Theory vs experience: a debate always relevant

Following a discussion with Chatgpt about animal abuse, obviousness returned to me: the border between theory and experience is sometimes a chasm.

In the digital universe, the slightest slap given to a mule is immediately considered to be mistreatment. From a theoretical point of view, this is held: benevolence must take precedence.

But what to do when an 800 kg mule crushes your foot?

According to the AI: "Get in protected contact, then push it gently on the side so that it departs. »»

In practice ... It is already the hospital guaranteed to treat the multiple fractures.

This anecdote made me smile, but it perfectly illustrates the gap between logical reasoning and the reality on the ground. The two do not necessarily oppose: the theory sheds light, gives benchmarks, fixes essential principles (such as the refusal of violence). But it sometimes becomes blind to physical constraints, the reflexes of the body, in the emergency room of the moment.

We find this tension in many areas:

• Theory vs terrain

• knowledge vs experience

• intellect vs bodily

With the mules, this gap is glaring. The education of an 800 kg animal is not an abstract equation. It is a melee, a permanent adjustment relationship, where instinct, physical presence and concrete experience have as much as concepts.

Theory is a precious tool. It allows you to move forward with more awareness, to avoid errors from the past, to offer ethical frameworks. But it becomes dangerous when it freezes in ideology, cut off from reality, at the risk of condemning what is simply a vital reflex or practical adaptation.

Our role, as muleters, is precisely to maintain this link between thought and action.

Remember that lived experience remains irreplaceable. Accept that the theory must sometimes bend before matter, weight, movement, bodily experience.

Because deep down, the mule is not a concept. It is a concrete, demanding and terribly formative presence. She teaches us, at all times, that experience is sometimes worth a thousand theories.