Carnism

 We like the foods we've learned we're supposed to like." (552)

(And I'm a rabbit, so I like carrots.)  

I was informed this weekend that there are three types of people in the world, those that are ignorant, those that know the truth but choose not to do anything about it, and those that know and act. I became acquainted with this life lesson when I made the mistake of saying, " You can just leave the meat out and give me more beans, Honey. I'm sort of working on being a vegetarian." At this point, my sister, who is one of those high moralists who has no problem calling me, in particular out, said, "Oh, you're kind of a vegetarian now, huh? Like I'm kind of pregnant?! That's not how it works, Mariah. You either are or your'e not. You can't label yourself "sort of" something like that whenever it's convenient."

"We can change our values to match our behaviors, we can change our behavior to match our values, or we can change perception of our behaviors so that they appear to match our values." (553)

My "'face on the plate' moment" in Trujillo, Honduras. (582)

At this point, I went into "defense mode." I cited how my heart is in the right place, and that I just slip and regress sometimes-- that I'm human. (Ironic, isn't it that we use that phrase to explain away shortcomings.) To this she told me that "willed ignorance" is no better than the real kind. It's not as if I have some particular commitment to meat, after all. It's not necessarily something I can't live without, but even I can find my excuses. I cited many of Masson's examples. For example, I'm an extremely non-confrontational person and "don't want to offend people" or because I can be easily swayed one way or the other to make decisions I'll later regret when other diners are "showing impatience."(583) None of these arguments really mollified her. After much fruitless debate, in which I countered by calling her an enabler because she still serves meat to her husband, we moved on to the more abstract idea of vegeatarianism as practice vs. philosophy. It is clear that my analytical, righteous sister clearly sees her vegetarianism as part of her purpose-driven life, which makes me wonder. Almost all of my friends who are vegetarians are notorious, even chronic, do-gooders. You name a cause to advocate-- and they're probably involved. Is there something to be said of people who question literally every choice they make in life? Is this level of purpose in everything they do something learned or something natural?

People make choices. Choices make people. ~Random guy who used to come and tell us not to do drugs in jr. high 

Certainly, vegetarians don't take the easy way out. They get scrutinized and judged by meat eating family members at every holiday. (*Gasp* You're not eating the turkey on Thanksgiving?! Sacrilege! Why don't you just slap our forebears, the pilgrims, in the face?) They are accused of poor health (and in my sister's case, also endangering the health of her baby.) They deal with people whining that their veggie burger doesn't taste like a real burger. (Heaven forbid!)

Tyson dinosaur chicken nuggets.
"What?!?!?! Chicken?!?!?! You mean I'm not eating real dinosaur!!! I' feel betrayed!"

Furthermore, they get to be bombarded by advertisements that make even me feel uncomfortable. Case in point, the new commercial for Burger King's Beef Steakhouse Burger:

Even I found this all a bit munch. It somehow fetishizes meat in a way that made my stomach queasy.

"What you know you can't explain, but you feel it." (575)

Then I am reminded of the last time meat made my stomach turn. It was in summer of 2010, in Peru.

Cuy in Cusco, Peru. To this day, I still don't find it appetizing.
It must be true."When it comes to animal foods,
all taste may be acquired taste." (552) . 

Feelings are your internal compass to tell you when we're doing something right--- or wrong, I suppose.

How we feel about an animal and how we treat it... has much less to do with what kind of animal it is than about what our perception of it is." (552) 

It's about our minds. then. Which brings me to this point:
Our position as superior beings is a fallacy.

 "A chain, by definition, doesn't have a top, and if it did, it would be inhabited by carnivores, not omnivores." (567) Or zombies.

And they, especially want your brains--- kind've like advertisers. Hold onto your brains people. You need those, because coming up next is... 

The Power of the Mind: A.K.A Death by "-ation"

Denial, Avoidance, Routinization, Justification, Objectification, Deindividualization, Dichotomization, Rationalization, and Dissociation

BE AWARE.

Yet somehow we've agreed to it. We've literally "bought" into it. "Inherent in violent ideologies is an implicit contract between producer and consumer to see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil." (571)

If the best reason we can come up with is because it's the way things are, clearly something is amiss" (555)

We don't think about it because it is one of our basest human needs? Really? Aren't we trying to overcome our baseness-- to become self-actualized individuals? 

Think For Yourself, and Think About Yourself
A Case Study

When Masson was discussing how Aristotle had made an "us" and "them" of animals and slaves and justified making them property because "both animals and slaves lack logos, that is, speech, as opposed to noise,"(585) I thought of something I read about epiphanies in my ALD class this semester. 

Consider  people who are mute or deaf or that have Downs Syndrome. They do not communicate in a conventional way, either. Yet we do not kill them or eat them or try to subject them to our utility-- not nowadays anyway. 

For this class we read J Davis Smith's book "In Search of Better Angels:"

Floyd Cochran, the early 1990's, the head recruiter for the Aryan brotherhood was told that his child, who has a cleft palate, "He's a genetic defect. When we come to power, he'll have to be euthanized." (Hochschild, 1994, p34) Cochran walked away and never went back. 

Wolf Wolfensberger, too, described individuals with severe mental disabilities as possessing the following positive traits associated with their lack of communication: 

• a natural and positive spontaneity
• a tendency to respond to others generously and warmly 
• a tendency to respond honestly to others
• the capacity to call forth gentleness, patience, and tolerance from others
• a tendency to be trusting of others (pp 63-70)

This sounds a bit like animals, right? There is a correlation, and it can be applied across all individuals who we somehow can rationalize protecting and putting on our level. 

"To be fair, we must acknowledge that infanticide, murder, rape, and cannibalism are at least as old as meat eating, and are therefore arguably as "natural"---  and yet we don't invoke teh history of these acts as justification for them." (566)  

Didn't your Mama ever tell you that "just because you can do something doesn't make it right"... or  "just because it's legal, that doesn't make it moral?" 

So what now?

Now, I work towards bettering myself. I become more aware to what I wear, what I eat, and what I buy. 

It's time to change things.

And it's not just my lifestyle. It's time that, and I've said it before, I embrace the child in me. I mean, I remember being one of those kids that was so easy-going but asked an awful lot of questions, which earned me a reputation with some adults as being "willful."

"But why?
Because dah dah dah dah.
Yes, but that's just the way you and everybody else do it... that still doesn't answer why?
Well, [insert logical statement here, replete with scientific evidence]. 
Sure, but even if that's efficient and convenient, I still don't understand why we do it that way. Is it right because we do it? Or do we do it because it's right? I don't ever want to just do something for the mere fact that I was told to or that's what I saw others do. I want to do it because I believe in it. "

It's time to ask questions

. 

"If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on getting what you've always got." ~ W.L. Bateman

What does what I buy, what I wear, or what I eat say about me?

I'm not sure if it's true that when "we no longer feel entitled to kill and consume animals, our identity as human beings comes into question," but my habits certainly are changed.

It's time to figure out who I am--- to talk the talk and walk the walk.

Days since last act of carnism: 8 (and counting)