But in order to safeguard human self valuing it may still be useful as a tool to value other beings formally above the human - this can be an instrument of order, peace. Like sanctifying cows in India, Im sure had some calming effect.
We eat, as all life eats. You are free to choose to eat meat or not, that is up to you, since we are omnivores. Or you can subsist entirely on Soylent if you prefer. But meat is very good for us, it nourishes us deeply. Both in body and in mind. Countering this for the sake of some weird morality of “eating life is bad!” makes no sense, because you are required to eat life in order to… live. Even plants have existence, life, self-value. It comes down to how you are able to value some other lifeform: in what ways does it present itself to you to be valued by you? I have asked here in this topic in what greater ways does a cow present itself to us to be valued other than as our meal? So far I have not received any answers to what question, which is not surprising since I do not think there are any answers to be found. As I said, if you value a specific cow as a pet for some specific reason, then you will not want to eat it, and that’s just fine. But the cow on my plate was not my pet, was not my friend and did not present itself to be valued by me in any way other than to nourish me with its meat. That sounds harsh, sure, but that is how it works.
So if we would not eat the cow based on the idea that it exists, and existence is inviolable, than that would negate the cows existence, as it needs to eat grass, and the grass also exists. Playing moral games, you could say we need to eat the cow to compensate for it eating grass. In any case when the Earth kill sus it has back both its cows and its grass, and the minerals that grass so insolently ate, and the energy from the sun that went into it all.
And eventually the Sun will eat the Earth.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
Lets eat to celebrate.
And drink some murdered grapes.
All life dies, and is ultimately eaten… by other life. It is not a question of some silly moralizing of “it is bad that life must die!”. Only cowards and religious moralists would feel that way. Anyone who feels this strong aversion to eating meat is a coward and/or a religious moralist. And cowardice and religious morality are stupid (un-philosophical). But most people cannot handle working with multiple levels of value and ranking them into a hierarchy, they can only make determinations in black and white, namely if one value is upheld then others must be rejected; this is the only way they are able to assert a single value, because they cannot deal with the contradictions between differing values-systems. And then they must find and follow a mere morality to stabilize this weakness of theirs into something livable, as a mode of life over time.
I fully acknowledge my respect for animal life, including for cows. Animals are alive, they self-value, they are sentient, they have thoughts and feelings. They do not want to suffer and die. These are all true statements. But what is forgotten is that there are no universal values, every value flows from a self-valuing, from a being itself who posits values to and for itself, in terms of itself. Religious moralists believe in universal values, therefore they are black and white thinkers who must state as Kant tried to do that if a value is good then it must be absolute-universal, and from this follows how they must reject any value that is at odds with whatever they think of as the universal value. In most cases the supposed universal value is “life is good” or “suffering/death is bad”; this is the position from which vegetarians and vegans come, although it is funny how they do not count plant life as being alive or as being able to suffer.
I personally eat only beef, chicken, fish and pork. I would never voluntarily make myself a meal of duck, as I find ducks to be lovely. I don’t eat what I find lovely. I would sooner eat a human than a squirrel, no fucking doubt. I consider squirrels lovelier than the average human. But I would of course never eat family or friends.
I don’t respect of acknowledge “humanity”. Its just a pot of brown resulting from throwing in all colours together indiscriminately. It is a soil from which species of refined and complex valuing are born, as well as a lot of trash that denies its own valuing and thus forms anti-being, which can’t even be eaten as it is sick. We might see eating cows as a form of respect to said cows, if at least we respect our stomachs as well and thus breed the cow in pleasure, massage it, feed it beer like Japanese farmers do to their prime livestock.
Most animals I would not eat, except if I catch them myself. I would never eat a lovely animal that I hadn’t caught with my own hands. I would not be worthy of it by my own aesthetics of life.
lovely is a value judgment, here, it is a function of me.
I don’t mind if others eat duck. I won’t ever favour eating it, thats my code, my ethics, my love.
What do you think happens to a cell when it is damaged? It reacts. It tries to repair itself if possible, and if not possible then its components are violently torn apart and reconstituted by other cells – the cell dies. Every cell, including plant cells, acts to remain alive and structurally stable. Why do you think cells have cell walls that are configured to only allow certain molecules in while rejecting others? Why do you think cells pump out their waste products? Oxygen is a waste product of plant cells. CO2 is a waste product of animal cells. [youtube][/youtube]
All values exist only because a specific being produces them, values them. No value exists in a vacuum without the valuer. So the only question is: what is your value, and why? If you feel emotionally damaged and fragile enough to be so bothered by the concept of eating meat, then your value will be as a vegetarian or vegan. That’s perfectly fine, as your valuing. But such a valuing is by no means universal. It is not my own valuing, nor that of countless other humans not even to speak of all the carnivorous animals in nature who live only because they eat meat.
The Earth is auto-cannibalistic like the Sun is - the Sun consumes itself, that is what causes its being as a fury - the Earth consumes itself, that is what causes its being as a paradise. And it only becomes a hell wherever humans start to pretend there is anything other than this consuming the old and bringing forth the new from the components. When humans proclaim a paradise away from Earth, this should be interpreted as an order to kill and bury them stante pede.
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Oh yeah,
Im not sure how to qualify this.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FOeyLAt2jM[/youtube]
Not sure how to classify eating life as it lives. Your thoughts?