The fish is brought out, its flesh cut but still weakly alive. This proves that it is very fresh. A napkin covers its eyes so the diners won�t be disturbed by an expression of fear, or pain. The fish buckles, exposing bones and bleeding a little. The diners have chopsticks for the easy parts, and knives for skin and recalcitrant bits of flesh. The diners speak lightly of friends not present and accounts they�ve won. The fish�s gills shudder; the exposed side is eaten to the rib-bones. The diners open the tail. The fish survives almost until the meal ends, almost until all that remains are bones and guts and blood. The diners only notice that the fish isn�t trying to move any more. Satisfied and full, they put their jackets on and leave a tip before walking out into the upscale night.
How the fuck am I supposed to trust people, when this is considered a delicacy?
And yet I know, they can�t help it. Just as hyenas will eat a wildebeest alive, or a cat will play with a terrified mouse, human beings will commit small atrocities and large ones.
They are as blameless as a shark. All the Great Apes are, even though all species create horrors that even they find reprehensible. Like a shark, like a hyena, the Great Apes have no choice but to do these things. It�s somewhere in their instincts to savor the suffering of another. Even one of their own.
In a war on the other side of the world, winning soldiers line the children on the ground. Another soldier, a child himself, only thirteen, picks up the ax. His officers smile and crack jokes as he begins the process. The village children are made to stretch their arms flat against the ground. The kid with the ax aims for the middle of the arms. One girl screams when they pull her arm up to expose it. The soldier with the ax cuts her lips off as punishment. The officers pick up the hands; one gets silly and chases another with a hand stump-end out. Blood is everywhere. Some of the children will live. In a refuge for amputees one girl later says she hardly felt the blade; it was so sudden it didn�t hurt until later. But she used to enjoy drawing.
Blameless and pure as piranhas.
