Ludwig
October 30th, 2015, 7:57 PM
More and more folk are becoming misanthropic (yea, I learned me a new word today). Along with PETA, they think that if we would just rank ourselves alongside the other critters in the woods we would treat the land more gently and willingly save the planet.
In a recent article, written by some English professor and published in the NY Slimes said that it is out of human exceptionalism that comes our “abuse of other animals” and the “damage we do to the natural environment.” The remedy for our wickedness? Stop thinking of ourselves as humans, and instead “identify as animals.” If we do that, the article said and we’ll see that eating a cow is equivalent to “cannibalism.”
In my way of thinking, had it exactly bassackwards. Why is it wrong to abuse animals? Not because we’re co-mammals, but because we’re human!
Is the lion “wrong” when he eats the still-living wildebeest calf? But we would rightly consider it monstrous if one of us did it,. Nor is it “wrong” when male dolphins force themselves on unwilling females. But we often call rapists “beasts” because their brutality not only violates their victims’ bodily integrity and human dignity, but also degrades the rapists’ humanity.
In a recent article, written by some English professor and published in the NY Slimes said that it is out of human exceptionalism that comes our “abuse of other animals” and the “damage we do to the natural environment.” The remedy for our wickedness? Stop thinking of ourselves as humans, and instead “identify as animals.” If we do that, the article said and we’ll see that eating a cow is equivalent to “cannibalism.”
In my way of thinking, had it exactly bassackwards. Why is it wrong to abuse animals? Not because we’re co-mammals, but because we’re human!
Is the lion “wrong” when he eats the still-living wildebeest calf? But we would rightly consider it monstrous if one of us did it,. Nor is it “wrong” when male dolphins force themselves on unwilling females. But we often call rapists “beasts” because their brutality not only violates their victims’ bodily integrity and human dignity, but also degrades the rapists’ humanity.