(That's what the world is today)
Mickey Z. -- World News Trust
Oct. 11, 2006 -- While perusing a list of extinct animals, I came across something called the "Confused Moth," a now-vanished insect once native to Hawaii. This unusual moniker caught my attention because most moths I've ever encountered appeared (to my untrained eye, at least) to qualify as "confused" as they fluttered about the nearest artificial light source. Uh oh... I feel a metaphor coming on.
***
The continent of Africa was once home to the Atlas Bear, so named
because it roamed the Atlas Mountains from Morocco to Libya. Hunted for
sport (sic) since the time of the Roman Empire's expansion into North
Africa, the last Atlas Bear was probably shot and killed in the 1870s
(around the time America was doing its reconstruction thing).
***
Let's
imagine the source of the earth's ills represented as the moon and
visualize the rabble-rousers among us as moths-confused moths, if you
will. Agitated and dedicated, these activists are giving it all they've
got: flapping like mad around a dim bare 40-watt light bulb in a Sunoco
gas station bathroom on a New York Thruway rest stop... while just
outside the window, a doomed-to-extinction coyote howls at the real
deal.
As
Bruce Lee said about the proverbial finger that points to the moon:
"Don't concentrate on the finger or you'll miss all that heavenly
glory."
***
Competing
for prey with the Atlas Bear was the Atlas Lion (a.k.a. Nubian Lion or
Barbary Lion). It became extinct in the wild -- there's a slim chance some
have survived in zoos and circuses -- in 1922 (two years after American
women were granted the right to vote).
***
While
I'm on a animal kingdom/distracted people metaphor kick, please allow
me to introduce Mr. William S. Burroughs... who once wrote a little
something about how we humans, like the bull in a bullfight, tend to
focus on the elusive red cape instead of the matador. Indeed, we are
all-too-easily distracted from the real targets by an attractive image
or illusion. As you know, there are some bulls that see right through
the red cape, uh, bullshit... and quite justifiably introduce the
matador to the business end of their horns. But before you mistake that
for a lesson and/or inspiration, don't forget that such bulls are
promptly killed while the matador is mourned as a brave hero.
Here's
a question: If every single bull in every single bullfight were to gore
every single matador, how long would it be before bullfights were as
extinct as the Confused Moth?
***
There
was one more Atlas Mountain predator: the Atlas Leopard. Presumed to
have become extinct when one was shot in Morocco in 1983 (the year the
U.S. invaded Grenada), there still might be a few left (extinction is
often an inexact science). That possibility is sometimes used in
tourism come-ons like an article in Outside Magazine that touted the
chance of well-heeled backpacker encountering a "rare Atlas Leopard."
***
Estimates
vary, but roughly 50,000 animal and plant species become extinct each
year. That's more than 137 per day, about six per hour, and just about one
every 10 minutes. How many species that were still around when you
began reading this article have now joined the Atlas Mountains Bear,
Lion, and Leopard?
How long must we wait until the Confused Human becomes a thing of the past?
***
Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at: http://www.mickeyz.net.
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