- Anything Else -
Why EVERYONE should vegitarian
Posted by: Jeff ( USA ) on June 04, 1999 at 14:39:24:
Hi All,
I just discovered this forum and I'd love to give my opinion as to why we should all be vegitarians: At one point, long ago, human beings were unlike humans of today. Primitive man was beast-like; behaving and living like wild animals, concerned primarily w/ eating and in turn not being eaten. We are no longer primitive man. We have evolved into amazingly intelligent creatures, equipt w/ far greater intellectual and emotional faculties than our ancestors could ever have dreamed of. We no longer have to tie razor sharp rock fragments to branches for use in harpooning one of the local wooly mammoths. We as a society have gotten to a point, here in 1999, where we no longer need to pack our guns full of gun powder and pellet's in order to treck through miles of snow, "hunting" and hoping to find something, anything, to bring back to our famished families in the log cabin. In times of desperation/starvation humans will regress to primitive behaviors in order to survive, even going so far as to eat one another. We (excluding our third world populations) no longer live in desperate times and in fact today we overindulgingly reap the benefits of technology and all it brings us, like never before in history. Eating other creatures is no longer a prerequisite to survival and, barring literal starvation, there is not one legitimate, rational reason to do so.
You say that human beings NEED to eat animal flesh for nutritional reasons? Well, I do not have the specific data or proof of that claim (assuming that some can be provided by the claim'er) nor am I a nutritionist so I cannot debate that on a factual level. I can, however, tell you that my common sense, my personal health, the health of fellow vegitarians I am and am not aquainted w/ and much literature Ive read on the topic all testify to the fact that I think you're wrong. From the information Ive read/heard I have gathered that human beings CAN and do live perfectly normal, healthy, long existance's w/out ingesting animal flesh. Are you going to claim that Jay Kordich( the juice man) doesnt seem like an enormously healthy, vibrant and alive individual? How about Madonna? True, they both could be secretly suffering from some vegitarian induced health woes, but I doubt it. As far as my own health all I can say is that no dead animal has entered my mouth in over eight years and, for a thirty year old man, I remain in completely normal health. I excersize five days/week, although I must admit I do not do my best to eat (what a vegitarian would consider) a balanced diet. Im confident in believing that if I made a conscious effort to improve my nutrional intake that I very well could be in superior physical condition than the general population of flesh consumer's. Ultimatly, if I am wrong and it can be proven that humans do need the animal flesh then I will indeed remain a vegitarian, basing that decision on reasons such as my moral beliefs outweighing selfish concerns of minor health threats. Furthermore, I dont believe any of you when you claim that you eat meat solely for health purposes. You may believe that yourself, but Im willing to suggest that you (and all forms of meat eaters) are in denial of the truth; this leads me to my next topic/opinion.
We human beings are capable of feeling emotions of immeasurable intensities. We feel empathy and sympathy for others in times of pain. When we hear of a child being tortured and murdered we are devistated. We imagine what it must have been like for that child. What did it feel like to be stabbed repeatedly or burned or shot or strangled or electricuted or beaten to death? How did we all feel about Jon Benet? Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman? How about fifteen year old Mary Vincent who's arms were hacked off w/ a hatchet and lived to describe it? How excrutiatingly painful it must have been. Degrees of physical pain in which most of us cannot even fathom. Yet we (you, not me) condone and perpetuate this cruel, barbaric tortue on animals every selfish day of your lives. Its ok and acceptable to you that animals are used and abused in every conceivable way w/ no regaurd/respect for their physical and emotional sanctity, for the sole purpose of pleasuring you and your own selfish desires. Only you matter, no other creatures. And why is this? Why do you condone this treatment of animals? Why is it ok to dominate and abuse them? You have your reasons/excuses but again I suggest they all are irrationally and illegitimately based. You say that animals are here for us. Say's who? God? Prove it. So it's your opinion that "god" created COUNTLESS millions of animal species all in an effort to please man? What grandiose thinking! Wouldnt "god" prefer us to love and respect our fellow creatures instead of using and abusing them? Wouldnt a loving god just have easily created us humans w/ out the need to eat flesh, instead of needing to eat dead animals? If you are using your belief in "god" to justify your condonment of animal cruelty than you are sadly deluding yourself and using that delusional thinking to make ok w/ yourself your selfish, thoughtless ways. How dare you. Who would "god" respect more; people who wish ONLY for piece, love and tranquility for ALL living creatures, who refuse to harm them or use them for any SELFISH(the word selfish meaning only wishing to satiate your most primitive, intellectually and emotionally unadvanced DESIRES, not necessities) reasons whatsoever OR people who would systematically gather, breed, house in DEPLORABLE conditions, torture and finally murder their fellow creatures as if in a nazi concentration camp? So you say Im a "radical". So what? Whats wrong w/ that? What is WRONG about caring, loving, respecting and NOT EVER harming or using/abusing animals for selfish gaines? What about ANY of that sounds like a bad idea? You tell me. Explain to me where the harm comes in this "radical" thinking of mine? Who does it hurt? Certainly not the animals.
Ok, so you say that we humans are at the top of the food chain. Its nature, and thats why it's acceptable to domionate the rest of the world. Nonsense. Just because we, through no doing of our own, simply happen to evolve into the most intelligent species on the planet does not automatically give us the right to do what we wish w/ all other species. Just because adults are more intelligent than and able to physically dominate childred doesnt give them the right to rape, torture, maime, murder or eat them. Or does it? To the contrary. Along w/ our superior intellect comes the DUTY to empathize w/ and respect those who are which less powerful than us, be it physically or psychologically, human or otherwise. To deviate from that basic moral standard is immoral, self centered and wrong.
I realize that non of you think or wishes to think of yourselves as immoral and selfish do you? Of course not, and thats where your denial comes in. In order to feel ok about yourself and the cruelty you perpetuate on animals you go into denial. You come up w/ all sorts of defensive reasons as to why you're ok w/ animal abuse. I find the most fascinating mind game you play w/ yourselves to be the way in which you differntiate between what sorts of dead animal flesh can enter your mouths and what kinds are too be rejected. Its acceptable to eat only certain body parts and certain internal organs coming from certain animals. Cows, chickens, pigs, are all perfectly acceptable to gorge yourselves on, but never dogs, cats, hamsters, or parrots. Where is the logic behind that type of thinking? Its ok for certain animals to be tortured, murdered and consumed by you, but not others? Cows dont feel pain but cats do? Pigs (who incidentally are reported to be more intellegent than dogs) cant appreciate the fact that they are literally being physically and emotionally tortured? But that would too horrible for your little house pet now wouldnt it? You will delightfully knaw on the actual bones of chickens, the ribs of pigs and liver of a juvenile cow but offer you, let's say, the stomach contents of an oppossum or the brain matter of a rabbit and you're ready to vommit!! How many of you would eat a dear that was freshly hit by your car, it's intestines sprawled all over the road? They're dirty? Well, just go and slice open his belly, reach in, pull them all out and put them in a bag for later cleansing. Then rip his entire hide from his body which, after it has leatherd sufficiently in the sun, can be used as a lovely wall hanging. Then you can continue gutting him, amputate his head and legs, cut his entire body into managable pieces and you'll have yourself some deliscous food!! Of course most of you would find that whole procedure thoroughly repulsive (besides you "hunting" genius' who like to think that you are doing the animal populations a favor by slaughtering them w/ your talented hunting "skills". Humans are very intellegent and can obviously outsmart any animal, it's a completely unfair match. Sort of like hunting down a retarded child, but not as smart), but fisting the body cavity of a dead turkey on thanksgiving? Perfectly normal rite? The truth is that most of you find the act of putting dead animal flesh into your mouths nauseating. You only trick yourselves into accepting that certain animal parts are regaurded as food and not nauseating pieces of animal flesh because you have been conditioned to believe this is so. Its the stepford wive mentallity. You dont want to think of it as it really is because you dont want to have to give up the pleasure of eating it. Ignorance is bliss. Its also easier to just go along w/ society or how "god" tells you how to live. No need to think for ourselves or come up w/ our OWN conclusions based on rational, logical or scientific reasoning.
And for those of you who are actually ignorant enough to compare the eating of animal flesh by modern day humans to other animals eating each other, such as lions eating gazelles, I say this: You cant be serious. Are you actually that stupid or are just pretending for shock effect? Only a brain damaged human w/ very limited mental faculties could possibly, seriously, make such a comparison. A lion, or any other lower carnivore, has NO CHOICE in the matter, do you understand that? A lion has the brain of a lion, and to what extent can a lion formulate rational thoughts? Basically, a lion feels hungry and all it knows how to do is chase down another animal and devour the whole carcass. It does not know how to refridgerate some for later, or for that matter how to throw together a tofu salad in lieu of the bloody mess. Finally, in response to the most brainless, thoughtless comments of all (claiming that eating vegitable matter is tantamount to eating animal matter), I say this; unlike higher forms of life vegitable's are devoid of a neurologic system, rendering them 100% unanble to think and/or feel pain or fear and therefore they are fair "game".
enough for now, Jeff.
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