Day 72: The Will of the Forest

The meadow was packed. Birds, squirrels, mice, rats, voles, rabbits, hedgehogs, shrews, deer, raccoons, badgers, foxes, weasels—Mei gave up trying to count all the different species who were crowded around Moonrise Hill.

The only space that wasn’t completely filled was a semicircle of land outside the entrance to their cave. There, Gabu and Mei were joined by Greta and Linda. Darrel and Leo hadn’t arrived yet, although Greta assured them they would be here. Somehow, it hadn’t occurred to Mei that he and Gabu would have to be near Darrel again. What if he tried to hurt Gabu again? No, he wouldn’t dare try it with all these people around.

At the front of the crowd, Mei saw people he recognised. Sagi, Mii, Kuro-san and Takkan were all standing together, smiling at Mei whenever he looked their way. There were also people he’d met at Theatre Day, Philosophy Day and Anything Day, although he couldn’t remember their names. Toto and Riri were there too, just not at the same time. Every few minutes, one of them would fly back to the forest and the other would return, both wanting to keep abreast of developments but not wanting to leave Hikari alone.

Gabu had managed to walk out of the cave and lay himself down on the grass with almost no assistance from Mei, holding his broken leg (his left foreleg) limply in the air while he hopped forward on the other three. The day was lovely, and Gabu seemed to be enjoying spending time in the fresh air and sunlight after more than a day spent inside. He seemed almost oblivious to the huge crowd gathered around them.

After several minutes of waiting, Mei spotted the two sets of antlers making their way towards them through the crowd. “They’re coming.” Gabu tried to stand up, but gave up quickly and settled himself back down.

“We won’t let them hurt you,” Greta said. She indicated with her head a group of three unfamiliar deer (two does and one stag) who were standing watchfully at the edge of the crowd. Mei hadn’t noticed them until now. One of the does caught Greta’s eye and raised her brow questioningly. Greta gave a tiny shake of her head, and the doe nodded and looked away.

“Are you sure you’re not the leader of the forest?” Mei asked jokingly.

Greta didn’t get a chance to answer. Just then, Darrel and Leo broke through the final ranks of the crowd and entered the space where Gabu, Mei, Greta and Linda were standing (or lying, in Gabu’s case). Wordlessly, they moved to the opposite side of the clearing, the crowd moving back to make room for them. Linda walked over to stand beside them.

Leo looked slightly nervous, Mei thought. He kept glancing from one direction to another, as if searching for a place to look where dozens of pairs of eyes wouldn’t be staring back at him. He didn’t find anywhere. Darrel, on the other hand, was resolute. He stared fixedly at Gabu, Mei and Greta, barely even blinking. Linda, when Mei looked at her, smiled apologetically. Mei couldn’t quite bring himself to smile back.

Greta stepped into the middle of the clearing and addressed the crowd in a loud, clear voice. “Yesterday morning, Darrel, aided by his partner Leo, lured Gabu and Mei into the mountain, separated them, and kicked Gabu off a ledge. After falling a considerable distance, Gabu landed, broke his leg, and was unable to move. Darrel then proceeded towards Gabu and raised his hoof at Gabu and Mei. After some words from Leo, both stags left Gabu and Mei alone on the mountain and returned to this forest.

“Some days prior to that,” Greta continued, “Gabu and two other wolves, Jess and Gon, had set out to hunt deer in the eastern forest. The idea to do so came from Mei, who reasoned that a single deer could feed all three wolves the same as could many smaller animals. When Mei disclosed these events at a recent philosophy group meeting, at which Darrel and Leo were present, they feared that Darrel’s wife Maureen may have been killed, and the two of them left to investigate. As we now know, their fears were correct.

“Does anyone dispute the veracity of these facts?” Greta concluded, and was met with silence. Greta turned to Gabu and Mei, and then to Darrel and Leo. “Do all of you accept this as an accurate summation of what happened?”

All four of them nodded.

“Good. I’ve arranged this meeting because a large number of you expressed your outrage at the way in which Darrel and Leo acted yesterday.” This was met with a ripple of murmurs throughout the crowd. “One animal killing or attempting to kill another is a terrible thing. In the case of predators killing to survive, this is widely accepted as a necessary evil. However, there has never until now been a case where one animal has tried to kill another out of spite or retribution.

“This presents a difficult moral dilemma: Should we tolerate attacks by non-predators on predators, either retributive or preemptive, if those attacks will negate the harm that predator would have done in the future?” The murmurs grew louder. “We will now commence with an ethical discussion on this matter, with myself arguing that such attacks should be condemned and Linda arguing in favour of allowing such attacks. Linda, will you begin?”

“How about I start?” Darrel said. The crowd became silent. “I greatly respect you, Greta. We’ve always had our disagreements, but I’ve come to appreciate the way you conduct yourself in ethical debates. You’ve always been an advocate for the common good, that no single animal is more important than the forest as a whole, and that fact is at the heart of why I stand by my decision to attempt to end Gabu’s life.

“We all know Gabu and Mei. Their story never fails to bring a tear to the eye of anyone who hears it. But, sadly, their being here comes at a terrible price. Every day that wolf is alive, people die to keep him that way. There’s no way around it. This fact is so deeply ingrained in predators’ lives that it has come to be known as the ‘Gabu Problem.’” Mei recoiled at hearing those words. They’d seemed so quaint when Takkan had used them all those weeks ago, but they sounded deeply ominous when spoken by Darrel now. “When I found out that my dearest Maureen had been killed, I decided that I would be the one to solve it. One life does not outweigh many, Greta. You know that better than anyone.”

Mei couldn’t believe what he was hearing. This was so unexpected that he hadn’t even known to be afraid of it. Darrel had clearly rehearsed his speech to sound as convincing as possible, and he was succeeding. It touched on all the points that Mei had agonised over so many times, and to which he had found no satisfying counterargument. The animals in the crowd continued to watch silently, waiting for whoever was going to talk next. Mei couldn’t tell how many of them had been convinced by Darrel’s words.

“Thank you for starting us off, Darrel,” Greta said. “If I understand your point correctly, you are saying that we should allow any person to be killed if their death would benefit others. That would mean, for instance, that if there is a water shortage, then those of us who require more water than others should be killed to ensure that there is enough to go around. Indeed, there may be situations in which the death of any one of us could be deemed to advance the common good. The knowledge of this, that any of us may be killed at any time, is likely to cause more distress than such a maxim would prevent.” It was a weak argument; even Mei could see that.

“That’s a catch-all counterargument,” Linda said. “Whenever utilitarianism produces a result that conflicts with a person’s subjective intuition of right and wrong, the ‘knowledge causes distress’ argument is often the only recourse. Relying on it amounts to saying, ‘we should only use utilitarianism when it supports the intuitions we would have followed anyway.’”

Greta bit her lip. It was clear that this was exactly the hole she was hoping wouldn’t be picked at.

“However,” Linda continued with a slight smile, “the fact that utilitarianism so often produces unintuitive results is a good reason not to use it at all.” Darrel’s head snapped down to look at Linda with narrowed eyes. “But we’re getting off topic. The pertinent question is whether animals should be allowed to kill to protect their own lives or that of other animals.

“To answer that question, we can examine precedent using deontology. Consider what happens when a carnivore kills their prey. To phrase it as a maxim, ‘a carnivore may take the life of another animal to ensure their own survival.’ If we universalise this, we find that any animal may take the life of another animal to ensure their own survival.

“By taking a somewhat loose interpretation of the concept of killing to include killing by proxy, we can then generalise this further and derive the maxim, ‘an animal may induce in another animal the desire to kill for the purpose of ensuring the first animal’s survival.’ This, I believe, is what happened when Darrel made the decision to kill Gabu. The unknown animals whose lives are threatened by Gabu’s existence induced in Darrel the desire to kill Gabu to prevent those animals from dying. If we assume that this constitutes as good a reason for Darrel to kill as would be to preserve his own life, then we can find no fault in Darrel acting upon this desire.”

“You make a good point,” Greta admitted. “Would you allow us some time to think on what you have said and prepare a suitable counterargument?”

“Of course,” Linda said.

When it became clear that nothing more would be said for the time being, the crowd began talking amongst themselves, the sound of which granted Greta, Gabu and Mei privacy to talk without being overheard.

“That sounded like a much more convincing argument than what Darrel said,” Mei said. “We could argue about whether killing to save other people is the same as killing to save yourself?”

“I don’t think that would end well for us,” Gabu said.

“They were both good arguments,” Greta said. “I’m sorry, I should have prepared better.”

Just then, Mei noticed Takkan. He was still standing at the front of the crowd with their other friends, but he was mouthing something at them repeatedly. “What’s Takkan saying?” Mei asked.

Greta looked at him. “Categorical imperative.” When he saw that Greta had got the message, Takkan looked away to examine the sky innocently. “But how could...? Perhaps...” Greta trailed off, deep in thought. Mei didn’t dare to interrupt to ask what she was thinking. “Yes, that could work.”

After a few more minutes of putting her thoughts in order, Greta was ready to resume the discussion. “Thank you for your patience,” she said in a loud and clear voice. The murmuring of voices faded quickly. “For ease of analysis, Linda, your maxim can be simplified to, ‘when the lives of people in a group are at risk, a member of that group may kill animals outside that group in order to ensure the group members’ survival.’ Is that consistent with what you have said so far?”

“It is,” Linda said simply.

“Let us examine what happens when we apply that maxim first to prey animals, and then simultaneously to predators. The present state of affairs is that predators kill prey animals to survive. Hence, the lives of all prey animals are at risk from predators, and so any prey animal may kill any predator at any time.

“Now our state of affairs is that prey animals kill predators to survive. By the same maxim, this gives predators a reason to kill prey animals even when the predators are not in need of food. The more that prey animals are a risk to predators, the more predators must become a risk to prey animals, and on it goes in a self-reinforcing cycle.

“Because prey animals are now at greater risk than they were originally, this contradicts the stated end of ensuring their own survival. Contrary to that end, in a war between all predators and all prey animals, it would almost certainly be the prey animals who suffer the most. Thus, this maxim fails the universalisation principle and should not be acted upon.”

Darrel laughed derisively. “That’s clearly nonsense, right, Linda?”

Linda didn’t answer at first. She was mulling over Greta’s words. “No, it’s a logically sound counterargument.”

Darrel continued to look at Linda expectantly. “Aren’t you going to make a counter-counterargument?”

“I don’t think there’s anything more that I can productively say on the matter,” Linda said impassively. “You’re welcome to try, though. Deontology always was your preferred moral theory, after all.”

That did not reassure Darrel. “Fine, then. You’re misapplying universalisation when you say the maxim must apply to all herbivores and all carnivores simultaneously.”

“How so?” Greta asked.

He didn’t have an answer for that. “You’ve twisted Linda’s maxim into something you know can’t be universalised. It’s a scarecrow fallacy.”

Greta only raised her brow in response to that.

Darrel was getting desperate. “Carnivores don’t count as ‘everyone.’ They can’t survive without leaching off others, so they can’t really be counted as independent persons at all.”

“Thank you, Darrel,” Greta said. She stepped forward to address the crowd. “Moral philosophy cannot carry punitive weight, on account of there being no single moral theory that is objectively correct and which everyone can be expected to follow. For that reason, the matter of whether Darrel and Leo should be allowed to remain in the forest will be decided by—”

“Wait!” Darrel interrupted. “I apologise for those last remarks; they were untrue and uncalled for. But if you’re rejecting Linda’s maxim, surely that casts doubt on whether wolves are justified in eating meat to begin with, which were the grounds on which Gabu was allowed to remain in the forest when he first arrived?”

To Mei’s horror, Greta thought about this. “A valid point.”

“In that case...” Darrel now addressed the crowd. “Everyone here will now have the opportunity to vote on what the conclusion of the meeting shall be. Firstly, could everyone back away a good distance?” The crowd hesitated at first, but did as Darrel said when Greta nodded her assent. “Thank you. Now, everyone who believes that Gabu should be exiled from the forest, please come forward.”

Mei saw Gabu’s fur stand on end as, one by one, animals stepped out of the now distant crowd and began walking towards them. Soon, they were surrounded by a solid ring of animals three or four deep. Mei didn’t see anyone he recognised, save for one woodpecker who might have been the one that had harassed them a couple of Theatre Days ago. Many of them were staring defiantly at Gabu, as if daring him to attack them in his injured state.

“Thank you,” Darrel said, and the animals slowly rejoined the crowd. Mei was thankful to be away from them.

“And now,” Greta said, “everyone who believes that Darrel and Leo should be exiled from the forest, come forward now.” This was it, Mei thought, the moment that would decide their fate. Whatever happened, at least it wouldn’t be as bad as having to leave his home the first time around.

For the span of several heartbeats, nobody moved. Then, a white goat stepped out from the front row of the crowd and started walking purposefully forward. It was Mii. Before she’d reached them, others followed in her wake. Sagi, Kuro-san, Takkan, Frank, Janice, Tanya—they were among the first. Deer, squirrels, birds, foxes, animals of all species started to come forward. Mei spotted Hiyaku dragging their parents forward. Ava, whose brother Lucas had been eaten by Gabu, strode confidently forward at the head of a group of squirrels. Toto and Riri flew over the heads of the crowd, presumably having come directly from their nest, and landed next to Mii.

The animals began to form up into a ring around them, which quickly became two, then three, then four animals thick. It was still growing. “You should be ashamed of yourself,” a voice Mei didn’t recognise said, presumably directed at Darrel. “Haven’t they gone through enough?” More comments followed. “Leave them alone!” “There’ll always be a place here for you, Gabu.” The noise began to grow, as did the crowd of animals clustered around them, until people were roaring their support for Gabu and Mei.

Mei noticed Kuro-san whisper something to Mii and the others, and then the seven of them started chanting something. It took them a couple of tries to get it in sync. “Arashi no yoru ni! Arashi no yoru ni!” One stormy night, Mei translated in his head. “Arashi no yoru ni! Arashi no yoru ni!” It spread quickly through the crowd. “Arashi no yoru ni! Arashi no yoru ni!” Soon, everyone was shouting it in unison.

Greta tried in vain to calm everyone down. “Thank you, that’s enough!”

“ARASHI NO YORU NI! ARASHI NO YORU NI!”

A few larger animals, mostly deer and a few foxes, pushed past the front of the crowd and began advancing menacingly towards Darrel and Leo, who backed away in terror.

Mei hurried to get between them. “That’s enough. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

The advancing animals got the message and retreated back into the crowd. That calmed things somewhat, and the chant began to die down.

“You’re all siding with him? The carnivore?” Darrel said meekly. Mei couldn’t quite believe it either.

“The will of the forest is conclusive,” Greta said. “Darrel and Leo, on behalf of the Emerald Forest, I hereby ask that you leave the forest. You have until midday tomorrow to say your goodbyes. Gabu and Mei, as we have now proved for the second time, the Emerald Forest will always be a home to you. You belong here as much as anyone else does. The meeting is now at an end. Thank you, everyone, for your time.”

It took a long time for everyone to disperse, with many people wanting to congratulate Gabu and Mei personally on the favourable outcome. Eventually, only Gabu, Mei, Greta, Linda, Darrel and Leo were left standing there, in addition to their close friends, who had stayed behind. Darrel and Leo were looking crestfallen.

Despite himself, Mei found himself feeling sorry for them. “Where will you go?” he asked.

“The eastern forest,” Leo said, “or perhaps further.”

“I really am truly sorry for what happened,” Gabu said. He was still lying on the ground. “I don’t think I ever got a chance to tell you that.”

Darrel grunted noncommittally, turned away from them, and started walking east.

Leo turned to follow Darrel, but Mei stopped him. “Wait. I don’t think any of this was your idea, was it, Leo? You don’t have to leave if you don’t want to. We’ll tell everyone you can stay.”

Leo smiled sadly. “I’m sorry too. But no, I won’t stay.” He looked towards Darrel, who was still walking away sullenly. “What would you do if Gabu had to leave, even if it was because he did something wrong? He’s got no one left now, other than me. And, at the end of the day, I still love him, no matter what.”

Mei smiled back. “Take care of him.”

“I will.” With that, Leo turned away and caught up with Darrel. The two of them walked side by side away from the Emerald Forest, and toward their new life.