Moral Primitivism Anyone? A Satirical Examination of an Apologia for Industrialized Torture

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“Again, if PETA is putting something out, I will always have my doubts - they see things one way and one way only. Theirs. In many ways the activists in this country are terrorists of a kind….” [Excerpt from an email written by a heavily indoctrinated and reactionary US American]

By Jason Miller

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For a year now I have been an ethical vegetarian. Last Thanksgiving, I made what I thought was an enlightened moral decision to stop eating meat and to severely restrict my egg and dairy consumption. However, an email recently hit my inbox that presents such a powerful argument justifying the wanton torture and slaughter of animals (so we can please our palates) that my moral sensibilities and capacity to reason have been utterly disarmed. Signed with a cryptic “JC,” this missive pummeled me with points I had not even considered when I made what I now rightly view as my ridiculous decision to go “meatless.”

In fact, rarely a day goes by that I don’t catch scent of the pungent aroma of the famous Kansas City barbeque I still crave-one can barely travel a mile or two in KC without finding oneself in olfactory range of restaurants that prepare extraordinarily delicious servings of non-human animal flesh. I fully admit that I miss devouring tender, succulent sauce-drenched ribs, burnt ends, sliced beef, brisket….As I write this, I’m salivating like one of Pavlov’s dogs tethered to the Cathedral Tower in Limerick on a Sunday morning….

What an extraordinary dilemma JC has created for me. At times I am still consumed by an almost overwhelming temptation to indulge myself in the consumption of one of my fellow animals. Feasting on sentient beings that had endured tortured, miserable existences (existences that were mere warm-ups for the sheer savagery that awaited them in the slaughterhouse) was one of my favorite pastimes.

So the question is, do I continue denying myself the sublime pleasure of dining on animal tissue in order to appease my conscience, or do I embrace JC’s brilliant justification of meat consumption and satiate my hunger with a thick rare burger drowned in Heinz?

Allow me to examine and dissect some of JC’s eloquent and illuminating conclusions:

JC: “I can’t be held responsible for how turkeys or any animals are slaughtered. I’m never going to give up meat or fish or fowl, as our diet does require us to have protein and other nutrients that we receive from these products and I and many others enjoy eating them.”

So forget the notion of the banality of evil. As a consumer, even if I eat meat I am absolved of ALL responsibility for the unimaginable horrors the producers inflict upon factory-farmed animals from “cradle to grave.”

For Christ’s sake! I’ve been subsisting for over a year without said “protein and other nutrients” from meat! I am a miracle of modern science!

And I find it nearly impossible to disagree with JC’s statement that “I and many others enjoy eating them.” (The “them” being animals of course- I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy eating meat). As I was growing up my mother frequently confronted me with the question, “If everyone else jumped off a bridge would you do it too?” Obviously the “correct” response was “no.” Sorry, Mom, but JC’s lemming logic is a hell of a lot more enticing than going against the grain and “doing the right thing.” Screw that-I’ll have the porterhouse, please!

JC: “People have to eat and the bulk of their protein comes from animal sources. They have been doing it since the cave man and it isn’t going to stop anytime soon. Tofu just doesn’t cut it for most people as a meat substitute, nor those grotesque meat imitations made from veggie products and then shaped into meat like looking products.”

Now that is a truly impenetrable Maginot Line of reasoning. I can’t begin to argue with the assertion that people have to eat. And the bulk of my protein did indeed come from animal sources for about 39 years of my life. JC is a tough nut to crack! And to think I’ve actually been eating tofu and “those grotesque meat imitations made from veggie products and then shaped into meat like looking products.” I cannot imagine what I’ve been thinking. Hunks of blood-saturated animal flesh, fat, and muscle that at some point in the production process were commingled with various organs, hooves, fur, and shit-forget those “grotesque meat imitations.” I can really wrap my appetite around mutilated and raw animal parts that quickly rot if they aren’t refrigerated.

Sorry Bossy, Wilbur and feathered friends. Since we human animals don’t find “meat like looking products” to be delectable, we’re going to continue confining you in dark, cramped quarters throughout your rueful lives, pumping you full of a toxic stew of antibiotics and growth hormones, causing you to grow so rapidly that you become crippled, performing surgery on you with no anesthetic, ripping out your teeth and clipping off your beaks so that when you go insane from the conditions we keep you under you can attack your fellow victims without damaging our product, loading you into severely over-crowded trucks in which you will do without food or water for several days, and ultimately hanging you by your hind legs, slitting your throats, crushing your skulls, and boiling you to death.

Besides, consuming animal flesh worked well for Neanderthals and a mere 50,000 years have passed. Don’t rush us into making changes.

JC: “All the people that chose to eat vegetarian style to attempt to make a statement, can do so, but their numbers will never increase enough to make a difference in the amount of animals that are slaughtered. Its supply and demand and it appears that the demand is still there. I think a more riveting point in considering limiting human consumption of some of these products is to be more careful about the meat/fowl/fish one eats is because
of all the contamination w/ e.coli, salmonella & mercury. That to me, is the real concern.”

She’s right. Every last one of us who “eat vegetarian style” just wants “to make a statement.” It has NOTHING to do with ethics, moral or conscience. We’re just showing off, carving out a niche and making a name for ourselves. And there are so damn few of us that the immutable laws of capitalism (which all good libertarians from Texas KNOW were handed down to Moses along with the Ten Commandments) will inevitably prevail. It is God’s will that we adhere to the law of supply and demand as the chief guiding principle of humanity. So when JC so astutely observes, “it appears the demand is still there,” who are we humble herbivores to argue?

And what self-respecting speciesist inflated with the hubris of humanity’s inherent right to subjugate and exploit “lesser” beings wouldn’t agree with this gem from JC?

“I think a more riveting point in considering limiting human consumption of some of these products is to be more careful about the meat/fowl/fish one eats is because of all the contamination w/ e.coli, salmonella & mercury. That to me, is the real concern.”

Fuck the non-human animals. Humans are the REAL concern. Why didn’t I think of that before I wasted 12 months of prime meat-eating time? Keep brutalizing the cows, pigs and chickens. Just take care not to get sick when you eat them.

JC: “This is not one plight that I’m going to worry about - especially since itis an American tradition. If people want to eat plain lasagne for T-day or just a green bean casserole for any holiday they can certainly do so, but it isn’t something that I would personally choose to do.”

Inflicting unconscionable pain and abuse upon non-human animals so that we can eat them is an “American tradition.” JC is right! And you don’t fuck with traditions, especially American ones. Like bombing smaller countries into the Stone Age. Manifest destinying our way across the North American continent. Installing and supporting ruthless dictators who adhere to the Washington Consensus. Wielding our economic power like a cudgel to beat sovereign nations into submission. Lynching. Jim Crow. Slavery. Native American genocide. Just to name a few.

And I have to admit that there is something fundamentally flawed with anyone who would “want to eat plain lasagna for T-day or just a green bean casserole for any holiday.” That is just plain un-American. Let’s start carving that bird!

JC: “Again, if PETA is putting something out, I will always have my doubts - they see things one way and one way only. Theirs. In many ways the activists in this country are terrorists of a kind. They think they are more civilized in their behavior but they try to terrorize people “by educating them” to the extreme conditions some animals face and are unable to be reasoned with at all. Its their way or the highway.”

“If PETA is putting something out, I will always have my doubts - they see things one way and one way only.” Amen to that, JC. Simply examine their name. Can you imagine a more arrogant, rigid group than the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals? Thanks to JC’s email, I too am beginning to harbor many doubts about them. Where the hell do Ingrid Newkirk and her band of “terrorists of a kind” get off thinking they are “more civilized in their behavior?” As human beings, don’t we have the God-given right of dominion, which would mean we can abuse animals whenever we damn well please? And PETA members, don’t you dare terrorize us with your knowledge. The reality is that we enjoy eating the flesh of dead animals and the more ignorant of their pain we remain, the better. So PETA, you can take OUR way or the highway. I think you know where the meat-eating population wants you to shove your ethics. We’re broiling pork chops tonight!

So for a year now I have engaged in this rotten behavior known as vegetarianism. I have been depriving my body of protein, have been eating “grotesque” meat substitutes for no reason, have been violating sacred American traditions, have been “making a statement,” have been engaging in a form of elitism, and have been a “terrorist of a kind.” Somebody stop this bus! I want off!

Mea culpa!

And just how many pounds of meat must I consume before I am once again practicing the “American Way of Life” and reveling in its “non-negotiable” splendor?

Jason Miller is a recovering US American middle class suburbanite who strives to remain intellectually free. He is Cyrano’s Journal Online’s associate editor (http://www.bestcyrano.org/) and publishes Thomas Paine’s Corner within Cyrano’s at http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/. You can reach him at JMiller@bestcyrano.com



Comments

One Response to “Moral Primitivism Anyone? A Satirical Examination of an Apologia for Industrialized Torture”

  1. Michelle on November 29th, 2007 8:54 am

    I can empathize with Jason’s concern for the welfare of our animal friends. Particularly those from factory farms where their short awful lives are a testimony to man’s brutality. I respect Jason’s choice to go vegetarian and commend him for his reasoning to do so. I am, however, beginning to get headaches from his over the top sermonizing.

    First off, I’d like to point out that Hitler too was a vegetarian; so we can shelve any idea that vegetarians are all good and spiritually minded people, born of the milk of human kindness. I’d also add that many of us who walk the path toward higher consciousness continue to eat meat, self included. I am careful, when possible, of the flesh, eggs and dairy I buy, trying to get quality organic from the store or straight from the farmer, whose methods of husbandry I am familiar with. I am not always able to purchase this way due to the high cost or availability. I do not eat meat everyday; some days I load up on grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables. Following the example of our indigenous Americans, over all my meals, no matter where they come from, I spread my hands over my food and give thanks for the plants and animals who gave their life so I may live. My gratitude is also extended to the many hands the products passed through, the Earth, sun and rain who all give support.

    I do not eat the meat substitutes Jason refers to because many are so chemically processed that I don’t see them as a food source. I am suspicious of most soy products and stopped eating much of them due to the continued rape of the rain forests, now for soya crops. Many health food and alternative meat products, as I said, are extremely expensive and out of realistic economical reach for many families. The packaging on many of these products is sinfully wasteful…they package small amounts in oversized, plastic [petro product] packaging.

    I also like Thanksgiving….it is my favorite holiday. In our hurry, hurry, rush, rush world, it is a day to join with my family, some of whom I see so little of. The gathering extends from my parents to their great-grand children, and all manner of significant others, friends, and pets we bring. We eat well and to our fill, as do most families when sharing special times.

    Once again, I do appreciate Jason’s concern and the action he feels driven to take. But I have and continue to come to the realization that it is far better to live one’s life as they see fit, when trying to make the world a better place for all sentient beings, by living that life as a quiet example to others. I get very upset when I see people dropping trash carelessly; I feel like I’m cleaning up after the whole world somedays. Once I approached some teenagers about picking up after themselves in what I felt was a very respectful manner. I gave them a level headed sermon on keeping our earth clean and having respect for her. I walked away feeling so justified and self righteous…..when I came back the next day, they had trashed the area and threw the garbage receptacle over the hill. Now, my son and I just quietly go about our cleanup in the areas near our home. I now see that this is a better way to change people’s behavior than shoving it upon them, making them feel guilty.

    Perhaps this is why Jason continues to keep such nasty, aggressive mail. The following is a clip of the latest energy alert from Karen Bishop at http://www.whatsuponplanetearth.com/latest.htm
    I think what she has to say is relevant to Jason’s dilemma; it has also caused me to do some soul searching and probe my own conduct in such matters:

    ‘”If you are experiencing great challenges, know that the universe (or your soul) is guiding you and trying to get your attention about your own energy patterns. I have noticed around me and within myself as well, that many of us are over-using our gifts. When we offer too much of whom we were intended to be, our gift then becomes a liability instead of an asset. Our gift becomes too exaggerated, over utilized, and thus creates an imbalance or a lower vibrating gift.”

    “Say that you are here to bring the energy of self-care, feeling good, and enjoyment to the planet. If you spend an over-abundance of your time pampering yourself, taking care of you, becoming self-absorbed, and thus not available to the whole, your gift is then wasted. Or perhaps you are one who has the gift of really seeing others around you, knowing how they feel, and being very considerate of their needs. If you do this in an overabundant way, you would end up putting others before you, and find yourself attracting self-centered people, for example, that are there to show you how to be more like them.”

    “When we attract others into our lives who embody traits that drive us crazy or that we think are just horrible, it is usually because at some point in our lives, we convinced ourselves that we would never be like that, and in this way, we became too much of the opposite ourselves. But know that whomever we attract probably believes that we are just too much of our own extreme as well, and can barely tolerate us!”

    “With so much being magnified now, we are then able to really see and come to know what is inside of us and what we are all about, and we are given an opportunity to use our gifts wisely, in an appropriate arena, and in amounts that serve ourselves and the whole in the best way possible.”

    “Another scenario can be present in regard to our personal gifts as well. When we are greatly talented and gifted at something, we know a lot about it and really vibrate it well. It is our passion, our focus, and the lense we see things through and the starting point we jump off of for most of our perceptions and experiences. Because of this, we very strongly notice anything that is substandard in regard to our arena, and we can become very angry if things are not fitting into our perception or standard.”

    “Say, for instance, that you are here with the gift of higher vibrating human behavior. Because of this, you would view those around you in a perspective of how healthy they are mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. This is your area of expertise and your gift. So then, anyone who falls below a high standard can drive you crazy and make you angry, as you are here to serve in regard to assisting those in becoming mentally, emotionally, and spiritually healthy. This is the way you agreed to raise the vibration of the planet. Thus, anyone you encounter who vibrates lower than your high standard and does not care, is raining on your parade and inhibiting your progress to assist the planet.”

    “Or perhaps you are here to protect the environment and the earth. If you were to encounter a trashy area in nature, or encounter a situation where the earth was being disrespected, you might become angry as those responsible were raining on your soul purpose and interfering with your job. Others with a different purpose might not even notice the trash in an area of nature, but only the beauty present.”

    “In all the scenarios above, we each see through different filters and this causes the friction. In the higher realms, there are fewer filters present. When we are able to see those around us through the filters of our souls, or in other words, who they are at a soul level and what they are here to give and contribute, then we are able to get our own mis-perceptions out of the way. When we see a person’s soul, we can then honor and respect that person, and this behavior will always serve to illicit the best out of someone, as well as serve in supporting who they are and what they came to contribute.”‘

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