Moral
Primitivism Anyone?
A Satirical Examination Of
An Apologia For
Industrialized Torture
By Jason Miller
28 November, 2007
Countercurrents.org
“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]
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 [email protected]
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