An argument for slavery

I was just reading an article here about the argument for slavery in the United States.  The following selections came from such article:

1. The defenders of slavery included economics, history, religion, legality, social good, and even humanitarianism, to further their arguments.

2. Defenders of slavery argued that slavery had existed throughout history and was the natural state of mankind.

3. Defenders of slavery noted that in the Bible, Abraham had slaves. . . . Jesus never spoke out against it.

4. Defenders of slavery argued that if all the slaves were freed, there would be widespread unemployment and chaos.

5. Defenders of slavery turned to the courts, who had ruled, with the Dred Scott Decision, that all blacks — not just slaves — had no legal standing as persons in our courts — they were property . . .

6. Some slaveholders believed that African Americans were biologically inferior to their masters. During the 1800s, this argument was taken quite seriously, even in scientific circles.

We all know today that none of these reasons are justifiable.  That in fact, this is crazy talk especially the last reason.  All of us today would be adamantly opposed to slavery. And yet back then, this was the norm, this was acceptable, this was mainstream, this was the culture. If you were against slavery you were seen as a deviant and your life could be in danger.  How could this be possible?  How could so many people be convinced to participate in something that was so terribly terribly wrong?

Compare the following justifications to the justifications for slavery above:

1.  The defenders of farming and eating animals include economics, history, religion, legality, social good, and even humanitarianism, to further their arguments.

2. The defenders of farming and eating animals argue that these things have always existed throughout history and is the natural state of mankind.

3. Defenders of farming and eating animals note that it is in the Bible.

4.  Defenders of farming and eating animals argue that if the animals were freed there would be widespread chaos from freeing them and loss of jobs in that industry.

5.  Defenders of farming and eating animals turn to courts, who have ruled that animals are property.  Animals are a commodity.  Sick animals may be considered trash and placed into the trash while still alive, legally.  Or they may be fed directly into a grinder while still alive if they need to be disposed of.

6.  Defenders of farming and eating animals believe that animals are inferior.

When we wonder why, how slavery could have existed on the level that it did and how people could accept it, believe it was ok, look the other way, believe that black people were not human . . . this is how.  The ability to buy into horrific practices of any culture exists in all of us, every one of us.  All of us are susceptible to it.

Culture creates belief systems that are based on economics and power and not on truth.  This creates discrimination and when enough people are indoctrinated to accept something, the psychology of being human flips a switch inside of which we are unaware.

We allow the culture to dictate to us right from wrong and to fracture who we really are inside leaving only some allowable bits intact and destroying the rest.  The culture creates a cognitive dissonance which causes us to form a conformational bias.  What this means is that instead of acting on our beliefs, what we know to be true, we instead change our beliefs and reject truth so that we do not have to change our actions.  This is what the culture wants you to do.

“I once read about a monster called the Extractor, that lived off people’s souls. Only, the thing was, the Extractor ate a person’s soul in their sleep over a 16 year period. Like it would nibble off a crumb every night, until there wasn’t anything left. So a person had no way to realize what was going on. They just had this vague sense that something was slowly disappearing.” – A quote from the movie Special

An example of dissonance (a belief that is not in harmony with your actions which creates psychological discomfort) turning to conformational bias (creating a false truth to relieve the discomfort) is someone who attends a fundraiser for a local animal shelter and purchases a hot dog for sale there believing that the purchase is going to a good cause.  The hot dog is made from animals who come from the most profoundly horrific and abusive of circumstances.

To eat a hot dog, while simultaneously supporting your belief that animal abuse is wrong and, worse, believing that you are helping animals by eating that hot dog requires you to discriminate against animals, to devalue animals as living beings and to turn them into a property, a commodity, a product and as one person told me ‘a material good’.

The animals in the hot dog are the same as the dogs and cats you want to help but culture has taught you they are not.  This is no different from when culture taught folks back in the day that a black person was not a person but a commodity, a thing to be owned.

There is no greater human psychological disconnect than the belief that you are doing something good while simultaneously participating in the very evil that you believe you are doing good for.

I would like to believe that if I were alive during the time of slavery in the United States that I would have been an abolitionist.

The truth is, I am alive during a time of slavery in the United States.

And the truth is I am an abolitionist of modern day slavery.

It is time to take a stand against slavery, not just some forms of slavery, but all forms of slavery.

It is time to stop tolerating discrimination, not just some forms, but all forms.

It is time to stop using the same excuses and making the same justifications for harming other living beings.  If you would not do to a dog what we do to pigs then this is the fracture that the culture has created in you if you still eat pigs or other animal products. Just as every human is a human, every animal is an animal.  Most important:  every life is a life. The way you think about a pig is not the way a pig is.  It is the way the culture wants you to think.  The culture selects which animals you will think of as meat and which ones you will not.  The culture selected which humans you thought of as slaves and which you did not.

Meat is a euphemism.  It is a culturally created word designed to hide the truth.  It is necessary to help you to discriminate against the animals you eat.  Have you ever bought ‘meat’ where the package said “Dead Cow flesh” or “Dead Pig flesh”?  Have you ever had a pet pass away and thought to yourself “meat”.

The thoughts you have about animals are not your own.  They have been placed there by something else.

The culture has selected how you will respond to the idea of not eating animals.

The culture will have you believe eating vegan is more expensive when it is actually less expensive.

The culture will have you believe you won’t get enough protein.  I took the nutrition studies courses at Rochester Institute of Technology for dieticians and the textbooks clearly state protein comes from plants, not animals.  It is only in animals because they ate plants or ate another animal that ate plants.  That animal protein is in no way superior to plant protein and that the idea that we need so much protein is a myth and detrimental to human health.  (Mcardle, Katch, Katch)

The culture will have you believe some lives matter less than others.  That some lives are a product.  Black = slave commodity Pig, Cow, Chicken = food commodity

The culture will have you believe that eating only foods that do not contain animal products is not healthy.  I have been vegan for years.  My hair did not fall out, my nails are not brittle, I am not skinny or weak, and in fact I am healthy in every single way.  I am 46 years old.  I have not been to the doctor except for a physical and a blood test each year to prove I am 100% healthy.  I take no medications and no supplements.

There is no difference in the way people thought then about slavery to how you think now about animals used for food. If you think it was wrong for them to believe the way they did then you must look at how you believe now.  Understand why they believed what they did.  Because to understand that is to understand yourself and how you may be doing the exact same thing.  Only then can you rise above culture and act in accordance with who you are inside: a harmony of the true self and your actions.

For how long are we going to recycle the same 6 excuses for participating in a culture of discrimination and cruelty?

Dairy, cheese, milk and butter are the result of extreme suffering.

I recently attended a talk featuring Gary Francione.  This really hit home with me:

If you are upset about what Michael Vick did to those dogs (if you do not know, scroll down below) but you are not vegan then why are you upset about what Michael Vick did?  Because what he did represents a tiny fraction of what happened to the animal on your plate.

What reasons justify cruelty?  Are there any good enough?

If not then it is time to throw away the reasons, stop letting the culture define right from wrong, find the strength to be yourself, the person that stands up for what is right.

The abolitionists did it then and we must continue to do it now.  Slavery still exists.  It still exists in human populations as well.  I focus on animals not because I value them more than humans.  All life has the same value to the being whose life it is. The reason why I write about animals:

• You are already aware of human beings as slaves but my guess is you have never thought of an animal as being enslaved and instead you use the word ‘farmed’.  If you look up the definition of slavery which is a state of being owned or chattel, submission to a dominating force, and drudgery you will see that a ‘farmed’ animal represents all of these things.  Ironically the word cattle is derived from the word chattel which means a possession or property other than real estate .  If you are chattel, you are a slave.   The word farmed is a euphemism when it comes to animals.  It implies nice things such as planting, growing and harvesting.  In the case of animals this translates to forcible insemination (rape), confinement, and slaughter.

• The main reason I write about animals is because I assume you, reader, do not participate in the enslavement of human beings and in most cases it is already illegal and already accepted that this is not right.  However if you eat animals and their products then you do participate in their enslavement.  It is not illegal and you believe it is right as a result. This is the one form of slavery that you have the power to overcome your own participation in.  I write about animals to re-empower you.  To give you perspective and insight into the choices that you have and to how you have been influenced in ways of which you may be unaware.

Remember, if you think your thoughts are your own there is every possibility that they are not.  Successful indoctrination means that the person is not aware of it.

The images the media feeds us about animals are false.  You will learn the truth about their suffering if you research it for yourself if you have the strength to remove the cultural blinders.  Years of indoctrination make this difficult but I believe you are strong enough. The animals need someone to tell the world please, end our suffering.

That person is you.

Choose the type of person you will be. The culture will choose, has chosen already, for you to be the person in the bottom panel. But you are the person in the top panel. Be that person.

-Peace

What Michael Vick Did:

“Several of those dogs were shot; at least two were were hosed down, then electrocuted. Three dogs were hanged, according to a report by the USDA inspector general, “by placing a nylon cord over a 2 x 4 that was nailed to two trees;” three more dogs were drowned “by putting the dogs’ heads in a 5 gallon bucket of water.”

Vick, with his partner, Quanis Phillips, killed yet another dog “by slamming it to the ground several times before it died, breaking the dog’s back or neck.” When another of his dogs was disqualified after jumping out of the ring during a fight, Vick had his associate, Purnell Peace, shoot that dog in the head with a .22 caliber pistol.

When federal officers raided Vick’s property in 2007, they rescued 53 pit bulls. They also found nine pit bull carcasses, took samples of two skeletal remains, collected spent shell casings, syringes, and “pieces of plywood flooring and dry wall covered with dark stains believed to be canine blood.” (Tests later confirmed, yes, the stains were dog blood.)

Other evidence seized from the property included a “rape stand” — a device to which a female dog was strapped, her head fully restrained, so she could be raped by other dogs”