(no subject)
Well, now I have gone and done it. I started reading Peter Singer for the first time last night. For those of you who might not know, he is an ethicist and philosopher who is one of the contributing founders of the animal liberation movement. Unlike a lot of people involved in that movement that I have known, his writing and more importantly his thinking is well constructed and very convincing. I enjoy the book thoroughly. That is the good new.
I have read two books recently that had dramatic emotional effects on me. Several weeks ago I finished reading "Fight Club." Holy shit, what a train wreck of emotion that book was. It was for me roughly equivalent to getting punched in the face. Painful but passes quickly and may leave only a small scar.
This is already fixing up to be the other book. However I can already tell that this book is more the emotional equivalent of having your soul forcibly wrenched from you still shivering body and flayed before your own eyes. All I can really say it I wish I had no idea that what he has written about was going on, but if I am honest with myself I know that I did know it was. I think it was just too easy for me not to think to hard about it, and well quite honestly animals still taste pretty good. The sad reality is that although I have considered myself to be in general a pretty good and kind person, tolerant and caring for most of my life...I am not.
I am therefore kind of faced with a dilemma. I have had a dislike for extremists and reactionaries for most of my life. I can put the book down and go back to my old way of thinking. Take the blue pill so to speak. The other option is to keep reading and keep thinking and see where it takes me. I suppose if I take to heart the teachings of another of my favorite commenters on suffering to heart and keep to the middle way I can avoid becoming the kind of person I don't like. Even though I don't like what this book is showing me to be right now.
This one is going to hurt. Wish me luck.
P.S. The book is called "Writings on an Ethical Life" and is not limited to just the Animal Liberation movement, but to many other subjects I am looking forward to having my soul raked over the coals with
I have read two books recently that had dramatic emotional effects on me. Several weeks ago I finished reading "Fight Club." Holy shit, what a train wreck of emotion that book was. It was for me roughly equivalent to getting punched in the face. Painful but passes quickly and may leave only a small scar.
This is already fixing up to be the other book. However I can already tell that this book is more the emotional equivalent of having your soul forcibly wrenched from you still shivering body and flayed before your own eyes. All I can really say it I wish I had no idea that what he has written about was going on, but if I am honest with myself I know that I did know it was. I think it was just too easy for me not to think to hard about it, and well quite honestly animals still taste pretty good. The sad reality is that although I have considered myself to be in general a pretty good and kind person, tolerant and caring for most of my life...I am not.
I am therefore kind of faced with a dilemma. I have had a dislike for extremists and reactionaries for most of my life. I can put the book down and go back to my old way of thinking. Take the blue pill so to speak. The other option is to keep reading and keep thinking and see where it takes me. I suppose if I take to heart the teachings of another of my favorite commenters on suffering to heart and keep to the middle way I can avoid becoming the kind of person I don't like. Even though I don't like what this book is showing me to be right now.
This one is going to hurt. Wish me luck.
P.S. The book is called "Writings on an Ethical Life" and is not limited to just the Animal Liberation movement, but to many other subjects I am looking forward to having my soul raked over the coals with