How is carnism similar to other violent ideologies, and why is it important to examine these similarities? Violent ideologies are organized around the dynamics of domination and subordination, with the group that holds social power using a group of “inferior others” for their own benefit. These ideologies are structured to manufacture public consent of abuses that the vast majority of people would not normally condone. Violent ideologies therefore rely on defense mechanisms that distort our perceptions, block our awareness, and shut down our empathy. So even though the victims of violent ideologies may differ, and the experience of each group of victims is unique, there is a striking similarity among the ideologies themselves and the social mentality they cultivate. Consider the mentality that has enabled us to legally classify African slaves as things rather than full persons; believe that the internment camps in which thousands of Japanese Americans were imprisoned afforded them greater educational, occupational, and political opportunities; slice off young girls’ genitalia without anesthesia to ensure their virginity; accept the unfounded medical claim that infants had a higher threshold of pain and therefore didn’t require anesthesia when surgically impaled; debate whether women should have the right to control their own reproductive systems; or turn a blind eye to the millions of victims of the Nazi regime as they were shipped to their death “for the greater good.” Such a mentality is not terribly different from that which enables us to think of a cow as something, rather than someone; believe that farmed animals are better off in factories than had they not been bred in the first place; castrate unanesthetized calves so they are less aggressive in intensive confinement; believe that lobsters feel no pain when they’re boiled alive; confine millions of female pigs to “rape racks” in which they are forcibly impregnated year after year; or to turn away from the billions of intelligent, sensitive individuals who are confined to lives of misery simply so their flesh can provide, for instance, the topping for a pepperoni pizza. If we do not pick out the common threads that are woven through all violent ideologies, we will never figure out how to undo them. Violent ideologies do not exist in a vacuum; they are interconnected and reinforce one another. When we support one violent ideology, we support the mentality that enables all violent ideologies.carnism.org/carnism-presentations
Posted on: Sun, 22 Sep 2013 15:19:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015