The obligation of humankind to preserve nature

[vic]

"I think Germans eat a lot more meat, but I can't explain why."

it's the sousages man the sausages!!!

ok, waht i'm trying to say that this is something everybody should be concerned about not only americans.

 

[scruffy]

Originally posted by vic
speaking to americans only? why? what is the difference between your grocery store and mine - here in canada? or germany? or france? or china?

Many countries have much stronger laws than the US on standards for treatment of animals in agriculture. Other countries have weaker laws...

Also, regardless of the laws, consumer demands are different, which leads to different things being available. I spent last summer mostly in Munich, Germany. At the grocery store nearest where I was staying, you had a choice between certified free-range eggs, and certified free-range, organic, appropriate-diet-for-the-chickens, string-quartets-every-Saturday-in-the-henhouse eggs. This was an ordinary grocery store - they carried these eggs because that's all that sold. OK, I made up the string quartet bit.

Originally posted by bighairydog
Some people, such as those that you mentioned who would kill in order to further their religious or political cause, have not signed the unwritten contract of society

Does that include the US government? Or was Vietnam (etc. etc. etc) just a little misunderstanding? They have not signed the same contract that you have, that's all. When each individual contract says it's OK to kill people who are under a different contract, this doesn't help us much.

Note: I'm not against the US specifically, pretty well every major government has cynically killed innocents to further its political goals. I just happen to know more about the specific misdeeds of the US.

 

[bighairydog]

Originally posted by nkuvu
So you're being threatened by animals every day, are you? I don't see that a cow is going to kill me. If I behave poorly around a bull, then yes it probably will. Or if I cause (or am suddenly caught in) a stampede. Yep, I doubt that I'd survive a whole buncha cows steppin' on my head. But your argument doesn't hold in this case. Chickens are no threat to you, but by eating meat you are killing them -- then telling me that you are doing so because animals would kill you if they could. Am I misinterpreting your statements?

    The important difference between humans and other animals as I see it, is that even if a human has stepped outside society, they are capable of stepping back in, because they are human. A chicken is not capable of stepping into society, because it has no concept of society, and is incapable of contributing to it.

    For this reason, I would be loath to kill a fellow human, because even it they are threatening me, there is a chance that they one day might repent. An animal however, will never be part of the contract of society, so I have no proplem in eating it. I don't eat animals because I feel threatened by them, but because I see no reason not to eat them.

Bernie )

 

[bighairydog]

Originally posted by scruffy
Does that include the US government? Or was Vietnam (etc. etc. etc) just a little misunderstanding? They have not signed the same contract that you have, that's all.

    Yup, it sure does. If I was a Vietnamese at the time of the war, I would have fought to protect my country from the soldiers who were part of a different morality contract, and trying to kill my family. If I was an American at the time, I would have resisted the war from the inside, rejecting my government's idea of what constituted morality.

    I wouldn't take this to the point of killing and eating those who are part of a different morality contract, purely to sate my hunger. This is because as I said in my above post, those in a different contract still have the potential to enter mine.

BTW, random fact, do you know that car accidents today in the US are killing at a faster rate than the Vietnam war at it's peak? ... But I digress

Bernie )