The Splendours and Miseries of Eco-propaganda
First of all, happy new year everybody!
The meta-idea of the episode "Bats!" is as simple as an orange: if you have any problem with nature, don't use unnatural solutions. Or it will always backfire.
That's unfortunate, but very expectable. Nowadays the totalitarian green ideology seems to dominate our civilization. Funny thing, that MLP:FiM, trying to propagate this ideology, shows how essentially weak and emotionally-based it is.
At the beginning of argument, we are shown, that Fluttershy's view of creatures in question is highly idealized: she depicts them as cute as possible. Her standpoint is simple: leave them be, because they are living beings. Which is highly normal for a person like Fluttershy, but has nothing to do with current problem. And thus she tries to score points for them on emotional level.
After the radical attempt to exterminate this specific population of vampire-bats goes south Fluttershy suggests giving them a part of orchard as a reserve. But when we think about it, her so called "solution" isn't a solution at all, so, it won't work. When you settle a population into ideal environment with plenty of food and no mutual foes, it will multiply through procreation until there not enough food for everyone. In a normal situation, be it a national park or Petri dish, individuals will compete for the food and losers will starve to death or get too weak to procreate. In our case, however, they will just expand, means, take over the rest of the orchard. Applejack will have the same problem only much larger scale. Because then there will be much more of them. Too bad, the little girls, who watch this show won't see it.
And the argument of "more seeds for more productive trees" is just ridiculous. I refuse to believe, that Applejack could buy it. The problem of seeds in the orchard plantation is pretty much non-existent for many reasons. The most important ones are that you need several years to grow a tree and you can plant only as many trees as much acres you have.
Generally, the idea "don't use unnatural solutions, or they will always backfire" is a shameless exaggeration. Which is not unexpected for a totalitarian ideology.
First of all, agriculture is unnatural on itself. But it is that unnatural practice that allows 300 million people to live on the territory, where only 2 million people use to live 500 years ago.
Also, we have to admit, sometimes, those radical solutions backfire. But we must look at both sides of the equation. We use insecticides, like DDT, they collect in the liver of Antarctic penguins. Which is unfortunate: penguins are cute. But when we ban them, we get 2 million deaths from malaria annually on our hands. But no, green activists don't want to hear it: penguins are cute and those suckers dying from malaria can go to hell.
Another thing is that "sometimes" doesn't mean "always". But it is what green activists believe: it's unnatural, so, it must be bad. We don't know how exactly, but it must. So, they try to ban golden rice that can save lives of more then a half million children dying each year from vitamin A deficiency. Because, you know, it's genetically modified, so, it must be bad somehow. And to hell with all those children. It looks like all that fighters for animal rights just hate humanity. Which reminds me, that Hitler was a veggie, too.
And what we see in "Bats" episode? Fluttershy, the known caretaker of animals, becomes a creature she wanted to protect: an ugly monster. She doesn't act like, sapient being, doesn't recognize her friends anymore and has only one drive in her life: thirst. If that's not a picture that speaks for itself, then I don't know what is.
The meta-idea of the episode "Bats!" is as simple as an orange: if you have any problem with nature, don't use unnatural solutions. Or it will always backfire.
That's unfortunate, but very expectable. Nowadays the totalitarian green ideology seems to dominate our civilization. Funny thing, that MLP:FiM, trying to propagate this ideology, shows how essentially weak and emotionally-based it is.
At the beginning of argument, we are shown, that Fluttershy's view of creatures in question is highly idealized: she depicts them as cute as possible. Her standpoint is simple: leave them be, because they are living beings. Which is highly normal for a person like Fluttershy, but has nothing to do with current problem. And thus she tries to score points for them on emotional level.
After the radical attempt to exterminate this specific population of vampire-bats goes south Fluttershy suggests giving them a part of orchard as a reserve. But when we think about it, her so called "solution" isn't a solution at all, so, it won't work. When you settle a population into ideal environment with plenty of food and no mutual foes, it will multiply through procreation until there not enough food for everyone. In a normal situation, be it a national park or Petri dish, individuals will compete for the food and losers will starve to death or get too weak to procreate. In our case, however, they will just expand, means, take over the rest of the orchard. Applejack will have the same problem only much larger scale. Because then there will be much more of them. Too bad, the little girls, who watch this show won't see it.
And the argument of "more seeds for more productive trees" is just ridiculous. I refuse to believe, that Applejack could buy it. The problem of seeds in the orchard plantation is pretty much non-existent for many reasons. The most important ones are that you need several years to grow a tree and you can plant only as many trees as much acres you have.
Generally, the idea "don't use unnatural solutions, or they will always backfire" is a shameless exaggeration. Which is not unexpected for a totalitarian ideology.
First of all, agriculture is unnatural on itself. But it is that unnatural practice that allows 300 million people to live on the territory, where only 2 million people use to live 500 years ago.
Also, we have to admit, sometimes, those radical solutions backfire. But we must look at both sides of the equation. We use insecticides, like DDT, they collect in the liver of Antarctic penguins. Which is unfortunate: penguins are cute. But when we ban them, we get 2 million deaths from malaria annually on our hands. But no, green activists don't want to hear it: penguins are cute and those suckers dying from malaria can go to hell.
Another thing is that "sometimes" doesn't mean "always". But it is what green activists believe: it's unnatural, so, it must be bad. We don't know how exactly, but it must. So, they try to ban golden rice that can save lives of more then a half million children dying each year from vitamin A deficiency. Because, you know, it's genetically modified, so, it must be bad somehow. And to hell with all those children. It looks like all that fighters for animal rights just hate humanity. Which reminds me, that Hitler was a veggie, too.
And what we see in "Bats" episode? Fluttershy, the known caretaker of animals, becomes a creature she wanted to protect: an ugly monster. She doesn't act like, sapient being, doesn't recognize her friends anymore and has only one drive in her life: thirst. If that's not a picture that speaks for itself, then I don't know what is.