Afternoon of Alterity - Nazareth College

are underpaid and for the most part are stereotypically perceivedby the public as monstrous. Much of this publicity is thanks to theorganization known as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment ofAnimals). PETA bombards the media and the nations young withwords like “cruelty” and “abuse” when it speaks of slaughter (PETA).The members of this organization do not realize that the act ofbutchering is part of our cultural history. In a sense, Beowulf andbutchers are in the same business and stand hand in hand on anisland of meaning. Both provide a service much needed by humanityand that service seems to entail violent means. Of course it could besaid that one involves considerably less risk and the slaughtered arefar more helpless, but it is a dangerous job nonetheless.Violence and killing is not a lesser evil: it is a necessary evil. Themerchants of death that walk among us, the men that pity the weakbut defend them, live on the rim of our civilization. They are thegatekeepers of order and justice and the destroyers of all who wouldthreaten either. It is clear that this ideal existed in medieval culture,and thrives in a modern world that pretends which it doesn’t exist.We feel safe around men like Beowulf, but we shun their work. Thereis nothing the world would like more than to place men like Beowulfin the unemployment line, but deep in our hearts we know thatthe manifestation of this dream is as close to us as the stars. Theywalk the fine line between primal power and enlightened power.There are forces in this world that go bump in the night and it is themerchants of death that bump back, despite our need to look away.david buisch 137