Thrylix wrote:Question though: why does intent even factor into stepping on bugs, given how fragile and insignificant they are compared to the world around them. They die to other bugs, rain, random events. Hell, I feel as though the smell of my feet is enough to kill the little guys.. So why should it bother me to squash them if I feel like it? Is there anything inherently evil or malicious about toying with beings so much less significant than you see yourself as being? Like I said before, compared to them I'm basically a giant.
LuckyR wrote:I didn't say it should bother you to do it, I said it does bother me to do it. But, ethically it doesn't bother western ethos if either one of us does it.
I have a problem with toying with weaker beings, namely bullying. Sadly, the more benign animals probably get the worst of it because bullies tend to choose easy targets - so venomous, poisonous and clawed animals would seem safest. So I think we should toy with insects to the extent that we'd be prepared to toy with lions, crocodiles or sharks.
I have no drama with killing bugs and rodents to defend our body or resources. However, considering their lives to be insignificant due to their small size and high mortality rate ignores our own existential situation - that we may one day be insignificant compared to an intelligent alien species (and in terms of individual physical size, insignificant to a number of other species here on earth). Hopefully, moral progress will turn out to be an essential component of technologically advanced societies.
I think of insects as interesting (and sometimes annoying) denizens of another dimension of life - a realm where Brownian motion matters, where single molecules matter, where the air is thick enough to break a fall, where each raindrop is like a bucketful and hail akin to boulders - with monstrous terrors everywhere and a high likelihood of at some stage being eaten alive, perhaps during the act of mating. I truly hope they don't feel much. Until we can be sure what they feel or not, it makes ethical sense to err on the side of caution with them, at least within the bounds of practicality.
A funny incident comes to mind. In the 90s I was sharing an old run down inner city terrace house near my work with a few people. The partner of a housemate stayed over most nights like an extra tenant. He was a classic greenie and professional protester type. Then we had a mouse infestation. I was keen to engage in the kind of "shock and awe campaign" that one does when infested with pests. Alas, (let's call him) Fred decides that we must not kill them because they are actually the native mouse, Antechinus.
At one point I was looking out the back door and there was this little mouse face looking at me from over the neighbour's fence. I'm saying, "Come on, you
cannot tell me that that is Antechinus!" and he's protesting, "No no no, look at the rounded ears!". I'm trying to explain that native mice don't infest inner city terrace houses to no avail. In the end we all had to move out
Pardon the offtopic reverie, although rodents raise the stakes somewhat, being much more aware and intelligent. Many people who would not worry about the torture of an insect would no doubt think of the torture of a rodent very differently; other mammals are much more relatable than insects.