In the Pre-Civilisation days 10,000 years ago, Canibalism was rampant
throughout the World. Tribes living in isolation were more likely to kill and
eat anyone not a part of their tribe.
Then as Settlements became more organised and defined, Human Sacrifices
were rampant all over the World. Sacrifical Human blood flowed like rivers in
Central American and South American tribes. Evidence for Human Sacrifices
exists even in Ancient Europe.
Then as Settlements grew into Civilisations, Slavery and Slave-trading
became rampant and other Superstitions began to take hold.
Witch hunting in Europe, Female Circumscision in Middle-east and N-Africa,
Sati and Devadasi system in india, Foot-binding in China, etc etc.
Today, Pollution of the Eco-System, Destruction of Forests, Large scale
Corruption, Mis-information and False Probaganda in media, etc etc
Therefore, We can see a gradual refinement and Purification in Human
Consciousness and Human Evolution. Maharishi says "Heaven on Earth" is
possible.
bob_brigante <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 22:53:32 -0000
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Cultural history of vegetarianism
" If history teaches us anything, it's that today's habit may be
tomorrow's abomination. What people saw as a matter of course in the
streets of 17th-century London -- rich men beating their servants,
crowds gathered in a festival mood to watch bloody executions --
would horrify the pedestrian of 2007. Morality, too, has a history,
but the people of any given period usually don't see it that way.
They think that they already have a pretty solid understanding of
right and wrong (even if they find it difficult to be virtuous) and
rarely imagine that future generations might view them as
unenlightened at best and depraved at worst.
Activists, on the other hand, know different. They count on the
evolution of morality. Recently, Adam Hochschild's fascinating "Bury
the Chains" chronicled the means by which a group of committed 18th-
century idealists convinced their fellow citizens in Britain and
America that slavery was an intolerable wrong. It wasn't easy, and it
didn't happen overnight. Some people of that era thought that slavery
was lamentable but intractable; others found it easy to justify an
institution that brought them profits and comfort. Still others --
the majority, perhaps -- didn't give it much thought at all, as they
sweetened their tea with sugar produced at brutal slave plantations
on islands far, far away.
For this reason, even an omnivore should find an intellectual
history of vegetarianism interesting. We, like the people of the
early 1800s, could be living through a period of slow but profound
ideological change. To the people of their own time, men like
Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson -- early abolitionists and the
founders of the first human rights movement -- seemed as impractical,
as demanding, as self-righteous and as obsessed as many animal rights
activists seem to us today. In the future, right-thinking people
might look back at us meat eaters with the same disapproval we heap
on those who considered slavery acceptable 200 years ago.
http://www.salon. com/books/ review/2007/ 01/25/stuart/ index.html
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