The time will come when men will look on the murder of animals
as they now look on the murder of men.
~Leonardo da Vinci
I’ve been surfing on net for the blogs and forums on vegetarianism. I was very disappointed to see that many people consider animals to be actually created for our consumption… When John Locke theoretized natural rights entitled to men, he meant white, European, male persons with property. Avarage life expectancy of a slave was five years, and women were -as now the animals are- treated as mere commodities. The idea that women, the elderly, the disabled and the people of color also have right to life was a revolution and a major shift in conceptualization of the universe.
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Animals also have rights to life, quality life in their natural settings. However, the imagination of the man and his environment is so rigid and asserts itself so many areas of life that we can not understand that animals are not made of meat, but we turn them into Adana Kebabs. We ignore the fact that serious harm is inflicted on innocent creatures for motives such as appatite, taste or convenience. Although the facts reveal that vegetarians tend to live much longer than meat eaters, we hide behind the ambush of pseudo science. We stop driving cars in order to reduce GHG emissions, but eat beef at lunch the processing of which cause more emission. Every child cries when “their” lamb is sacrificed, but we teach them to enjoy its roast. Contradictions can be numbered… all in all we are shaped by intrinsicly “masculin” motives to capture, harm, dominate, kill and possess.
The situation seems so helpless and so circular that I am hungry for radical solutions. The conceptual revolution that elevates the previously excluded classes relatively closer to Western male persona, promises some chance; however, the victims of slaughter cannot voice their rights, except for their sad and fearful eyes in meat factories, or infront of a butcher in Kurban Bayramı.
However valuable that feeling of pity is, we have to pity more actively. We have to shift the terms of argument. The natural rights discourse is a child of Enlightenment male ideology. Employing the same argumental tools, we are trapped in the rationality problem. The problem is all-encompassing (from art, to international relations, diet to household politics) and is borne out of the liberal-capitalist system. It is the fundational ideology of this very system that dichotomizes man and animal, that we have to avoid.
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I enjoyed reading this post. It is great to read things that put your beliefs back into perspective. I thought it was interesting when you said “Every child cries when “their” lamb is sacrificed”. Here’s a link to a blog I posted back in December about my personal experience when my Grandpa sacrificed my lamb.
http://healthyrecipesforeveryone.blogspot.com/2008/12/little-bit-about-me.html
Hi
Thank you for voicing a fresh this ancient respect that the earth is not made for us, but we are one with it. Indeed, the very acidity of meat eating animals makes savage human carnivores shy meekly away from them as they treasure vegetarian meat. I think the cycle you speaks of asks to be ended by rising our worldview from that of might – makes – right, survival of fittest that you describe as the rational mind; must needs be replaced by one which places not altruism but a solid conciousness of the truth that we are all one, and on one country earth. China could be 2 million ha of african prime farm land and man it with 1 million chinese farmers in a bold neo-coloniolism, but one day after we carve up africa a second time, we will be in the same position, having only to finally sit down look one another in the eye, and ask can wantonly have 3 billion more with us here, can we not begin rationing gas now why run up to the limit etc.. all the conversations wed have once we realize the earth is finite, so the conciousness that we are one, is one which should break the argument of cycle you voiced, as it opens up vast new reserves of human energy and prosperity.
Enjoyed the article, though I’m a meat eater. I do like to know where my meat comes from and raise a good deal of it myself. One thing to keep in mind is that vegetarian products such as tofu take tremendous amounts of land and resources to grow and create. This often displaces wild animals through habitat destruction. Things are never so clear as we would like them to be.