Inflammatory isn't it? The title not only got your attention but in all likelihood, you agree. If you disagree, this blog is for you. Why do I think hunters have gotten soft? I will get into that and why it's a dangerous, slippery slope getting away from visceral nature of hunting.
In farming, a farmer uses a tractor or farm equipment to harvest crops. The word harvest, according to the dictionary, means the act or process of gathering crops. Animals which hunters KILL aren't crops. So, why do so many hunters use the word harvest for whenever they kill an animal during the process of hunting? I think it's because hunters, as a whole, have gotten soft.
The modern day hunter has fallen victim to modern age culture. They have fallen out of the instinctual relationship with hunting in which an apex predator dominates the food chain. News flash, if you are good hunter, you are an apex predator. By using the term harvest instead of kill, you detach from the nature of the act you committed. As a hunter, we take on an enormous amount of responsibility in taking an animals life and it is not meant to be taken lightly. We have to realize what has been done. We killed and we took the life of another living creature. We must appreciate the accomplishment and appreciate the magnitude of what we did. We cannot shy away from the kill by avoiding the very word which describes what we did. It certainly can't be done because the soccer mom or keyboard warrior doesn't like it. Hunting is extremely popular regardless of what some folks say, yet so many hunters are afraid to express the nature of what they did when they made the decision to take an animal's life.
At a very basic primal level hunters are killers with a moral compass and the know what they have done. They know that if the time ever came where living off the land became survival, they could kill to live. They can rise to the occasion and become the apex predator we are meant to be. Give me a rifle, shotgun or bow and I'll prove I'm the top of the food chain. Not because it's macho, but because it's in our nature.
In short, respect what you are doing as hunters, when you take an animal's life. You are killing it to provide sustenance and possibly even proving to yourself you are the apex predator. Don't shy away from it and be soft. Crops are harvested and animals are killed. It's harsh, but so is death. This isn't meant to be a rant, this is meant to make you think and be proud of being a hunter. To leave you with a closing thought, when times get hard, hard people rise, soft people will fail and fail miserably. So what do you want to be? A hardened hunter with a firm grasp on life? Or a soft hunter who cowers to societal molds?
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