Growing up in the shadow of an abattoir

Tuesday 14th September 2010

The omnivore is still blasé, passing the abattoir down the road and remaining un-shocked. Why? Perhaps because, in the weed patch of violence we all live in, it’s difficult to separate problem weed from harmless weed; ‘holocausting’ animals isn’t yet a sin.
With all the violence going on about us, why don’t we see this particular violence? Well firstly, unlike the barrage of ads on TV for meat, it isn’t exactly in our face. And when it is, it’s thrust at us too confrontingly. And when the animal rights message gets through it’s associated with types of people we can’t relate to or identify with.
The general public’s sensitivities are blunted by their addiction to yummy animal stuff but also by the fact that the animals’ ‘last home’, the abattoir, is never likely to be ‘just down the road’ or even near by. Both it and the animal farm are out of town and behind closed doors. The ‘dark side’ is hidden while the bright side is flashed in our faces every day on TV. We’re shown lovely-looking people selling lovely-looking products. The omnivore buys, feels normal, safe and satisfied. The products even seems efficacious. Do omnivores watch too many ads? Are they too easily swayed by what others do? Are omnivores hard hearted? Maybe, but normality is powerful enough to smother individual thought; thinking is not allowed; we are kept in the juvenile state by vested interests. We do as others do –no thinking is necessary and there’s no need to grow up.