Meat-Eater's
State Of "The Nation"
By Mickey Z.
25 January, 2007
Countercurrents.org
The (so-called) alternative press
rarely "gets" vegetarianism, animal rights, and related issues.
Case in point: The February 5, 2007 issue of The Nation featured a book
review by Daniel Lazare called "My Beef With Vegetarianism."
The book in question was ³The Bloodless Revolution² by Tristram
Stuart (full disclosure: I have not read Stuart's book).
The "review" reads like a personal vendetta against those
who choose a plant-based diet as Lazare dedicates as much space to his
own opinions as those of author Stuart. "My Beef With Vegetarianism"
also includes a wide range of uninformed assertions. For Lazare, death
at a slaughterhouse involves merely "dispatching" the animal
"quickly and efficiently" for the
"good utilitarian purpose of feeding the hungry." He also
engages in Fox News-level mind games with questions like: "If life
is the highest value and taking it is never, ever permissible, then
what are we to do in the case of a poisonous snake that is about to
strike a sleeping infant?"
I'm wondering: Did a vegetarian spokesperson decree that taking a life
is never permissible? Plus, we don't need imaginary examples like snakes
and infants. The animals being slaughtered on a massive scale are not
threatening anyone or anything, they do not die "quickly and efficiently,"
and the hungry are not being fed as a result of their grisly deaths.
Lazare dusts off another line of "reasoning" one might expect
from a 12-year-old: "Cruel as it is to kill an ox or a pig, nature
is even crueler. A tiger or wolf does not knock its prey senseless with
a single blow to the forehead and then painlessly slit its jugular;
rather, it tears it to pieces with its teeth." Lazare not only
embarrasses himself with an absurd comparison, he yet again diminishes
the horror and cruelty of the slaughter industry.
The ham-fisted Lazare forges on with his transparent agenda. Leonardo
da Vinci didn't speak out against cruelty to animals, he "ranted"
against it. Descartes' alleged "fruit-and-vegetable diet"
may have contributed to his death at the relatively young age of 54.
Vegetarianism's "dramatic resurgence in recent years" is thanks
to "pierced and tattooed twentysomethings." Lazare erroneously
Hitler was a "dedicated vegetarian," and goes on to enlighten
his readers about what "most likely" drew Nazi dictator to
vegetarianism: "its antihumanist and authoritarian elements."
As if this were documented fact, no further elucidation is provided.
Speaking of ill-informed assumptions piled atop clumsy inaccuracies,
Lazare also states: "More people are living better and eating more
richly than anyone in the 1700s would have thought possible." Tell
that to the one billion who live on less than one dollar a day and,
by the way, how exactly do we know what "anyone in the 1700s"
thought possible in this realm? Regardless, Lazare declares that scarcity
"no longer serves as an argument for vegetarianism, and neither,
for that matter, does health." For him, to consume animal flesh
is to celebrate "humanity's ongoing struggle to create abundance
out of scarcity." To do otherwise would be to wallow in "the
silly defeatism of a diet of tofu and sprouts."
Ultimately, Lazare's "review" is nothing new and opinions
similar to his are available widely...via the corporate media. On the
other hand, an effectively functioning alternative media should be giving
voice to opinions and ideas neglected by the mainstream.
Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.
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