Red Pill Press interview part 2

Part 2 of an interview with Red Pill Press, a Las Vegas Occupy zine

 

Red Pill Press: Why should the rights of non-humans be part of the occupy movement?

Expression of Life:  Part of the basis for the market is the assumption that people are only concerned with their own well-being and a select group of others. And even if they did care they wouldn’t know how to benefit others and so the market allows us to be selfish and still benefit others. While you can find some accuracy in both assumptions it isn’t the market that cares where a pair of shoes is produced and who might be exploited in the process, it is people who care.  The market doesn’t care whether or not a category of beings is oppressed and violated for food, profit or pleasure, it is people who care. The market doesn’t care about casualties of war, people care. To sum up, the market is indifferent when it comes to negative liberties and left unchecked the most savage violations of life and liberty are sometimes considered “just business.”

Liberty and equality are values we consider axiomatic. We just aren’t necessarily being consistent and/or following a competent definition and practice of these values. This is no surprise since letting market become arbitrator and morality a “consequence” of us focusing on self-interest we have surrendered our moral agency to some degree.

To speak for the 99% yet ignore the 100% of non-human beings who live under our oppression is just another way of promoting the idea that we couldn’t care about anyone but ourselves and select group of others.

 

Dem Bombs

Thanks to the great folks at ABQ Free Press who included my poem “Dem Bombs” as part of their “Odes to lost rights” in their latest issue.

 

Dem Bombs

I.
Obama’s bomb’s connected to
Kim Jong’s bomb
Kim Jong’s bomb’s connected to
a center in Yongbyon
Yongbyon’s connected to
uranium
the uranium goes into
Jong’s big bomb
North Korea’s got a beef with
the South Koreans
The North and South are connected
but the U.N. said they couldn’t be one
So the North was connected to
the Soviet Union
And the South is still connected to
the pentagon
the pentagon says our bomb
is better than Jong’s bomb
They say our bomb is connected to
altruism
and Jong’s bomb’s connected to
his egotism
so the U.S. uses food as a
weapon
while Jong threatens
Armageddon
and all the people are disconnected from
imperium

II.
Ezekial’s in the valley with the live bombs
Ezekial’s in the valley with the live bombs

Defuse, don’t use dem live bombs
Defuse, don’t use dem live bombs

BUT WHAT IF YOU WERE STRANDED ON A DESERT ISLAND?!

Q: “What if you were stranded on a desert island, how would you survive without eating animals then?!”

A: Assuming you are asking in the sincere interest of respecting life and liberty and adhering to a competent and complete definition of equality and should you feel that you could somehow be at risk of being stranded you will want to keep a copy of this (courtesy of Backpacker magazine) with you.

UNIVERSAL EDIBILITY TEST

Survival experts devised this test to determine a plant’s edibility.

1. Separate the plant into its various parts—roots, stems, leaves, buds, and flowers. Focus on only one piece of the plant at a time.
2. Smell it. A strong, unpleasant odor is a bad sign.
3. Test for contact poisoning by placing a piece of the plant on your inner elbow or wrist for a few minutes. If your skin burns, itches, feels numb, or breaks out in a rash, don’t eat the plant.
4. If the plant passes the skin test, prepare a small portion the way you plan to eat it (boiling is always a good bet).
5. Before taking a bite, touch the plant to your lips to test for burning or itching. If there’s no reaction after 15 minutes, take a small bite, chew it, and hold it in your mouth for 15 minutes. If the plant tastes very bitter or soapy, spit it out.
6. If there’s no reaction in your mouth, swallow the bite and wait several hours. If there’s no ill effect, you can assume this part of the plant is edible. Repeat the test for other parts of the plant; some plants have both edible and inedible parts.

Good Karma

The pay what you want restaurant concept has been around for awhile, but this past month was the first time I experienced one first hand. I’m still getting nourishment from the visit far beyond the meal itself.

Part of the philosophy behind Karma Cafe is that everyone has a right to proper nutrition. This is a perspective which doesn’t seem woven into our current social arrangements. Yet, nutrition being a basic necessity, any society which doesn’t acknowledge proper nutrition as a basic right is a system which is interfering with equality, liberty and human flourishing.

The exchange that occurs within Karma Cafe is radical by mainstream standards. Removing the price removes limits on the value of the food and experience. There is also a more direct experience of respect and trust and integrity between individuals that a symbol for integrity (money) stands in the way of.

If you visit Karma, I recommend the vegan brownies if they have them that day, the menu changes daily.

 

 

Sympathy for the devil

As the protests and outrage continue a month into the Trump presidency it seems an appropriate time to suggest something that seems more productive, something which can harness our true capacity to impact the world and bring about positive change– let’s pause and take a look at how the shadow side of the 45th president of the United States is simply a reflection or ourselves.

We feel enraged with Trump for proposing walls and travel bans, demonizing and disregarding the interests of particular categories of individuals, yet as a society we subscribe to an arbitrary standard of equality which excludes non-human animals. To exclude non-human beings from the scope of equality is to not take the concept of equality seriously at all. As this doesn’t take into consideration agency and the intrinsic value of beings– the significant characteristics which form the basis of any useful and competent vision of equal rights.

We feel disgusted with Trump’s attitudes towards women.  We find his jokes about sexual misconduct frightening and the Women’s March on Washington has established as Principal #1-  Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people. Yet we continue to demand dairy and eggs for our pleasure, requiring women to be dominated and violated to satisfy our wants. The guiding principles of the Women’s March isn’t really about women, but like Trump, about the categories of beings which they which to acknowledge agency in, and so the rest of the women are seen only for their instrumental value.

We are deeply saddened at Trump’s ability to dismiss the scientific consensus on climate change and everything that implies for our planet, yet we continue unnecessary and selfish dietary habits that demand animal agriculture and livestock which are putting our planet in greater peril.

If you are contributing to exploitation of animals, directly or indirectly, you are dodging the principal of impartiality, you are ignoring the basis for equality and the intrinsic value of others. Instead you are viewing others as instruments to satisfy your interest and not taking the value of equality seriously. Your greatest capacity to change the world is to change yourself. You can bring us closer to a world which respects life and liberty much quicker by focusing first on you then Trump.

 

 

Letter to myself before I was vegan

Book  Foreword

“I wish I had gone vegan sooner.”

-every vegan I’ve ever met

It is still uncomfortable for me to acknowledge that at one time I wasn’t vegan. Even with decades separating me from the years when my behaviors were acting in opposition with my values. To recall that at one time I had taken the life and liberty of innocent beings and that I subscribed to a faulty definition of what equality means is still disturbing to me. Even looking at the years when I was a vegetarian and thought I was respecting others I only wish I would have understood that it is not only about suffering and killing, but about use and power and oppression.

I wish I had gone vegan sooner.

For the past year I have asked vegans to take a quantum leap with me. I asked them to write a letter to the person they were before they were vegan. The responses came from all over this beautiful and diverse world we share. Reading their letters I felt the full range of emotions. These are extraordinary people. People who have ignored the dominant perspective and instead invoked their own moral compass to pioneer and navigate a way through a landscape where exploitation is normalized, where despotism is acceptable as long it is some other group of beings whose rights are violated. These are individuals who have the moral courage to be a voice for those we generally refuse to understand.

There is a common swipe at those who refuse to take part in the exploitation of non-human beings – “How can you tell if someone is vegan? Don’t worry they’ll tell YOU.”   Advocating for all beings is sometimes seen as a put down of those who still participate in exploitation, however the aim isn’t to put down, but to lift up. We owe it to everyone to speak the truth. Though my actions now put me outside of the mainstream I feel more connected to everyone and everything as a result.

I wish I had gone vegan sooner.

Expression of Life

January 31^st, 2017

Where the streets have no name, USA

You can purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Letter-myself-before-was-vegan-ebook/dp/B01N4TJL2U/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1486403840&sr=1-1&keywords=expression+of+life

 

Who killed Harambe?

 

 

” ‘Not us,’ says the angry crowd,
Whose screams filled the arena loud.”

– Bob Dylan from Who killed Davey Moore?

 

There has been a lot of finger-pointing and debate over the last week, but I’ve thought about my role and responsibility in the murder of Harambe last week at the Cincinnati zoo. Years ago I bought tickets and roamed the grounds of Zoos, fascinated by the various forms of life I couldn’t see in person anywhere else. A reasonable curiosity and healthy adoration for the range of life I would see there, my motivation for going was always out of respect,but I didn’t have a real comprehension of what respect meant in regards to the individuals kept in captivity at these institutions.

My actions betrayed my values every time I attended a zoo. Curiosity does not trump the basic entitlements of others.

If we respect these beings then holding them captive and putting them on display isn’t the way to show respect. Sanctuaries and wild corridors which allow for as much freedom as possible and manipulate their communities as little as possible are. Conservation and the protection of biotic communities are.

There is no reason to ever create the potential for another situation such as that which occurred last weekend in Cincinnati. To disregard freedom for one disregards freedom altogether. To disregard liberty for one, disregards liberty altogether. To ignore the inherent worth and agency in others is to ignore inherent worth and agency altogether. It is time to have a meaningful idea and practice of liberty. It is time to extend the same freedom from interference to all others that we would want for ourselves. In memory of Harambe, in expectation of human flourishing.

 

 

 

Red Pill Press interview with Expression of life

How exactly does the Occupy movement “miss the mark?”

It claims to seek equality and justice but has generally been more of the usual anthropocentric slant on these values and therefore Occupy doesn’t even advocate the moral baseline.

That baseline being veganism?

No, no. Veganism is necessary but insufficient. We have to take more into consideration besides pain and consciousness. Life in any expression can experience harm and benefits. To take the idea of equality seriously we must then recognize that each form of life is entitled to the same basic negative liberties or freedom from interference whether or not a being is aware of harm and benefit.

That would require some rather extreme changes in society.

Perhaps it could be viewed that way, but isn’t an incomplete concept of equality that leaves values absurd and meaningless for rational and moral agents what’s really extreme?

 

 

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