Saturday, June 12, 2010
Too late, too late”
In comedy and comics, the adventures of humans are ridiculed and we all laugh. But they teach us less than we think since we continue to perpetuate the same mistakes, over and over again. We won’t get serious, we must keep laughing to show we’re happy (when we’re not!). We won’t apply history’s lessons to help govern our society. What happened in the past doesn’t seem to relate to today’s problems. We ask, “what has history to teach us about today? We’re do dazzled by technology that we ignore any matter if it’s not interesting enough. But here we are in 2010, overwhelmed and feeling as though we are standing on the brink of an abyss, without a hand to hold onto. We feel abandoned so what do we do? We wait for things to change, we don’t initiate them. It feels safer to stay as we are, with no change. We continue to believe that human-domination is the only way to go, sort of … maybe … and we act as the kids did in Lord of the Flies, giving in to the savage in us. We refuse to let history shake us up. We are determinedly modern and to prove it we destroy our relationship with Nature and often with one another too. We are still determined to be the dominant ones … but the clock tick on. We face an up-coming challenge to our ‘empire’ mentality and most of us would like to think we could rise to that challenge when it comes.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Eventualities
The people responsible for the great empires of the world have always thought they were God’s chosen people. I come from such a group of conceited oafs. The knowledge of being superior people gave us our sense of dominance, almost as a right to be superior, a right to rule. We never thought about it. We thought it was something that would last forever. Up grew pride, hubris and megalomania.
Each empire fails and it’s central weakness shows up in the endgame when they collapse. Even when they fail horribly, the people of the empire can’t for long remember why. They career downwards, pretending nothing has happened.
Humans who’ve ‘made it’ don’t learn from past mistakes recorded by history. In this way the empire-people are very stupid, always having to make the same mistakes in order to find out first hand what should be obvious without creating the pain in order to ‘see’ the mistake. The story in the ‘history’ is a cycle of forgetting and then remembering-too-late. Our lives, so they say, are awash with delusion and false justification for what we do. We think we can only learn by re-experiencing the whole cycle of ‘succeeding then failing’. We go through the same lessons, lifetime after lifetime, until eventually we learn. But only eventually.
Each empire fails and it’s central weakness shows up in the endgame when they collapse. Even when they fail horribly, the people of the empire can’t for long remember why. They career downwards, pretending nothing has happened.
Humans who’ve ‘made it’ don’t learn from past mistakes recorded by history. In this way the empire-people are very stupid, always having to make the same mistakes in order to find out first hand what should be obvious without creating the pain in order to ‘see’ the mistake. The story in the ‘history’ is a cycle of forgetting and then remembering-too-late. Our lives, so they say, are awash with delusion and false justification for what we do. We think we can only learn by re-experiencing the whole cycle of ‘succeeding then failing’. We go through the same lessons, lifetime after lifetime, until eventually we learn. But only eventually.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Mad for plenty
We probably all dream of having plenty, indeed that there should be plenty for all. We dream that eventually humans will fix things up for the planet and all our oafishness will dissolve like Scotch mist. Violence and greed will no longer be needed. Eventually.
This is more or less the justification for today’s bad behaviour. By becoming truly dominant over lesser life forms, including lesser human life forms, we see ourselves as the ‘benevolent despots of Planet Earth’. Call it evil, call it wicked, it matters not a jot since dominators always self justify according to their end-aim (i.e. to save the world / to save our souls).
We know from reading history that this end-aim is a furphy, because too much happens along the way that we don’t bargain for. We are seduced by the advantages of big brains. We learn to cut corners by outsmarting the opposition. We practise violence. Violence brings us a certain type of power. We win. We get what we want. At the time the world seems ripe for the picking with no adverse outcomes. We lose sight of the aim of saving souls and saving ‘the world’ and instead enjoy being on a roll. It’s only later that the awful consequences become apparent, and then it’s almost too late!
This is more or less the justification for today’s bad behaviour. By becoming truly dominant over lesser life forms, including lesser human life forms, we see ourselves as the ‘benevolent despots of Planet Earth’. Call it evil, call it wicked, it matters not a jot since dominators always self justify according to their end-aim (i.e. to save the world / to save our souls).
We know from reading history that this end-aim is a furphy, because too much happens along the way that we don’t bargain for. We are seduced by the advantages of big brains. We learn to cut corners by outsmarting the opposition. We practise violence. Violence brings us a certain type of power. We win. We get what we want. At the time the world seems ripe for the picking with no adverse outcomes. We lose sight of the aim of saving souls and saving ‘the world’ and instead enjoy being on a roll. It’s only later that the awful consequences become apparent, and then it’s almost too late!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Mad for it
A chicken farmer has to be cruel (destructive) and must do unspeakable things to hens or go out of business. And short of living in the city, going out of business means death. There are many rural suicides connected with farmers going bust.
Like many other highly destructive pursuits, like deforesting by foresters or denuding the country by miners, animals farmers must destroy to live. We the consumer can’t mine copper or cut down timber or make food. We are dependent. We feel we have to support those people who can bring us the products we want. This is the rich world where many superfluous items are “needed” by us. Without them we believe we’d go mad.
Like many other highly destructive pursuits, like deforesting by foresters or denuding the country by miners, animals farmers must destroy to live. We the consumer can’t mine copper or cut down timber or make food. We are dependent. We feel we have to support those people who can bring us the products we want. This is the rich world where many superfluous items are “needed” by us. Without them we believe we’d go mad.
Life in the country today
Tuesday 8th June 2010
Animal farming is just about the only reliable source of income for people who live in the countryside. They use the ‘resources at hand’. They farm animals, sometimes because the profits are better than from plant-growing and sometimes because the land can only support animal grazing. The more marginal the land the more cattle and then the more sheep will be ‘run’. Using the land, converting its energy for our use, is the name of the game. When the ‘converter’ is an animal it is regarded merely as a machine for ‘using the land’. The cruelty factor has exponentially increased over the past 60 years owing to competition for valuable markets. There has been a vast explosion of (hungry) populations in urban concentrations. The ever-present threat of someone else exploiting the market has made intensive farming inevitable.
Animal farming is just about the only reliable source of income for people who live in the countryside. They use the ‘resources at hand’. They farm animals, sometimes because the profits are better than from plant-growing and sometimes because the land can only support animal grazing. The more marginal the land the more cattle and then the more sheep will be ‘run’. Using the land, converting its energy for our use, is the name of the game. When the ‘converter’ is an animal it is regarded merely as a machine for ‘using the land’. The cruelty factor has exponentially increased over the past 60 years owing to competition for valuable markets. There has been a vast explosion of (hungry) populations in urban concentrations. The ever-present threat of someone else exploiting the market has made intensive farming inevitable.
The end is profit
Monday 7th June 2010
Ending animal farming. It won’t come about over night but it will happen. But before it happens the farmer is going to feel fairly safe, with steady market demand along with promises of protection from prosecution for cruelty to animals. That’s what most farmers want.
There’s nothing more satisfying than knowing ‘what you do’ is safe. When there’s safety from prosecution and safety of profit it helps people do things they shouldn’t. It helps them exploit animals for a living. Animal farming has now, more than ever before, become a cruel practice. It’s always been cruel and yet pragmatically it’s been accepted but now it’s so obviously wrong it’s that much harder to wriggle out of the guilt of it. And animal business has gotten bigger and grubbier, but it’s still here, feeding the population. Its husbandry practices are overlooked by people out of ignorance or they’ve been excused as being ‘part of tradition’. The blind spot people still have about cruelty is that the cruelty itself is not wanton or sadistic but calculated to fend off competition. That’s the justification for cruel practices anyway. In the end it all comes down to the fact that money can be made out of animals. And there are a lot of interests riding this particular wagon.
Ending animal farming. It won’t come about over night but it will happen. But before it happens the farmer is going to feel fairly safe, with steady market demand along with promises of protection from prosecution for cruelty to animals. That’s what most farmers want.
There’s nothing more satisfying than knowing ‘what you do’ is safe. When there’s safety from prosecution and safety of profit it helps people do things they shouldn’t. It helps them exploit animals for a living. Animal farming has now, more than ever before, become a cruel practice. It’s always been cruel and yet pragmatically it’s been accepted but now it’s so obviously wrong it’s that much harder to wriggle out of the guilt of it. And animal business has gotten bigger and grubbier, but it’s still here, feeding the population. Its husbandry practices are overlooked by people out of ignorance or they’ve been excused as being ‘part of tradition’. The blind spot people still have about cruelty is that the cruelty itself is not wanton or sadistic but calculated to fend off competition. That’s the justification for cruel practices anyway. In the end it all comes down to the fact that money can be made out of animals. And there are a lot of interests riding this particular wagon.
Making them mad
Sunday 6th June 2010
It’s not as simple as it seems, to turn the minds of the chief killers in our community, who make up the ‘animal industries’.
There are a lot of determined people who, within the law, conduct businesses dependent on animals. Maybe they won’t willingly give up their rights to use them. However a consumer boycott of their produce will deny them a means of making money from animals. That will make them mad in both senses of the word.
It’s not as simple as it seems, to turn the minds of the chief killers in our community, who make up the ‘animal industries’.
There are a lot of determined people who, within the law, conduct businesses dependent on animals. Maybe they won’t willingly give up their rights to use them. However a consumer boycott of their produce will deny them a means of making money from animals. That will make them mad in both senses of the word.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)