1698:
Vegan diets are about not-eating products
extracted from animals, so just by observing vegan principles we can’t help
practising non-violence too. It carries through to other parts of our lives. We
consider the animal before buying clothes and shoes. We think about animals sacrificed
to test the safety of our cosmetics and medicines. It brings us to feeling more
empathy for others, whether sentient or non-sentient. It lets us be more
generous and have gentler attitudes all round. No doubt it makes us less aggressive
in the way we drive a car, more considerate about recycling waste and of course
being kinder to cows.
Sometimes non-violence can seem like
passivity. At worst it’s cowardice or avoiding facing the music. But
non-violence isn't a mantra - it's neither non-doing or doing or ‘turning the
other cheek’. It's a governing mood, that's all. We need to be playing it in
the background as we weigh the pros and cons of each situation. Especially when
we are considering if the means justifies the ends.
Take for example Animal Liberation’s plan
to fly drones across private farming land, to photograph examples of animal
cruelty. Sounds like a great idea. Evidence of routine animal cruelty is thin
on the ground since what happens on private land is usually well hidden from
the public eye. Filmed evidence has always been hard to come by - getting it
has often been dangerous when activists illegally trespass with their cameras. People
only believe what they see, not what you tell them, so if you can show them something,
they’ll find it harder to ignore or forget.
But there's another aspect to this. A drone is a very big threat. It
could be turned against us. The power of the Industry combined with the opprobrium
of an outraged public can seriously work against us. This could be perceived as
"city-slicker interference" or it could fuel people's fear of the
'spy camera', turning this into a violation of the rights of the farmer to go about
his business.
From the farmer’s point of view, and with
the public on-side, his animals (his property!) are units of food-production. There’s
something rather threatening about having a CCTV camera looking down from above
- the farmer might feel justified in shooting them out of the sky, even though
it’s quite legal to fly cameras ten meters above private property. To them this
wouldn't be a case of using technology to achieve safety for exploited animals,
it would be an outrage.
The drone's film footage will show the
public things they wouldn't otherwise be able to see. It will show video
evidence of exploitation too shocking to ignore. And that will make it all the
harder for the media to ignore. But the media is the great wall of resistance
here. At its thickest point, it becomes a wall of silence. We know well enough
how barely a word is printed on this subject, since they fear losing the
sympathy of their advertisers and readers if they print or show any adverse
stories about animal cruelty. At it's worst, the media will manipulate the
story to their own ends. It won't be highlighting the violence of the farmer
but the Animal Liberationist's violent spying tactics. They have the ability to
make us into ugly terrorists who need to be stopped and prosecuted.
Non-violence is a slippery subject. As soon
as there is any pro-active initiative, there's a chance for it to be subjected
to clever spin, and before we get important matters up for discussion the whole
initiative is turned against us, alienating us from the brain-washed masses
even further.
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