Inhumanity & Non-Humans
You can have it both ways with this meat-eating business. Go vegetarian except for special occasions, whereupon foie gras and crated veal are to be consumed. Consider it a sacred rite in the persecution of the notion that treating animals nicely makes them taste nicer.
This notion is to be persecuted because it is
a) incorrect, see above foodstuffs which admittedly I have never sampled so cannot tell whether they are indeed tasty, though I assume the fuss is about something.
b) hypocritical. (I only ever hear politicians use this word nowadays, which I feel is a shame. I like a bit of grandstanding. Other persons might say "displays cognitive dissonance".) In eating an animal, one is assimilating it into one's body. That is not treating it nicely. It is not treating it nicely, anymore than Michael Gambon's character in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover treats his wife's lover nicely when he cooks him and eats his cock.
So, seeing as I have no intention of following my own advice, next time I eat a chicken, I shall appreciate it for the Neronian feast it is. The next most difficult thing I could do, if there is any logic to the above, is to eat my cat, but i'm not quite up to that, unsurprisingly.
This notion is to be persecuted because it is
a) incorrect, see above foodstuffs which admittedly I have never sampled so cannot tell whether they are indeed tasty, though I assume the fuss is about something.
b) hypocritical. (I only ever hear politicians use this word nowadays, which I feel is a shame. I like a bit of grandstanding. Other persons might say "displays cognitive dissonance".) In eating an animal, one is assimilating it into one's body. That is not treating it nicely. It is not treating it nicely, anymore than Michael Gambon's character in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover treats his wife's lover nicely when he cooks him and eats his cock.
So, seeing as I have no intention of following my own advice, next time I eat a chicken, I shall appreciate it for the Neronian feast it is. The next most difficult thing I could do, if there is any logic to the above, is to eat my cat, but i'm not quite up to that, unsurprisingly.