180 South

　　I watched a movie featuring environmental issues. "180 South" is the title of the movie. The founders of Patagonia and the North Face got together and set out for a long journey to the south in 1968. During the journey, they got inspired and later succeeded in their business. The movie depicted a young man who traced their journey recently and the awesome and beautiful scenery of the Patagonia district of Argentina was spectacular. In the movie, the director made the young man start to mention environmental protection. I felt something uneasy at that time. The movie took on an aspect of leftism.
　　The leftists always call for irrefutable slogans such as "for children", "for environment protection", "No more war" and "No more Hiroshima". These slogans are actually right, I think. However, are their acts acceptable? Their self-righteous opinions were repeatedly portrayed in the movie. I became sick in the latter half of the movie.
　　What they are calling for is right, but what they are doing is not always right. It is my conclusion about the leftists. Something was strange in the movie. Coming back home, I checked some website concerning the Patagonia Brand and found a surprising fact; Patagonia is one of the sponsors of the notorious Sea Shepherd. It looks like they don't know that humans cannot help killing other kinds of creatures to live. There's a verb "itadaku" in Japanese, which means "receive something with gratitude and in a pious manner". We use this verb in the processing of meat not simply saying "kill" or "receive the lives of other creatures". Japanese has the backbone of the Shinto religion. There's nothing to be accused of by the cruel people of the Sea Shepherd.
　　Coming back on track, the scenery in this movie was nice, but the ideology behind the movie was not acceptable for me. I shall never buy the product of Patagonia and North Face from now.

I wrote about Shinto before here:
http://kumo.typepad.jp/weblog/2005/12/shinto-religion.html

(Vocabulary)
irrefutable  反駁(はんばく)できない, 論破できない
self-righteous 独善的な
portray 〈本・映画などが〉…を描く, 表現する [同意] depict
portray sb/sth as sth ＜…＞を＜…＞として描く［であると表現する］
The president likes to portray himself as a friend of the poor. その大統領は自分自身を貧者の友であると表現したがる．
in a pious manner 敬けんな態度で

(Vocabulary from kind comments)
hamstring  (人)を制約する, …を妨げる
flat out (米) (強調して) 本当に, まったく
baleen くじらのひげ
ramification 《[C]通例複数形で》(フォーマル)  (決定・行動などの) 影響, 結果
legal/political/social ramifications  法律［政治，社会］への影響
life form 生物, 生命体
propagate [他](フォーマル) 〈考え・信念など〉 を広める, 普及させる
a) [他](専門) 〈植物・種子など〉 を育てる, 繁殖させる
b) [自] 育つ, 繁殖する
sustenance (フォーマル) (生命維持に必要な) 食物, 栄養（物）[同意] nourishment
go astray
〈物が〉 紛失する, なくなる
〈計画などが〉 うまくいかない
 正道を踏みはずす, 悪の道に染まる
lead sb astray
＜人＞を邪道に導く
＜人＞を惑わす, だます
prey on sb/sth
prey on sth ＜…＞を捕食する
prey on sb ＜弱者など＞をえじきにする
prey on sb's mind 〈事件・状況・考えなどが〉 ＜人＞の心をさいなむ
get off one's soapbox 演説をやめる、自説［自分の意見］を引っ込める
【反】get (up) on one's soapbox
hit/strike home 〈発言・状況などが〉 胸に突き刺さる, 身にしみる

Comments

[KUMO]

Thank you, Shiroi-Tora

I felt relieved to know that you fully understood what I'd like to say. Besides, I got various expressions from your comment as usual. At first, I took "prey" as your mis-typing of "pray" and couldn't catch you. After looking it up in the dictionary, I was surprised and happy to know the meaning. Thank you, again!

[Shiroi Tora]

Yes...it is their tactics which frequently lead to the hamstringing of themselves...besides, being flat out wrong on certain topics.

The Whales (with a few exceptions) are baleen strainers...they take in huge amounts of water and filter it through their strainers (baleen) to eat their main food source - krill (tiny shrimp) / Zooplankton / Phytoplankton.

This is the basis for the greatest food chain on earth (Phyto / Zooplankton). The O2 on earth mostly comes from the ocean..mostly from the phytoplankton and algae.

Now you have the largest ever living creatures...eating that which supplies almost all of life in tremendous quantities...and those which have a direct negative ramification on all of the higher sea life forms when allowed to propagate unhindered.

By keeping the whale population low (and not wasting the meat), hunting
them serves a dual purpose...immediate sustenance...and greater future harvests of all of the higher sea life forms (which would greatly propagate with larger food supplies available).

ALL higher life forms...must kill to live (yes... even Bambi...plants are alive too).

Once again...the Baleen feeders (Whales) are actually carnivorous (incidental Omnivores) ...krill (small shrimp) is what they favor. By humans consuming them...it is no different from what the whales themselves practice... hunting and killing to eat.

People are so easily lead astray because they have taken critical reasoning our of schools worldwide. Our greatest defense against all of the isms (Marxism - in all of its manifestations / racism / sexism / nepotism / favoritism / ageism...etc)...it goes on and on....is critical thinking.

I've had many an argument with people where I used to work on such issues. Many think emotionally...and so...they are easily preyed upon by the con men in life...espousing causes with great emotional appeal...with little true substance....and the con men get rich out of it.

Sorry....I'll get off of my soap box now...it is just that this article hit home with me.