The Vegetarian Option

Any restaurant owner that doesn't have at least one vegetarian entrée on their menu does not know how to run a restaurant. It's happened three times in the past months that I've left a restaurant because of this. Three different salads just don't cut it; neither does having a main dish with a vegetarian option, which is basically leave out the meat and replace it with nothing. Vegetarianism isn't a passing fancy; it's a movement that is gaining popularity. And a business that doesn't take this into consideration is out of touch with reality.

Direct and Indirect Consequences

From thetrigger.net/2009/06/direct-and-indirect-consequences/

There are direct and indirect consequences to actions. One can perform a well-intentioned action and still have an indirect negative consequence, just as one can do something bad and indirectly do something good. We are not always, if ever, aware of indirect consequences because we are not actively looking for them; indeed, sometimes they can't be seen unless pointed out. At these times it is easy to deny that we had any part in an indirect negative consequence, especially when we had good intentions. However, the success of our action is not determined by our intention, it is determined by the sum of its consequences.

For example, when the United States initially invaded Iraq, if you discount the more plausible explanation of middle east oil control and take the official statement at face value, their intentions were good. Liberate a nation where, as far as the United States could see, the citizens were oppressed, and help set up a form of government that would benefit them. Although narcissistically flawed, this could still be seen as a noble action. But if we look at the indirect consequences, we see that the Iraq war was an immense failure based on American casualties, Iraqi casualties, and other criteria. Iraq is no more liberated now than it was before the invasion began.

Another example of this relates to money. It is abundantly clear that economy is the dominating force of the majority of the world, and it is the developed nations that control the base of this economic system. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization are the three main controls over the global economy. Their actions and policies impact every nation in the world - again, either directly or indirectly - and as I stated before, they may not even be aware of the negative consequences to these actions. The IMF will frequently give loans to undeveloped nations in order to stimulate economic growth; however, these loans contain stipulations that leave the country in a worse condition than it was beforehand, like Thailand and Indonesia during the Asian Crisis of 1997.

Speaking in absolute generality, people want to be good. Our beliefs and actions are easily justified this way. Even those people that are fully aware they are doing something wrong do so because it makes them feel good. When we think along these lines, we ignore anything bad that might happen because of what we've done. This is why it's impossible to objectively evaluate the sum of our actions as good or bad. To be axiomatic, when you feed the wildlife, they forget how to forage; so, whereas it may make you feel good, you've done nothing of the sort. Keep that in mind the next time you're going to invade a country or extend a ridiculously inflated loan to an impoverished country.

Effective Advocacy

From the liner notes of Propagandhi's Supporting Caste.

Effective Advocacy 101 by Jesus H. Chris

Everyone knows that the first rule of effective advocacy is to not insult people. This rule is especially important in terms of advocating on behalf of animals, mostly due to the fact that meat-eaters tend to cry and whine like a bunch of fuckin’ shitty babies when you pull down the diapers of their revolting lifestyle. Haha, just kidding. Calm down babies.

No, for example though, you wouldn’t want to use terms like “moronic”, “self-absorbed”, “chickenshit” or “disgusting slob” when describing self-professed “radicals” who insist on killing defenseless animals for food while a perfectly good supply of pimps, stockbrokers, crooked cops, politicians and Habs fans–among other sociopathic sources of protein–range freely throughout our communities on a daily basis. No, you wouldn’t want to say something like that. That would be considered counter-productive.

You also wouldn’t want to walk up and down the back lanes of your Kentucky Fried City slicing the throats of your neighbors’ pets only to dismiss the community’s subsequent outrage as “childish sentimentality”, “infantile anthropomorphism” or “cultural imperialism”. That would be considered anti-social.

And you really, really, really, reeeaaaallllly wouldn’t want to set fire to a slaughterhouse or a fur store or a whaling-vessel or an under-construction hog-barn because ... well, I can’t actually think of a good reason why you shouldn’t do that (besides life in prison). But you get the point. It’s all about effective advocacy.

So here I am! At your service! Ready and willing to ensure that people who already know better aren’t made to feel guilty about their stupid, selfish, unimaginably cruel choices! Besides, haven’t you heard? Vegetarians are classist! At least that’s what all the white college kids are saying when they fly home for Thanksgiving dinner! Haha, asswipes. You’ll be the first ones I eat when I finally snap, you fuckin posers. Whoops! Where was I? Oh yeah, effective advocacy...

But seriously folks, every social movement has its peanut gallery. In fact, I believe every serious social movement needs its peanut gallery, and when it comes to the movement against the egomaniacal cruelty humans perpetually visit upon animals, you can sign me up for season tickets and a very big fuckin’ bag of the blessed arachis hypogaea to go along with my top-hat and monocle.

And while it may be true that I take great pleasure in ridiculing morons rad dudes who eat animal corpses and their reproductive secretions, it’s important for me to be clear that veganism isn’t about purity or superiority. It’s simply about extending moral consideration to other inhabitants of a complex planet in a morally-ambivalent universe where, despite the statistical improbability of it all, we earthlings (human and non-human) appear to be the only instance of sentient life that is or ever has been.

That’s some heavy shit.

And seriously, if we as a society can’t even bother to treat a simple, unassuming, stunningly gentle and demonstrably sentient creature like a cow or a deer with a modicum of decency, how the fuck do we ever expect to be able treat each other–infinitely more complex, wildly divergent and often exasperating individual human beings–with anything even remotely resembling civility? It just ain’t gonna happen.

So with that in mind, and in the spirit of the first rule of effective advocacy, I leave you with this short list of potentially transformative resources, created by better and more effective advocates for animals than myself. And see? I didn’t even have to insult you to make my point after all. Fuck are you ugly.

Read:
Making a Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights by Bob Torres
The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams
Animal Liberation by Peter Singer
Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won’t Eat Meat by Howard Lyman
Dominion : The Power of Men, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy by Matthew Scully

Watch:
Earthlings (AUTHOR'S ADVISORY NOTICE! EXTREMELY DISTURBING)

Listen:
compassionatecooks.com/podcast.htm
veganfreakradio.com