How to become a proper nature lover with a rifle

Of course, one must not forget: hobby hunters don't act out of self-interest, they have a state mandate! So they say, anyway. A mandate that they issued, examined and approved themselves, quite objectively, of course.

A true cycle of responsibility: The recreational hunters declare themselves wildlife guardians, shoot a few animals and then proudly point to politics, claiming that's what they supposedly want. Responsibility is indeed a favorite word. It sounds like a sense of duty, civic spirit, almost heroic. When someone asks what this responsibility specifically consists of, the answer is usually: 'Well, uh... that thing with nature.'

This turns recreational hunting into a moral achievement where one is simultaneously perpetrator, control authority and applauder. Who needs separation between office and passion when everything sounds so wonderfully official?

The matter of understanding nature

Particularly charming is also the pedagogical missionary zeal of many recreational hunters. With serious voices, they explain to everyone who doesn't carry weapons that they don't understand the 'connections in nature' at all. Only those who regularly shoot living beings are supposed to grasp the bigger picture, according to this logic.

In truth, however, it's often precisely those who cultivate a peculiar, almost sectarian worldview. Pub wisdom passed down through generations is elevated to natural laws, and anyone who says otherwise is immediately dismissed as a 'romantic urbanite.' They defend their territory, not only in the forest, but also in thinking.

Yet recreational hunting has long become less naturalistic than ideological. A closed circle of justification, self-confirmation and 'tradition.' Their own myth is maintained like a hunting blind, screwed to the past, with a view to moral superiority.

So in the end remains the feeling of having accomplished something great. A bit of adventure, a bit of power, a little 'I'm doing something for nature.' And when the deer hangs, it's photographed, posted and celebrated, after all the world should know that one belongs to the good guys.

It gets particularly creative when recreational hunters speak of 'necessary population regulation,' as if most animal species have been waiting for millions of years for a human with a certificate and reflective vest to finally show up. Nature has its own regulatory system: food, space, climate, diseases and other predators. But this system has one disadvantage: it doesn't distribute hunting leases and doesn't award medals for pulling triggers.

So they simply declare themselves an 'indispensable regulatory measure,' although many populations settle at levels determined by habitat and resources quite well without a hail of bullets. Convenient: First habitats are fragmented, wildlife disturbed and fed, then the self-created problems are sold as a 'mandate.' Anyone who points out that most animal species don't need recreational management with rifles is considered in this parallel universe not enlightened, but naive.