I'm writing this on the morning of Morrissey's eagerly anticipated Radio City Music Hall Concert. Mary and Helen both reviewed his Waterbury gig last week and both mentioned his performance of the Smiths "Meat Is Murder' in blood red lights while Peta's "Meet Your Meat" movie was shown. Mary Magpie had this to say:
"What absolutely did me in to put this performance in my top 10 was when he played "Meat Is Murder". As a hardcore vegan and animal rights activist, it's practically an anthem. However, utilizing the technology of the projection screen, during the tune Meet Your Meat was shown. In protest, people actually sat down. They were "disgusted" with it- only because they had a guilty conscience. I lost it here, tears streaming down my face and I was sobbing so hard my vision was blurry. I was shaking and captivated, moved by the sheer honesty and beauty. Though I'd seen the video hundreds of times before, there was something about seeing it with the song, with the energy, that affected me so much."
So I went and looked at the video and was frankly a little disappointed. I have seen some terrible film of animal slaughter, but this one, an attempt to "Humanize" animals by showing the real fear and pain these animals suffer assumes too much compassion on the part of the viewer.
Not only Mary but also her mother Helen Bach and LA Bureau chief Alyson Camus are also a Vegan. As for me, I am a meat eater, but with a certain understanding that, to quote William Shakespeare ("Tweflth Night," Act 1, Scene 3 pop pickers)
"Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian or an ordinary man has; but I am a great eater of beef and I believe that does harm to my wit."
Well , quite.
Here is a case for eating meat (the same case can be used for eating each others flesh, by the way), if you are starving it is better than starving. Though the economics is such (we could feed the world if we didn't eat animal flesh) the case is a bit iffy. Also, for what it is worth, better to kill a living thing for food then for fur.
Also, if it wasn't for meat eaters we would never have gotten out of the caves. How important the distinction is a subject for another day, for now let me explain how the world works. For 250,000 years, the dinosaurs ruled the earth and picked off humans like flies, stomping us out, and keeping us this tiny hairy creatures completely dominated by everything. Then, a meteor shower destroyed the dinosaurs and we got a breather. Still, tiny hairy little beasts we lost to just about every mammal on the planet, lucky if we could knock of a suckling pig for dinner. But as time progressed, and we progressed, away from T-Rex stepping all over us, we began to make plans on how to capture animals to eat them, and the plans caused are brains to grow larger, generation after generation, so it could hold memories as to how to capture animals and eat them.
Look at the human race this way:
1. Figures out we can out think animals.
2. discovers the earth is round.
3. Finds out how small particles move.
That's about it, really, the rest is window (if not salad) dressing.
None of that excuses the genocide we are perpetrating against animals. Neither does the simple truth that we kill each other with the same impunity with which we kill animals. In 1994, 800,000 people were killed in 3 months in Rwanda. There's one for you. So the simple truth is we are the sort of animals that murders other animals, including each other. At leastw e don't wasteother animals deaths.
Helen recently told me she didn't believe things like Morrissey's "Meat Is Murder" changes anything. I kinda disagree, I think some young kids will get the point. Music is a great educator. But then what about the fans at the Palace? Mary had written: "In protest, people actually sat down. They were "disgusted" with it- only because they had a guilty conscience.". Perhaps, or maybe they thought Morrissey had some nerve lecturing them in the middle of a concert. I will reserve judgment till I see it, but I will say this, if it doesn't work as some form of entertainment, than Morrissey is wrong. It should be riveting theater of the real, or what Amanda Palmer recently dubbed Theater Of Evil. But either way, guilty? I think Mary overestimates how people think about eating meat, if they think about it at all. If you could make them feel guilty about it, Animal Activists would be halfway home. The problem with animals goes like this:
1. They would do the same to us.
2. It is natural.
3. it tastes good.
The latter is like the problem with saying drugs are bad. However bad you say it is, drugs feel good. However bad it is to murder animals. they are tasty critters.
If you, like me, believe all three points are valid, it boils down to how you murder them. Unfortunately, the economics are such that if we gave the animals anything approaching a decent sendoff, the economics would crush us. We can't afford it. Everything we ate would be Chinese imports. And I mention China for a reason. I have a feminist friend who is involved in attempting to help Chinese girls who are dying at pogrom-y numbers because their families refuse to take them to doctors. 50% of all Chinese girls are denied medical treatment. And that is without even mention all the Female babies killed at birth.
My point? While it is true you can do something about murdering animals and can't do anything as directly about the killing of Chinese girls, now that you know about them, you are equally guilty.
Even with all of that, it is morally repugnant to eat meat. Since I know that, why don't I stop? Because I can pick any of a million things I do that is morally repugnant, and if I stopped doing everything I know to be repugnant, I would be dead. Here is an example: masturbating to pornography, when I know the young ladies who perform in pornography are deeply damaged individuals, who need help and not exploitation. Here is another: paying employees $10 per hour when I know they can't support their family on it. A third, supporting the US Government when they use drones to attack innocent men, women and children in Afghanistan. When I smoke a joint, I am enabling mobsters who traffic in humans and guns. When I live in a country, I support the countries violent, genocidal wars through my taxes. When I eat a burger you kill an innocent animal. Where does it stop?
The point isn't that Mary Magpie isn't right, and isn't morally superior, to me, but it isn't a fight I care about enough to battle. Eating meat is sinful but, really, what isn't? The only question left will be answered for me tonight: is it art?
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