Today, in my first and last column, I'd like to talk about Knut the polar bear and make him a metaphor for what I consider a huge problem in modern society. Many of you may already know Knut because of his silky-soft fur and cuddly appearance. For those of you who aren't familiar, Knut is a German-born baby polar bear currently residing at the Berlin Zoo. My interest in Knut is twofold: one, Knut is a baby polar bear, and two, Knut is at the center of a worldwide controversy.
Because, you see, Knut's mother, a cantankerous former circus bear named Tosca, rejected the whippersnapper when he popped out of the womb; ethical issues arose as the Berlin Zoo stepped in to raise the young bear sans mere. While the public imagination was captured by the animal, with thousands flocking to see Knut's first public appearance, a single environmental activist went so far as to call for the death of the bear, declaring that humans should not interfere with nature's law.
The lines were drawn: Knut was, to various groups, a cute bear, a scientific experiment, and, to the zoo, a commodity. Attendance at the Berlin park doubled, and, after the zoo trademarked the bear's name, its stock value more than doubled. The Knut phenomenon was undeniable, and, eventually, public opinion forced the environmentalist to recant his statement.
Because he was a cute polar bear, Knut lives on to this day.
The fact that Knut's cuteness helped him stay alive makes the story more about human conduct than about the bear-it's about two parts of human nature that can easily become opposite forces: the desire to save baby animals, and the desire to argue over everything. When those two face off, the baby animals win.
Let me make a brief digression, which will become an example when I reveal my point later:
A few weeks ago I was in California, where I talked with prominent climatologist Stephen H. Schneider, a Stanford professor who has been a consultant to the Nixon, Reagon, Bush Sr., Clinton and Bush Jr. administrations. I was interested in how Schneider has attempted to convince people that global warming is real. He discusses the issue not as Al Gore does, with declarations of impending disaster, but instead as a gradual slip and slide from the top of a mountain. Schneider made a plea that, to me, is smart. He asked me to think of global warming as a natural disaster-a fire, a tornado or a flood-and to think of the earth as my house. If you want to be safe, Schneider argued to me, you should purchase homeowner's insurance.
But the fact of the matter is that this argument isn't working; people are listening but not hearing, and they're certainly not driven to action. And so, my point:
In the rest of your lives, as all of us go on to jobs at the head of corporations, as teachers to future leaders, as artists, it would be really quite great if we thought of all important problems in our life as issues of "Saving Knut." Saving Knut doesn't, of course, refer solely to the soft little polar bear babe-think creatively! Knut can be the earth in the global warming conflict, Knut can be the thousands dying in Darfur, Knut can even be Ryan Seacrest's dignity (whoops, sorry Ryan, that version of Knut was a still-born!). But if we thought of every problem we had to solve as keeping a baby polar bear alive, we'd certainly accomplish something.
And sure, it's a little sad that we'd only solve these massive problems in today's world by tricking people into thinking we were saving a cute bear, but who cares! We'd have a new world order, a responsible society that cared for all its brothers and sisters. So, as I graduate from this place and move on, my final public words at Duke shall be these: call or write your local politician and tell them, in between begging for that internship, to save the metaphorical baby polar bear. You'll get that internship, no sweat, and you'll be doing us all a huge favor.
Brian McGinn is a Trinity senior. He is the former film editor and current senior lead writer for recess.
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