RE: Veganism?
February 1, 2012 at 5:01 pm
(This post was last modified: February 1, 2012 at 5:02 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
Interesting, and only slightly off topic....there has long been a tendency towards taboo with regards to what were considered "animals of a higher order" (as well as a market that caters to breaking those taboos). One of those quirks we seem to have with regards to food.
How many of you would eat a monkey?
How many a cow?
A dog?
Do you imagine the answers would be the same if I asked a Hindu? What if I asked someone from Korea?
Great Apes are currently the terminus of their line, but this is true of most species of plant we currently include in our diets. If "higher order" is going to be used as a smoke screen for "like us" that's fine, but lets be open about that. Then we can use much simpler language to describe our argument. "I do not feel comfortable eating things that remind me of some part or characteristic of myself". That's perfectly understandable, keep in mind that many pet lizard owners see something familiar in their lizards, or spiders, or fish, or any other animal one cares to imagine (and inanimate objects such as mountains, or tiny pebbles..really, everything). We have cultures who elevated certain animals to the "higher order" without any sort of scientific classification whatsoever, creating totems and taboos. Point is, the metrics you've used sound perfectly fine if one wishes to make a personal decision about what one's conscience can handle with regards to their food (and where it comes from/what it is). There's nothing in any of this that turns it into a question of morality that applies to us all.
How many of you would eat a monkey?
How many a cow?
A dog?
Do you imagine the answers would be the same if I asked a Hindu? What if I asked someone from Korea?
Great Apes are currently the terminus of their line, but this is true of most species of plant we currently include in our diets. If "higher order" is going to be used as a smoke screen for "like us" that's fine, but lets be open about that. Then we can use much simpler language to describe our argument. "I do not feel comfortable eating things that remind me of some part or characteristic of myself". That's perfectly understandable, keep in mind that many pet lizard owners see something familiar in their lizards, or spiders, or fish, or any other animal one cares to imagine (and inanimate objects such as mountains, or tiny pebbles..really, everything). We have cultures who elevated certain animals to the "higher order" without any sort of scientific classification whatsoever, creating totems and taboos. Point is, the metrics you've used sound perfectly fine if one wishes to make a personal decision about what one's conscience can handle with regards to their food (and where it comes from/what it is). There's nothing in any of this that turns it into a question of morality that applies to us all.
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