“MAN IS THE CRUELEST ENEMY OF MAN”

(Nala, a Siberian Husky, meets an effigy of a North American Gray Wolf…and wonders mightily!)

The title of this piece is a quote by Johann Gottlieb Fichte, one of the founders of the German Idealist School of philosophy (whose body of theories was inspired and influenced by the ethical and moral teachings of Immanuel Kant). A good friend who is a poet, colleague and kindred soul yesterday brought the reference to my attention in a conversation we were having at a local café, over late-harvested Zamboangan Mukratti Beaver tea and Polish Knovzepskiy muffins (not!).

As I was pondering the sad truth of Fichte’s observation today, it occurred to me that it stood incomplete as written, for it ought properly to have been rendered as follows: “Man is the cruelest enemy of man and the best friend of dogs.”

As I sit here, developing this thought, with fingers poised over the keyboard like five emaciated vultures ready to pounce on carrion, I glance reflectively up at one of my book shelves whereupon are perched three anatomically complete skulls. The first is that of an early-middle-aged Asian male (his name is ‘Yorick’, in case you’re wondering). The second that of a Siberian wolf and the third of a domestic dog…in this case a Siberian Husky dog.

(left-to-right: resin cast of a Siberian Wolf skull, genuine Siberian Husky and genuine Human skull.)