who does not like bullfights.

Jan Johnsson