9. What can we Humans learn from The Whales?
How is it ~ in the words of Heathcote Williams, in his epic poem WHALE NATION ~ how is it that:
In the water, Whales have become the dominant species,
without killing their own kind?
In the water, Whales have become the dominant species,
though they allow the resources they use to renew themselves?
In the water, Whales have become the dominant species,
though they use language to communicate, rather than to eliminate rivals?
In the water, Whales have become the dominant species,
though they do not broodily guard their patch with bristling security?
In the water, Whales have become the dominant species,
without trading innocence for the pretension of possessions?
In the water, Whales have become the dominant species,
though they acknowledge minds other than their own?
In the water, Whales have become the dominant species,
without allowing their populations to reach plague proportions?
On the occasion of Sitka WhaleFest 2023 [https://sitkawhalefest.org/], this is an invitation to think about something for a moment or so. This is an invitation to think about Whales and about what we Humans could and/or can learn from them. This is an invitation to ask yourself, “What can we learn from the Whales?” This is an invitation to ask yourself: “Can Humans learn from Whales? And if so, What?”
The Sitka WhaleFest has long established and distinguished itself as one of the pre-eminent gatherings on the Planet of scientists, naturalists, explorers, artists, musicians, craftswomen and men, master chefs, athletes, and concerned, knowledgeable folks gathering to learn about and to celebrate, among many other things, Whales and The Ocean.
What truly distinguishes WhaleFest most, perhaps, is that the scientists in attendance, in particular, are not there primarily to educate other, fellow scientists on what they have uncovered and discovered about Whales and The Ocean and such.
Rather, they are there to share what they have learned about their subject with we, those very same concerned and knowledgeable folks; in terms and ways that we, those folks, can grasp, absorb, understand, and appreciate. And perhaps even act upon.
This, then, is an invitation at WhaleFest 2023 to explore the possibilities and potentials of a proposed, provisional, working hypothesis: That we Humans may very well have much, much more to learn FROM Whales ~ the dominant species in the Ocean ~ than we Humans ~ at this stage the dominant species on the Planet ~ have to learn ABOUT Them.
Or, as another way of looking at it: What might we learn FROM The Whales?
For starters: How have they become that dominant species ~ as Williams put it ~ without killing their own kind while allowing the resources they use to renew themselves, while using language to communicate rather than eliminate rivals without guarding their patch with bristling security, or trading innocence for the pretension of possessions while acknowledging minds other than their own, and without allowing their populations to reach plague proportions?
Why, and more importantly, How have they done all that? How do they know What to do and How to do it? And/or, How did they learn all that? And How do they teach it to their young?
And most importantly, if Humans were to seek to learn all that~ or even just some of that ~from Them, would they teach us? And could we learn? And How are we to learn all this? Could we? Would we?
ps: Here are some Navigational Writings from scientists and philosophers [among other mystics] that have proven helpful in getting and keeping one’s bearings on this matter. May You find comfort, joy, and the provocation of thought in them, as well…:
Hal Whitehead ~ who probably knows more about these magnificent, mysterious mammals than any other living creature except other Sperm Whales ~ declares:
“Our ability to investigate even the most inaccessible parts of the universe is accelerating rapidly. I suspect that in a remarkably short time, many of the current mysteries of Whales will be solved . But this research will undoubtedly throw up another suite of questions. Where will it lead? My suspicion is that we will uncover increasing levels of social, cultural, and cognitive complexity.
“In the late 1990s two remarkable novels were published: White as the Waves, a retelling of Moby-Dick from the perspective of the whale, and The White Bone, about the destruction of elephant society as seen by elephants. Both novels use what is known of the biology and social lives of their subject species to build pictures of elaborate societies, cultures, and cognitive abilities. A reductionist might class these portraits with Winnie-the-Pooh as fantasies [but] for me they ring true, and may well come closer to the natures of these animals than the coarse numerical abstractions that come from my own scientific observations.
“We need to take these novels, note the large parts that are consistent with what we now know about Whales, and use them as hypotheses to guide our work. Whale culture may…include whole suites of techniques for making a living from an unpredictable ocean and relating to other Whales. It might encompass abstract concepts, per/raps even religion. Whale society may be little more complex than the representation of the cluster diagram…but there may be very much more. And we won’t find it if we don’t look.
“Working hypotheses for the next phase of Whale research should include the possibility that these animals possess elaborate and multi-layered social relationships, societies, cultures and evident cognitive abilities.”
– from SPERM WHALES: Social Evolution in the Ocean, by Hal Whitehead
“We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein do we err.
“For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never bear.
“They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow Prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”
– from THE OUTERMOST HOUSE, by Henry Beston
“Perhaps man has something to learn after all from fellow creatures without the ability to drive harpoons through living flesh, or poison with strontium the planetary winds. Perhaps learning to learn from The Whales would bring him once more into that mood of childhood innocence in which he talked successfully to all living things but had no power and no urge to harm, or own, dominate, exploit, or, as necessary, indeed to even destroy. It is worth at least a wistful thought that someday The Whales may talk to us and we to them. It would break, perhaps, the long loneliness that has made man a frequent terror and abomination to The Planet and all Life thereon, including especially, The Whales, even to himself.”
– from “The Long Loneliness,” in THE STAR THROWER, by Loren Eisley
“The study of Whales is not just a collection of curious facts about big, blubbery animals that cavort in the seas; it is for many people ~ though i am not one of them ~ the study of a mystical presence with which we share the planet. Whales are perceived by these people more as prophets than as monsters or barrels of oil or slabs of sashimi.”
“I have always suspected that Melville, author of MOBY-DICK; or, The Whale fully understood the role Whales might serve human consciousness if they could ever be properly installed there. He knew just how and by what steps Whales would enter our minds, and how once inside they would metastasize and diffuse throughout the whole engine of human ingenuity, mastering and predisposing it to their purpose. And that when this process had completed itself the Whale as Symbol would have become the Whale as Puppeteer ~ would start orchestrating, manipulating, and directing the connections that people perceive between themselves and the beating heart of nature.
“We do know the path along which Melville was climbing, a path into the human mind along which Whales swim more easily than we do. The path that demonstrates that Whales can help humanity save itself; can help us make the transition from Save The Whales to Saved By The Whales.
“The Save The Whales movement was an important first step, but now I think we need to mature by turning that around and making it into a Saved By The Whales movement. Sir Peter Scott remarked that “If we can’t save the Whales we can’t save anything.” I have come to believe that if the Whales can’t save us, nothing can.”
“What do Whales really offer humans? Whales offer to human beings the demonstration that our ancient and ignorant belief in the inherent supremacy of our species over all others is utterly wrong. They put the appalling consequences of that view on public display in an overwhelmingly unforgettable way~ and thus refute it forever. What Whales offer us is a lesson about tolerance.
“The challenge before us is to confederate with nature in new ways, without straddling its dead body, or claiming ownership of it, or using it for nothing but short-lived self-gratification. In this way, I believe, we will also heal ourselves.
“Unless we negotiate a peace with the rest of life on Earth, we will spend the rest of our existence in a world made entirely by humans, where nature is gone; a world whose bible ~ in which the virtuosity of the creator is extolled on every page~ is the mail-order catalog.”
– from “Saved by the Whales,” in AMONG WHALES, by Roger Payne
” … Communication is a transmission – a giving and receiving of mutually understood messages. But all these formalized experiments in interspecies communication share one serious flaw. Every one of them starts by asking the question: Can an animal be taught to communicate with a human being? The animal is the subject, held in a captive situation, and then carefully programmed to learn to give and receive information “the way that humans do it.” As such, they fail to take into account that animals may already do it on their own.
But if interspecies communication is truly to be considered communication, then it should be based on mutual respect. It must develop as an open-ended dialogue where both participants have the equal power to direct the course and subject matter of the learning experience. It is a process that will demand a rethinking of our relationship to the animals. In a way, it is more accurate1y a primitive point of view, and also holistic in its ethics. And in just that spirit, we may begin to comprehend just a bit more of the animal’s wisdom.”
– from THE MAN WHO TALKS TO WHALES: The Art of Interspecies Communication, by Jim Nollman