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Alright, so the last post ended with me saying we would talk a bit about the commodity status of animals, and that is what we will do. First I would like to try a little visualization exercise to set the mood. To start, just close your eyes. Focus on the breath: when you inhale think of nothing but the word “inhale,” as you exhale think “exhale.” Do this for about ten breaths, feeling the breath enter your lungs, filling you with life and energy. Feel the breath leave your body, taking note of that space between breaths. Once you have counted ten breaths, keep breathing steadily while you explore your own skin with your hands. Feel the hair or the smoothness, the softness or roughness, whatever your skin feels like feel it and know it to be you, to be part of you. It is the largest organ of your body, and it is integral to your sense of intimacy and closeness with other beings. It is filled with nerve endings which give you pleasure or pain. As you rub your skin you might remember the feel of another’s hands, you might feel comforted and loved.
Now picture a metal shackle snapping closed around your right ankle, the cold metal is dreadful compared to the warmth of your own hands. An unseen force pulls the shackle, lifting you up into the air until you are suspended head-down, cold metal biting into the skin and bone of your ankle. Fear and panic well up in your throat, it feels like drowning. The shackle pulls you to a man carrying a stun-gun. He puts the gun to the base of your neck or spine and sends electricity shooting along your nerves, making you spasm and taking you to the brink of consciousness. The man wanted you to cross that brink into the un-feeling blackness beyond, but you don’t; you stay conscious and feel every inch of your skin, still charged from the shock. Next you find yourself in front of another man carrying a knife. He does not look you in your terrified eyes: it is easier if he pretends you are unconscious. He jerks back on your hair, and drags the knife across the sensitive skin of your throat, the knife biting deeply and letting loose your life. They do not kill you before doing this because they need your heart to pump all of your blood out so they can catch it in a pan. You gasp and choke, trying to breathe but unable, and yet you are carried further on to a steamy room with a large, steel pot billowing clouds of steam. You are dragged over the pot and dropped in. White-hot pain burns all of your hair away instantly and you are pulled back out. A hardy person, strong of heart and will, you survive all of this, still trying to breathe, still trying to escape the shackle, as your strength fades. You arrive in front of another man with a knife which you feel cutting lines down your chest and around your neck. You finally black out as they begin tugging on your skin, removing it like a Sunday shirt.
Welcome to the process of factory dismemberment of cattle, the last part being how leather is made. If you actually went through that exercise you may have learned a little empathy for these creatures: many of them really do make it that far into the process before dying, and that is without mentioning the hardships they endured at the factory farm. If you have the courage to learn a bit more about this, go to meat.org and watch the “Glass Walls” video. “Meet Your Meat” is also good, but it’s pretty much the same script with Alec Baldwin narrating instead of Paul McCartney.
For those of us who have committed to a vegan lifestyle based on ethical principles rather than because Men’s or Women’s Health magazine promised it would slough off some unwanted pounds, leather is a forbidden item for clothing or any other use, as are any other animal-derived or tested products (i.e. cosmetics or hygiene items containing fat, placenta, and many other animal parts; furs; and ivory). The one thing I will grant the animal industry is that, like all businesses, they use all parts for something for efficiency’s sake. If you start doing the research behind all of the products you use you will find an astounding array of animal parts begging the question of how they found such products to work in the first place. The answer is experimentation, which means more cruelty.
The reason we so callously abuse our fellow Earth inhabitants is because of an idea we have learned over the millennia of a pecking order among the world’s species. There are lots of fancy words people use when talking about this, so I’ll describe it first in layman’s terms. Only 200 years ago Americans were severely racist, finding it appropriate to obtain, keep as slaves, and abuse other people so long as they were of a different race. Today, Americans are still severely discriminatory, but mostly toward other species instead of people. In fact, we even discriminate between non-human species: it is OK to routinely mutilate, torture, and eventually kill the cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and fish but don’t you dare kick a dog, cat, or horse. Ethical vegans vehemently deny any support to the idea that any sentient being – no matter the species, race, or breed – is inherently superior to other sentient beings.
The counterargument is that humans were placed here by God to rule over the beasts of the land and sky. Wait, I agree with that part: the thing is no ruler who eats and tortures his subjects should remain ruler for long. I believe God (or the Universe, or whatever Higher Power you ascribe to) placed man on Earth to be benevolent stewards of the Earth, not careless usurpers of Her resources. We call this latter attitude commoditization, and it is this basic idea in people’s minds that they deserve to have leather couches because cows are not important enough to keep their own skin and life against which vegans fight. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights provided Americans the right to self-determination: sadly, it did not offer the same to pigs, who are smarter than some people and have the capacity to exercise some basic choices in their environment.
This word, “right,” is primarily what separates vegans and hard-core animal-loving activists from organizations like the Human Society. The latter seeks to secure appropriate animal welfare alone, meaning that they make sure people spank their dogs instead of kicking them or that they don’t drag the cow behind a pick-up down the street to the slaughterhouse. The former insists that people recognize the basic rights of animals, which really are not any different than ours: life, love, and the pursuit of happiness. Yes I understand cheetahs eat gazelle, but in the real world the gazelle have a pretty good chance of kicking a cheetah’s butt.
I fear I am rambling. What does this have to do with military clothing you ask? Boots, all of our boots are made from leather. I cannot be a vegan and wear Army boots. There is also wool in some of our coats and all of the issued blankets. I hear it already: “WOOL?!?!? But the sheep grow it back!” I know they do, but it goes back to animal rights. They, like I, have a right to keep what is theirs. Property rights, vegans believe animals have them, too. I made a commitment to “take only that which was freely given, and give freely of all that I can” (from “Waking Up to What You Do” by Diane Eshin Rizetto). I have yet to gain authorization from any sheep to take his fur for my own use.
Animals are not commodities and they have property rights, but the military does not recognize these truths, and it goes beyond the simplicity of the clothes we wear. Military-funded Research and Development experiment extensively on animals, while dogs, dolphins, and seals are put in harm’s way. Then there is that little fact, like I mentioned in The New Me, that humans are animals, too: the basic mission of the Army is to kill human animals. I know we do other stuff, but killing, or somehow supporting it, is what we are trained to do. I simply cannot be a vegan while wearing Army clothes and carrying an Army gun.
I’m not sure yet if there will be another installment to this series. I definitely have some other aspects of military service to address, but I don’t know if the vegan part of the question remains applicable. We’ll see: either way I think the next post will delve into the depths of the precept of ahimsa. By the way, anyone looking for vegan clothes can find them all over the internet.
In southeastern Turkey a team of Archaeologists is deciphering an ancient Assyrian tablet found in the ruins of a ziyaret (or ziggurat). The National Geographic posted an article on the tablet at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091209-ancient-tablets-decoded_2.html but the story seems to be avoiding the use of a term which has become quite taboo, even when referencing ancient cultures. That term is slavery.
The article talks about how this tablet is a superb find because it details administrative issues of a local governing body during the rule of the Assyrian Empire 3,000 years ago. In cuneiform the tablet details various economic affairs and other management issues. Interestingly, almost half of the article is spent talking about some 144 names of “Mystery Women,” noting the names were primarily from areas outside of where the tablet was found.
What the article says is that the Assyrians made a practice of moving people from one area of the other, but it inferred that these people were paid workers and used terms like “deportation.” Deportation implies the act of returning a person to their homeland, like when the INS deports illegal aliens. It is quite the opposite of what was going on in the story: instead of sending migrant workers home, they were migrating workers. Sounds more like exporting and importing than deporting
The article did mention that it is likely the Assyrians used this movement of people to facilitate the destruction of local powers, but nowhere does it suggest that the women were slaves. Many cultures did indeed move people about to degrade a region’s ability to revolt, but those people were moved about in chains and were not paid. The article says the tablet recorded “mundane affairs,” so it is probable the Mystery Women were recorded next to other mundane property accounts as how many goats the court maintained and how many bushels of millet were collected that harvest. The scribes had to work painstakingly to record these things in stone, so why would a leader bother naming each of the women in court records unless he considered them property?
Perhaps the article needs a little editing. It looks like the Assyrians were enslaving women, probably as part of a campaign of social integration much like the Arab and Persian powers did in various seasons of reign in the same region. The women, as property, worked the lands of lords, became integrated with the local population of a different area, and eventually people throughout the Assyrian Empire were combined into a single Assyrian identity rather than the multitude of disparate identities each small area would represent.
Or maybe the Mystery Women willingly left their home — one with fields and orchards of its own — and traveled to the other side of an empire to work some other lord’s fields for the social progression, health care, and retirement benefits.
