I was driving along a rural road recently when the car in front of me swerved off the shoulder and came to a sudden stop. The driver jumped out of the car and ran up a small bank, grabbing a large stick with which he immediately began to flail wildly at the ground.

I stopped and rushed up to the man, certain that he had encountered some vicious threat to human life. But I was wrong.

"Why did you kill it?" I asked. "It was only a blacksnake."

"Blacksnake or rattlesnake, it makes no difference to me," the man said, still beating the now lifeless body. "I kill 'em all!"

I walked away from the man feeling very angry and a little sick. The killing of the snake was not anything unusual, and neither was the man's attitude concerning it. And yet - perhaps the very commonness of the act and the…