On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 12:36 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > ------------------------------ > *From: *"raghu" <[email protected]> wrote: > >I was misled by the subject line into thinking that perhaps finally a > Marxist wanted to wrestle meaningfully with issues relating to cruelty to > animals. I was disappointed, but not surprised to see basically another cop > out. > > It's hard to define cruelty to animals. The European countries have > recognized that Hallal and Kosher slaughter is inhumane, but don't ban it > for religious reasons. >
It is a complicated subject. That's why it is worth wrestling with. There is one extreme position that argues that the only progressive and sustainable choice is a vegetarian or even vegan diet for everyone. There is a variant of this view that argues for the other extreme position that since the natural world depends on killing, and since there is no killing without cruelty, therefore anything goes. Then there is the vulgar utilitarian position that says that animals are a lower form of life and animal welfare is of no concern whatsoever except if it happens as a side-effect of maximizing human welfare. Marxists typically evade all of this by simply asserting that abuse of animals is a sickness of capitalism and could not happen under "socialism". It is never explained how. -raghu.
_______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
