Do you ever think what it would be like to be part of a hamburger or a tuna sandwich?
“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, the whole world would be vegetarian.”
― Linda McCartney, Linda’s Kitchen: Simple and Inspiring Recipes for Meals Without Meat
The Arts in New York City
Professor Judell / MHC @ CCNY / Fall 2013
I always wondered about the position of humans in society and thinking about our superiority over animals. Clearly, there are animals stronger and faster than us, but in the end, we’re just smarter. We breed them to eat, and display them in zoos for people to gawk at. However, are we justified in what we do just because of our intellectual advantage?
It’s a clear moral issue that everybody considers. I personally considered becoming vegetarian many times, but I was never able fully convert myself. At first, I thought of keeping animals captive as a terrible thing, but it seems to be part of nature. The strong subdue the weak. Of course, I don’t approve of abuse and mistreatment of captive animals, but keeping animals captive, I feel, is just an advantage of being human. For example, we use bees for labor to produce honey as well as keep other animals captive for research. I doubt many people would argue against keeping venomous animals captive to develop anti-venoms for those toxins. In the end, if animals were superior to us, would they treat us with mercy?
I always hear a variant of the question posed above, “If some superior species of animals or aliens were to treat us, humans, the same way we treated animals, would you be okay with it?” Absolutely not. I would obviously try and resist, but if the discrepancy between the strengths of humans and the advanced race was as great as our superiority over chickens, I would most likely be helpless no matter what I do.
*SPOILER ALERT”(The Twilight Zone episode)
This reminds me of an episode from The Twilight Zone called “To Serve Man.” An advanced alien race solves all the problems of Earth, and are clearly superior to humans. However, after decoding one of their books, it seems to show that they plan to serve mankind. Of course, not everything is what they seem to be. The book turns out to actually be a cookbook, and it becomes clear that the inferior race (mankind) is doomed to be subjugated.
In the end, those who have the advantage in technology and intellect have all the control. Therefore, at the moment, we choose what animals we want to eat, the animals we hunt, the animals we keep as pets, the animals we ignore, and so on.
I’m sorry if I offended any vegetarians/vegans out there. I truly respect those who are compassionate about animals, but these are just my personal views. I know many will disagree strongly with me about this.
Arghhh! Well argued, but I would swear I see numerous goose-sized holes in your logic. And for those who haven’t seen that Twilight Zone episode, the alien race plans to eat humans, serving them up as buffet items. I’m not you made that absolutely clear, Allen. Here’s the episode: http://vimeo.com/37778819
I thoroughly enjoyed the short film. In some aspects it may have even been more effective than some of the videos posted on the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) website, http://www.peta.org/ The videos this non-profit organization posts tend to be over the top and extreme, which makes sense since they are trying to shine light on a serious issue and this may well be the only way to get some people’s attention. However, Jeff Stark’s video addresses a similar issue without being as graphic as PETA. By presenting the idea in a less morbid way, a large portion of the population will be more likely to watch the video. I have heard of countless instances of people who refuse to watch clips about animal cruelty because they do not want to think of themselves as part of the problem. Since “Desserts” does not address the issue with crude images of bloody animals, and does not explicitly state the problem, it may reel in a larger crowd.
Being a vegan myself, I felt that the film we saw in class was highly effective at presenting the idea of animal cruelty by putting humans on the other end of the rope (or in this case fishing line). The short definitely made me feel better about living the vegan lifestyle, even though I can see how one person may not necessarily make a difference on a larger scale. I agree with Allen – I was also reminded of the Twilight Zone episode, “To Serve Man.” I highly enjoyed the creator’s creative way of proving his point.
Please note: some of the videos on PETA’s site are not for the faint hearted.
For those interested, I’m having renowned vegan activist come to my speech class later this month. Ask for more details.