Diet for a New America 25th Anniversary Edition. John Robbins
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Название: Diet for a New America 25th Anniversary Edition
Автор: John Robbins
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Спорт, фитнес
isbn: 9781932073553
isbn:
Before they reach their end, the pigs get a shower, a real one. Water sprays from every angle to wash the farm off them. Then they begin to feel crowded. The pen narrows like a funnel; the drivers behind urge the pigs forward, until one at a time they climb unto a moving ramp… Now they scream, never having been on such a ramp, smelling the smells they smell. I do not want to overdramatize because you have read all this before. But it was a frightening experience, seeing their fear, seeing so many of them go by. It had to remind me of things no one wants to be reminded of anymore, all mobs, all death marches, all mass murders and extinctions. 53
The New Question
Seeing what happens to today’s pigs is especially difficult for me because I know what friendly animals they can be by nature. We have come to know pigs as fat only because we have bred and fed them that way. We have come to know pigs as mean only because we have tortured them and deprived them of any conceivable expression of their energies. We have made them what they are.
Could it be, then, that when we eat the flesh of animals who have been treated with such complete contempt, we assimilate something of their experience and carry it forward into our own lives? Could it be that eating the products of such an insane system may contribute significantly to the feeling pervading mankind today that this earth sometimes resembles the lunatic asylum of the universe?
People of the stature of Plato, Tolstoy, and Gandhi have also refused to eat meat. But today the question of meat-eating has taken on a far more urgent significance than ever before. There is something uniquely painful happening in the way contemporary animals are being raised for meat. Animals have been treated cruelly before, and in some cases sadistically—but the process has never before been institutionalized on such an overwhelming scale. And never before has the cold expertise of modern technology and pharmacology been employed to this end.
Throughout history, there have been people who sensed that eating the flesh of animals killed unnecessarily was not the best thing we could do toward the goal of bringing peace to ourselves and to the world. The more I’ve learned of modern meat production, the more I’ve felt that their message is even more vital today.
While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?
—GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
I have no doubt that it is part of the destiny of the human race in its gradual development to leave off the eating of animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came into contact with the more civilized.
—HENRY DAVID THOREAU
The time will come when men such as I will look on the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men.
—LEONARDO DA VINCI
I tremble for my species when I reflect that God is just.
—THOMAS JEFFERSON
Each man is haunted until his humanity awakens.
—WILLIAM BLAKE
As I’ve learned what is being done to today’s farm animals I’ve become increasingly distressed. If our society is to reflect any kind of compassion and respect for life, how can we allow such extreme abuses of sentient beings to continue?
The problem is that the behemoths of modern agribusiness seek profit without reference to any ethical sensitivity to the animals in their keeping. And at present we have virtually no laws restraining cruelty to animals being raised for food.
I look forward to the day when this has been corrected, when our society is at peace with its conscience because it respects and lives in harmony with all forms of life. I look forward eagerly to the enactment of laws against such cruelty to animals, laws that will guide humankind to actions consistent with an ethic of appreciation for Creation and respect for the lives of our fellow creatures.
Though I have felt anger at the outrages inflicted on innocent animals, I know that many of today’s farmers are basically decent human beings who have become caught in a vicious circle of economic necessity, seeing no choice but to follow the lead of the multinational agrichemical conglomerates.
The laws that are needed to restrain those who would in their insensitivity abuse animals will not arise out of ill will toward those who have become instruments of such cruelty. True justice never punishes for the sake of punishment but instead seeks to provide the experiences that will educate and reform. Since insensitivity to nature is the real problem, our intent should be not to blame but to guide these unfortunate people to an awareness of the lives and needs of other living creatures, and thus to their own potential for living in an ethical relationship with the rest of life.
Those who are so alienated from other beings that they would mistreat them are in need of a deeper respect for life, for themselves, and for a more meaningful sense of their own value and integrity. We need laws against cruelty to animals, not just for the animals’ sake.
Interestingly, legend has it that there was once a time when such a form of justice actually prevailed. This was a time, it is said, when an ancient people sought to live in accord with the laws of Creation. As a result, when disputes and conflicts arose, the remedy was often remarkable.
Here is such a case, chronicled from ancient Egypt. The times are different, but the message is the same. A 15-year-old boy has gotten himself in trouble time after time for his cruelty to animals. In spite of repeated punishments from his father, however, his actions have persisted. Neighbors have finally appealed to the judge for help, and he has decreed that the boy be watched without his knowledge. This is done, and the boy is seen burying a cat alive. When confronted with his action, the boy shows no sense of shame or remorse and says defiantly, “You can beat me, but I won’t mind. I’m used to being beaten, but you can never make me scream!” He pulls off his shirt and displays a back that is deeply scarred from the previous beatings his father has administered. To the counselor who comes in to see him he brags about the number of animals he has tortured, and the amount of pain that has been inflicted upon him in return. It is not an easy case for the judge to handle. But fortunately, there is a seer who can look into the boy’s psyche and see what has occurred that has made him this way. The seer understands the pattern the boy is locked into. He understands that in the boy’s clouded mind, his cruelty to animals is actually part of an effort to expiate the guilt he feels for his mother having died during his birth, something his father never lets him forget. It is plain to the seer that it would be pointless to punish the boy, for to do so would simply reinforce the guilt that motivated the whole behavior in the first place.
The seer decides to take drastic steps.
The next day, in the boy’s food there is mixed a violent cathartic. As soon as the boy’s bowels start cramping he is told that he has a rare and dangerous disease and is warned that unless he is both brave and obedient he will likely die. Over the next few days he is given other concoctions, which keep him intermittently in pain and also make him sufficiently weak to prevent him from having any desire to exert his independence and reconstruct his accustomed self-image. Exactly СКАЧАТЬ