The exploiter classes

1582: 

The dark forces, the wasters and polluters, and those inflicting cruelty on animals bear a heavy responsibility for the mess we’re in today. But we're all, as consumers, lesser-but-still responsible. None of us have clean hands. However, the mega damage is being done by big business. Especially big animal business, which is not only the ugliest business but one with the greatest carbon foot print. Through continuous advertising they are guaranteed maximum customer support. Their grip on things can only be weakened by withdrawing that support. Anyone can do this for their self, and then be in a position to influence things, and help quicken a return to good health by way of recommending a plant-based diet. But whatever help a vegan can be of the human, they can be a thousand times more helpful to the legions of ‘domestic’ animals, since their plight is so very serious. Seventeen billion of them are standing there watching us at this very moment. They can only wait. And wait. And wait for whatever we can do, to expedite their eventual liberation.

The exploiter is often a kind and loving individual who genuinely cares about family;  a ‘good’ person, believing that ‘charity starts at home’; hoping for ‘a better world for the grandchildren’; caring somewhat less about community welfare; and even less about animal welfare (let alone 'animal rights'). Since the exploiter classes are earning money by unethical means, they aren't likely to be too involved in working for 'the greater good'. The farmer farms animals and makes a living from animals, so 'animals', singular, is seen as business (whereas vegans see animals as sovereign beings, as individual as our dogs and cats at home). The animal farmers are interested in acquiring money by way of animal sales, and necessarily have little empathy for 'their' animals ('their' animals - as if anyone can own another sentient being!!).

I was listening to an ‘animal lover’ on the radio the other day. He loved animals so much he hunted them and ate them. By day he farmed animals. He loved guns.

He tried to justify the pleasure he got from pulling the trigger on a moving animal. He couldn’t say what it was, except that it felt ‘natural’ to him. He’d always done it since he was a boy. “It comes naturally to me, animal farming, animal hunting and animal rearing. It’s how my family have always made their living. Out here it’s hard country. Our family got used to finding opportunities and taking advantage of things.”

The  vulnerability of all domesticated, captive animals, is in their total inability to fight for their own freedom. Vegans are championing their cause because we regard them as fellow sentient beings who, through no fault of their own, are victims of crazy humans, and especially the most dangerous humans, the 1%ers. The exploiter classes are very opposite to the rest of us, in that they worship what money brings. Where most sane people see a forest in terms of beauty, the 1%’ers, see them as lumber. Where most people could no more kill an animal than kill their grandmother, the exploiter classes have no trouble with that, especially since they're cunning enough to employ others to do the messy side of their business for them. And those others are grateful for the work.

And why this whole system works so well is that it operates on mutual support - the consumer wants the goods, so they let these people thrive. And that these people thrive, with the support of so many dollar-spending customers, allows them to believe they're doing nothing wrong. They act like the spoilt child, and the consumer acts like the weak parent - the longer these children believes they can get away with bad behaviour they will, and then the stronger and more dangerous they become.