Wildlife in American Culture

http://adventure.howstuffworks.com

The general argument/point made by Aldo Leopold in his work Wildlife in American Culture is that gadgetry has changed the way we interact with nature. More specifically, Leopold agues/suggests that we used to be more apart of nature and the lifecycle. But that life cycle is interrupted because of wildlife being used in different ways. Gadgets are taking us away from our true sense of nature. You used to have to be skilled in getting food from nature, but now it has become more of an unethical sport. It has changed completely, and the animals aren’t killed for the right reasons. For example, they are less worried about the cultural value of the shooting because they have the inventions to make it more inviting as a sport. He writes, “Wildlife once fed us and shaped our culture. It still yields us pleasure for leisure hours, but we try to reap that pleasure by modern machinery and thus destroy part of its value. Reaping by modern mentality would yield not only pleasure, but wisdom as well.” (page 376) In this passage, Leopold is suggesting that if we make studying wildlife a sport, we will get back to the basics and learn about ourselves and the way nature affects us naturally. In conclusion, it is Leopold’s belief that the gadget industries are making bigger and excessive technologies that treats wildlife unethically and that we should use wildlife by studying it and getting back to becoming linked to nature.

In my view, Leopold is right because of the influences we have today and how they compare with the technologies that he talks about in his day and age. They influence our lives 100% and take away from the character we can build by having to work naturally and harder for things. For example, if he were to see the world today with all of the new technology and gadgets since then, he would be blown away. Even in wildlife sports it changes how we view the ideas of hunting. There are large sports malls and factories that specialize in these gadgets and tools to make hunting and dealing with nature more of a worldly sport. Although Leopold might object that we can go back to how we were and reverse the use of these technologies, I maintain that his idea of making the study of wildlife and animals a sport to help us connect with nature is important in our ability to understand ourselves. Therefore, I conclude that we should unplug ourselves from the world’s gadgets and seek knowledge in a natural way.