Of Cranes, Humans and Hypocrisy

When I saw some of my friends on Orkut list ‘hypocrisy’ as one of their turn-off’s, I began to think of the Cranes. Yes, the Cranes. (Not the machines. The birds – the birds with the long necks.) The Cranes that I visited at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

I was extremely reluctant (as ever, with my whole hearted opposition to every new thing that comes up) to visit ICF. But since the majority of my trip-mates (if that’s what you’d call a bunch of guys that meet for the first time and make a trip together) were up for it, I decided to tag along with them. Before we visited the cranes in the area, we were shown a small movie about the history of cranes. It was very enlightening – years ago, these cranes inhabited thousands of acres of lakes, marshes and other land and water bodies. Over the years as humans began to evolve and expand, they ate into the abode of these cranes. Industrialization, human growth, expansive factories, expensive houses, extensive play grounds and most of all the excessive needs of the humans – all these led to the extinction of several species of cranes. Suddenly we humans began to realize this reality and classified most species of these cranes as ‘endangered’. And then we built sanctuaries -on a few acres of land. With a certain square foot by square foot of ‘area’ (read cage) allotted for each species of these ‘endangered’ cranes - an area where a male and female of the species are put together and forced to breed. And when they do breed, the eggs that they lay are taken away from them (and replaced with ‘dummies’ – such kind hearted humans we are – we don’t want the cranes to get hurt!) – for some kind of stupid research or for the so called re-introduction in to the wild (and where is this wilderness?). And of course there is the (completely unnatural) cross-breeding of these crane species that we humans experiment with (in our quest to find the ‘perfect’ crane species I guess – so that the same kind of thing can be done with humans – part of evolution, eh?).

While engulfed in this thought process when visiting these cranes, I suddenly realized that we humans haven’t done this with just these helpless cranes. Then I remembered that the white man slaughtered, massacred, butchered and drove most of his ‘brown’/ ‘red’ brethren to extinction. And today, the same white man is the harbinger of human equality and democracy – and of course he has assigned special regions (agency areas), instituted committees, setup memorials and built museums in memory of the native people. How considerate!! Exterminate the majority first, and emancipate the residual later! And then I began to wonder – why stop at the white man? Don’t all of us humans do this? Preach things we don’t ever practice? Do things that are completely contradictory to what we propose/ preach? Speak grandiosely about magnanimity and honesty, while waiting with a bated breath to cheat and back-stab each other- and when we fail/ succeed in doing so, call the other person a ‘hypocrite’?

Maybe this is the secret of the evolution and expansion of us humans. Maybe this is what the Darwin theory is all about – survival of the fittest – and of the heartless.

PS: This article has not been written to condemn the activities of the ICF – in fact the foundation is to be appreciated for its efforts to preserve the cranes. This article is more of a reflection of what we humans are, of the harm we have caused to the other inhabitants of this beautiful planet and of how our greed is driving us towards our own extinction. The volunteers and employees of ICF are an example of the goodness that still remains in us humans – people like me that write senseless articles and those like you that read this for passing your time ought to learn from them. If not learn, the least we can do is donate to their noble cause.