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June 29, 2009
Antique ivory, entertainment, and morality
TheBlueEyedGirl and I enjoy playing dominoes. One of my friends got us an antique eboy and ivory set. It is a work of art. Now though we eat meat, we regard elephants as animals worthy of special moral consideration due to their intelligence. We certainly we wouldn't buy any elephant meat or ivory that came from a elephant today. So last night when we played a few rounds we wondered if continuing to play a gamemade from the teeth of a sentient animal was cruel. On the one had, I can see us as honoring the elephant by continuing to use the dominoes. It doesn't do anyone any good to throw them away. We cannot undue the suffering caused to the animal and by using them and admiring their beauty I could see us as adding dignity to its death. On the other hand, let's say that someone had a Nazi or Cambodian genocide horror that made a set of dominoes from human bone.Would anyone get behind the argument above? That by using them I somehow honor the dead? I don't think anyone would accept that argument there. I cannot put my finger on the difference, but I sense there is one.If I decide that I need to bury the elephant teeth with dignity, I'm not sure how to do that. I can't exactly fly to an elephant graveyard in Africa. Further, I've seen the fossils of our ancestors in natural history museums, and there doesn't seem to be a big ethical problem there. So what is it about human dice that summons our digust instinct that isn't troubled by museams with staged skeletons of astralopithicus? Where do elephant dominoes belong on that scale? I'm at a loss.
Posted by OneEyedMan at June 29, 2009 5:12 PM
Comments
Also, there are no Elephant graveyards, unless you're in some "darkest-Africa" Republic Serial.
Posted by: Monk ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.belligerati.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 29, 2009 8:56 PM
Another myth of childhood bites the dust.
Posted by: TheOneEyedMan at June 29, 2009 9:34 PM
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