{"id":862,"date":"2019-01-01T13:54:47","date_gmt":"2019-01-01T13:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/?p=862"},"modified":"2019-01-01T13:54:47","modified_gmt":"2019-01-01T13:54:47","slug":"moral-evolution-time-for-humanity-to-become-humane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/2019\/01\/01\/moral-evolution-time-for-humanity-to-become-humane\/","title":{"rendered":"Moral Evolution: Time for Humanity to Become Humane"},"content":{"rendered":"

Traduction Fran\u00e7aise<\/a> par Th.F. au dessous du texte en anglais.<\/i><\/p>\n

\n

SUMMARY:<\/b> With rare exceptions (involving progeny and other kin) Darwinian evolution (if it were a matter of conscious design) would have to be described as brutal and psychopathic. Our own species, however \u2014 thanks to the evolution of language and with it the invention of civilization and the adoption of moral and legal codes of conduct to protect one another from harm \u2014 has by conscious design outlawed all but one of our brutal Darwinian tendencies: It is illegal to enslave, torture, rape or kill human beings just about everywhere on the planet. Brutality has not been eradicated; not everyone obeys the laws (there are still true psychopaths, criminals and fanatics); but most people both abide by and approve of the laws protecting other human beings from harm. The one brutal tendency that has not been outlawed is the enslavement, torture and killing of nonhuman animals. The quantity and quality of agony that our species imposes on other conscious animals, needlessly, for food, fashion and entertainment is of a scale that far exceeds the residual brutality that humans still impose on one another. It is time to outlaw this last residual relic of our species\u2019 brutal evolutionary legacy.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I am going to start by saying some very graphic words to you, although I could have shown you equally graphic images instead. The gist of my talk is that we are unconsciously supporting and sustaining something horrible, something most of us could never support if we knew the truth about it. So we need to know the truth.<\/p>\n

Every minute, as I speak, and as you listen, living, feeling animals are being torn from their mothers, confined and caged, pumped with drugs and hormones, kept in a state of deprivation and stress and fear for the entire length of their short lives, only to meet a brutal, terrifying and agonizing end at the hands of overworked, impatient, angry and often sadistic assembly-line workers charged with slaughtering as many of them as possible, as quickly as possible, because time is money and the supermarket counters are waiting for their fresh produce. <\/p>\n

The mother cows from which their calves are wrenched as soon as they are born, are kept standing, almost immobile, in a constant state of lactation, by hormones, under the unending stress of pregnancy, of being severed from their offspring 2 days after they are born and deprived of the natural cycle of interaction for which their genes and their brains and their hearts have been prepared by evolution, their udders grotesquely swollen and varicose and increasingly inflamed, infected and painful \u2013 that\u2019s why they are pumped with antibiotics \u2013 they are mechanically and mercilessly sucked by machines, according to the clock, until the day \u2013 somewhere in the 4th year of the life of a creature that normally has a life span of 20 years \u2013 when their udders are utterly depleted and spent and they can no longer stand painfully on their feet and can hardly walk at all, when they are forcibly prodded and pushed to the slaughterhouse, again with the help of machines, because if they cannot be made to limp in on their own, the last piece of revenue to be sucked out of them for meat is lost to the agribusiness industry that thrives on their misery.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just meat and fish and poultry, and dairy, and eggs: The fashionable fur trim that is making a stealthy come-back in recent years, if it does not come from coyotes and foxes and lynx that have spent agonizing days in traps that are eating through the flesh of their limbs, if they have not themselves succeeded in chewing them off in their desperate struggle to free themselves, the ones still alive when the trapper comes — are freed with the brutal blows that end their struggles so they can be parted from their flesh and fur for your collar trim.
\nThese days many of those collars are actually from China, and from dogs, who are bred, industrial scale for this purpose, and where efficiency dictates that there is no time or need even to kill them before you skin them, so they are violently restrained and skinned alive, leaving them afterward with 10 minutes of agony with their eyes still open and staring out from what\u2019s left of their shocked, trembling bleeding bodies, as the skinners move on to the next victim.
\nThis brutal, heartless, industrial-scale agony that human beings are globally inflicting, daily, hourly, every second, everywhere on the planet, on countless helpless, innocent non-human victims is by far the biggest and most pressing moral problem \u2013 and shame \u2013 of our age and out species.<\/p>\n

Many will respond: How can that be? Surely the horrors that we inflict on our own species are an even greater moral abomination, and far more pressing. And it\u2019s certainly true that there is not one horror that we inflict on non-human animals that we have not also inflicted on human beings, and still do. But the huge difference is that we have outlawed the horrors that humans do to humans, and most humans deplore and would never commit or support such horrors. Not so with the horrors that we inflict on non-human animals. We have, and follow, laws protecting against enslavement, bondage, torture, and killing \u2013 for human victims, but not for nonhuman victims.
\nWhy? I will discuss the two paramount reasons we have these double standards \u2013 the first is the belief that eating and wearing animals is necessary for our survival and for our health and the second is the belief that we are doing this necessary thing in the most humane way possible. Both these beliefs are in fact false, profoundly, demonstrably and patently false. But the evidence that they are false is not widely known, and this is not because the evidence is not available but because people are reluctant to face it. Most of us are in a state of denial about it. We prefer to look away.<\/p>\n

So I believe that the only hope for animals is a direct appeal to humans\u2019 hearts. Not all humans have hearts. There are sadists, sociopaths and people with hearts that are impenetrably hardened for an entire lifetime.<\/p>\n

I am not addressing myself to the sadists, the sociopaths and the hard-hearted. That only leads to conflict and anger. It doesn\u2019t help the animals who are suffering every instant on the kill-counter. And time matters, not to us, but to them.<\/p>\n

Every instant means mounting agony for helpless, innocent, feeling beings. By 2050, at the rate of growth of the human population and the industrial means of producing meat and milk to feed it, the kill-counter\u2019s total, which is already grotesque, will be twice as high as today. In just two years, as many animals are killed by humans as the total number of humans killed by humans since the beginning of the human race. We feel the urge to throw up our hands and say it\u2019s hopeless: we\u2019re each just too small to do anything about it, and it \u2013 meaning the rest of carnivorous, fur-wearing, milk-drinking, puppy-milling, animal-experimenting and hunting humanity \u2013 is just too big. And that is even after we have set aside the minority sadists, sociopaths and impenetrably hard-hearted.
\nNo, the only hope for animals is if that huge majority of humanity whose hearts are not impenetrably hardened can be reached \u2013 if those who have faced, and seen and understood the suffering can manage to win their hearts, by opening their eyes to the enormity, the monstrosity of animal agony imposed by us, and to the fact that this suffering is not necessary in any way, not for our survival, not for our health. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s two huge things: communicating the enormity of animal suffering and its utter needlessness, its gruitousness.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of people who still have hearts do not know either of these things. They do not know how cruelly, and on what a scale animals are actually suffering in order to feed and clothe them. And they are completely unaware of the fact that that enormous suffering is totally unnecessary. They think we need to breed, use and kill animals for our own survival and health. They think that\u2019s a law of nature. And they think that what we are doing to animals, because we need to do it, we are doing in the most humane way possible, in fact much more humanely than our ancestors did it in cave-man days.<\/p>\n

And this potentially reachable majority is kept in the darkness of these two huge, false beliefs \u2013 necessity and humaneness \u2013 by a global conspiracy of interests, industrial and personal \u2013 that are profiting from keeping the majority ignorant.<\/p>\n

I want to stress that this global conspiracy is not human; it does not have a heart. It is collective and corporate. And as that excellent Canadian film a few years ago, the Corporation, showed so graphically, corporations are not humans, and their behavior best fits the description of a psychopath.<\/p>\n

The appeal to real humans with hearts is the only hope for animals. There is no way to change directly the industries that have evolved to exploit animals on the monstrous scale that they are doing it today unless there is first a way to reach and change the hearts of the individual human beings that constitute the majority that is sustaining these psychopathic industries. These industries can only be made unsustainable if the hearts of their consumers can be touched, so they realize that laws have to be changed, collectively, globally, so as to put an end to the needless, heartless exploitation of nonhuman animals.<\/p>\n

We are in the Web era. PETA and others have provided us with the graphic evidence, many times over, of the horrors that the majority of people do not know about. Domestic pet breeding is also an abominable industry, but one of its immediate effects is that most people have formed bonds with nonhuman animals. I do not believe it is humanly possible to love a family animal and look at the atrocities that are being committed to other animals just like their loved ones.
\nPeople will try to look away, because it hurts to see such things, but we must be shown these things, kindly but relentlessly. The truth hurts, but it is hurting them far more then it hurts us. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.\u201d
\nCraig, W. J., & Mangels, A. R. (2009). Position of the American Dietetic Association: vegetarian diets<\/a>. Journal of the American Dietetic Association<\/i>, 109(7), 1266-1282.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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L\u2019\u00e9chelle industrielle et plan\u00e9taire de la souffrance inflig\u00e9e aux animaux par les humains est le plus grave probl\u00e8me moral et la plus grande honte de notre \u00e9poque. Un compteur des victimes en ligne indique les chiffres monstrueux et en constante \u00e9volution des animaux qui sont cruellement tu\u00e9s \u00e0 chaque seconde qui passe. La plupart d\u2019entre vous \u00eates d\u00e9j\u00e0 conscients du probl\u00e8me et de ces chiffres monstrueux qui \u00e9voluent \u00e0 chaque instant. La plupart d\u2019entre vous \u00eates d\u00e9j\u00e0 v\u00e9ganes, activistes et essayez de r\u00e9soudre le probl\u00e8me. Esp\u00e9rons que cette conf\u00e9rence vous aidera \u00e0 structurer vos id\u00e9es pour travailler ensemble et r\u00e9ussir \u00e0 ouvrir les yeux et le c\u0153ur du reste du monde. Parce qu\u2019ultimement, le seul espoir pour les animaux est de toucher le c\u0153ur des humains.<\/p>\n

Les \u00eatres humains n\u2019ont pas tous un c\u0153ur\u2026 Il y a des sadiques, des sociopathes et des gens dont le c\u0153ur est dur comme la pierre et restera imp\u00e9n\u00e9trable tout au long de leur vie. Nous ne nous adressons pas aux sadiques et aux sociopathes ou \u00e0 ceux qui ont un c\u0153ur de pierre; nous les garderons pour plus tard. Tenter de s\u2019adresser \u00e0 ces gens m\u00e8ne immanquablement \u00e0 des conflits et cela n\u2019aide pas les animaux. Le temps est compt\u00e9; pas pour nous, mais pour eux. Je vous demande de toujours vous souvenir que le temps compte. Chaque instant que nous \u00e9chouons (et nous \u00e9chouons toujours), provoque des millions d\u2019agonies pour ces animaux, innocents et impuissants.<\/p>\n

Ceux qui ont un c\u0153ur faible voudront baisser les bras et dire que c\u2019est sans espoir\u2026 Ils penseront que nous sommes trop peu nombreux et que le reste des carnivores, porteurs de fourrure, buveurs de lait, exploiteurs de chiots, responsables de l\u2019exp\u00e9rimentation animale et les chasseurs sont beaucoup plus nombreux et ce, m\u00eame en excluant les sadiques, sociopathes et les c\u0153urs de pierre. \u00c0 ceux qui pensent que la majorit\u00e9 des carnivores est trop grande, d\u00e9trompez-vous. Le seul espoir pour les animaux est la majorit\u00e9 de l\u2019humanit\u00e9 qui poss\u00e8de un c\u0153ur qui n\u2019est pas dur comme la pierre ou imp\u00e9n\u00e9trable et qui peut encore \u00eatre touch\u00e9. Nous devons r\u00e9ussir \u00e0 gagner leur c\u0153ur, en ouvrant leur c\u0153ur devant la r\u00e9alit\u00e9 et la monstrueuse situation des animaux qui souffrent \u00e0 cause des humains. Il faut leur montrer que cette souffrance est aucunement n\u00e9cessaire, ni pour notre survie, ni pour notre sant\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Voici deux concepts tr\u00e8s importants: communiquer l\u2019\u00e9normit\u00e9 de la souffrance animale et le fait qu\u2019elle ne soit pas n\u00e9cessaire. La vaste majorit\u00e9 des gens qui ont toujours un c\u0153ur ne savent pas ces deux choses. Rappelez-vous qu\u2019ici nous parlons et nous pr\u00eachons \u00e0 des gens d\u00e9j\u00e0 convaincus et sensibilis\u00e9s. Nous savons tout \u00e7a et nous avons d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu les images d\u2019horreur de la r\u00e9alit\u00e9; ce n\u2019est pas le cas de la vaste majorit\u00e9 des gens qui ont toujours un c\u0153ur. Ils ne savent pas combien cruels sont les humains et \u00e0 qu\u2019elle \u00e9chelle les animaux sont en train de souffrir. La majorit\u00e9 ignore le fait que cette immense souffrance est compl\u00e8tement inutile. Ces deux concepts \u00e9vidents pour nous, que nous connaissons tous, ne le sont pas pour la majorit\u00e9. Ils pensent que nous avons besoin de reproduire, d\u2019utiliser et de tuer les animaux pour notre propre survie et notre sant\u00e9. Ils pensent que c\u2019est la loi de la nature. Ils pensent que ce que nous faisons aux animaux, parce que nous devons le faire, nous le faisons de la fa\u00e7on la plus humaine possible. En fait, encore plus humainement que nos anc\u00eatres pr\u00e9historiques le faisaient dans le temps des cavernes ou que les animaux font entre eux. C\u2019est ce qu\u2019ils pensent\u2026 Et cette majorit\u00e9 susceptible de comprendre est gard\u00e9e dans l\u2019ombre en cultivant de fausses croyances: La n\u00e9cessit\u00e9 de le faire et l\u2019ex\u00e9cution la plus humaine possible. Cette conspiration d\u2019int\u00e9r\u00eats plan\u00e9taires, industriels et personnels, profite de la situation en gardant la vaste majorit\u00e9 des gens ignorants. Je veux ajouter que cette conspiration globale n\u2019est pas humaine. Elle n\u2019a pas de c\u0153ur. Elle est collective et corporative. \u00c0 ce sujet, un excellent film canadien pr\u00e9sentait, il y a quelques ann\u00e9es, les corporations sous forme de graphiques r\u00e9v\u00e9lant ces derni\u00e8res comme n\u2019\u00e9tant pas des \u00eatres humains. En fait, le comportement des corporations concorde avec le comportement et la description d\u2019un psychopathe.<\/p>\n

Nous devons adresser notre appel aux humains qui ont un c\u0153ur. Ils sont le seul espoir pour les animaux. Nous ne pouvons pas changer l\u2019industrie qui exploite les animaux \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9chelle plan\u00e9taire, sans changer le c\u0153ur de la majorit\u00e9 des humains qui rendent cette industrie profitable actuellement. Nous devons mettre un terme \u00e0 cette industrie. Nous devons gagner le c\u0153ur des consommateurs, afin qu\u2019ils r\u00e9alisent que les lois doivent changer collectivement et globalement. Nous devons mettre fin \u00e0 cette industrie inutile et \u00e0 l\u2019exploitation honteuse des animaux. Nous sommes dans l\u2019\u00e8re d\u2019Internet. PETA, ainsi que d\u2019autres organismes nous ont fourni des preuves et des \u00e9vidences \u00e0 plusieurs reprises d\u00e9non\u00e7ant l\u2019horreur que la majorit\u00e9 des humains ignorent encore.<\/p>\n

La reproduction des animaux domestiques est aussi une industrie abominable, mais elle a des effets imm\u00e9diats sur la majorit\u00e9 des gens qui d\u00e9veloppent des liens avec ces animaux. Je ne crois pas que c\u2019est possible d\u2019aimer un animal, tel un membre de la famille, et \u00eatre capable de regarder et de tol\u00e9rer l\u2019atrocit\u00e9 qui est commise \u00e0 d\u2019autres animaux. Les personnes qui sont v\u00e9ganes sont d\u00e9j\u00e0 convaincues que les choses doivent changer et n\u2019ont pas besoin de voir les images d\u2019horreur, parce qu\u2019elles les ont d\u00e9j\u00e0 vues et prennent d\u00e9j\u00e0 des actions pour y faire face. Par contre, nous avons besoin de convaincre tous les autres. Rappelons qu\u2019il n\u2019y a pas de diff\u00e9rence entre nos animaux domestiques et les cr\u00e9atures qui subissent l\u2019horreur; c\u2019est comme voir son propre chat \u00eatre tortur\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Les gens vont tenter de regarder ailleurs, parce que \u00e7a fait mal de voir les images de l\u2019horrible r\u00e9alit\u00e9, mais ils doivent quand m\u00eame se faire montrer la r\u00e9alit\u00e9; gentiment, mais pertinemment. Par qui? Par nous. Les images de la r\u00e9alit\u00e9 ont d\u00e9j\u00e0 eu un impact sur nos c\u0153urs v\u00e9ganes, alors notre mission est d\u2019ouvrir les yeux de tous les autres sur la plan\u00e8te.<\/p>\n

Il faut \u00e9tablir un ordre dans nos priorit\u00e9s et le compteur des victimes mentionn\u00e9 plus haut est notre priorit\u00e9 premi\u00e8re. Argumenter avec les sadiques ou les sociopathes n\u2019aide personne. N\u2019entrez pas en conflit avec les gens. Notre objectif n\u2019est pas d\u2019 endurcir le c\u0153ur des gens, mais bien de l\u2019adoucir. Ce n\u2019est pas une priorit\u00e9 et \u00e7a n\u2019aide pas les animaux de rendre les gens en col\u00e8re envers vous. Je ne sais pas combien de fois j’ai entendu un chasseur ou le propri\u00e9taire d\u2019un animal, quand il se sent confront\u00e9 par une personne v\u00e9gane indign\u00e9e, r\u00e9pondre \u201cJe vais faire tout ce que je veux faire avec mon [!] d\u2019animal\u201d et ils rentrent chez eux et font mal \u00e0 leur animal juste par vengeance \u00e0 cause de la provocation. Restez loin des sadiques et des sociopathes. R\u00e9servons leur cas pour plus tard, lorsque le reste de l\u2019humanit\u00e9 aura d\u00e9couvert son c\u0153ur et aura r\u00e9dig\u00e9 des lois pour prot\u00e9ger les animaux. Alors, ce qu\u2019ils font deviendra ill\u00e9gal; pour l\u2019instant ce n\u2019est pas ill\u00e9gal. S\u2019impliquer dans de violents conflits avec eux n\u2019aide personne. \u00c7a peut seulement satisfaire votre conscience, mais \u00e7a n\u2019aide pas les animaux.<\/p>\n

J\u2019ai particip\u00e9 \u00e0 un panel de discussion sur les recherches m\u00e9dicales. \u00c9videment je suis un abolitionniste \u00e0 100%. Je souhaite mettre une fin \u00e0 tout \u00e7a, absolument tout: les manger, les rev\u00eatir, les utiliser pour l\u2019exp\u00e9rimentation, mais \u00e7a ne peut pas \u00eatre fait tout en m\u00eame temps. Il faut mettre de c\u00f4t\u00e9 les cibles pour qui les deux concepts mentionn\u00e9s plus haut ne sont pas applicables: l\u2019exploitation des animaux n\u2019est pas humaine et est aucunement n\u00e9cessaire, ni pour notre survie, ni pour notre sant\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Le dossier des recherches m\u00e9dicales doit \u00eatre le dernier dossier \u00e0 \u00eatre r\u00e9gl\u00e9. Nous devons d\u2019abord mettre fin aux dossiers qui ne sont compl\u00e8tement inutiles et tout \u00e0 fait inhumains. L\u2019industrie m\u00e9dicale, pour ce que \u00e7a vaut, est r\u00e8glement\u00e9e. Elle est mal r\u00e8glement\u00e9e, mais au moins il y a une r\u00e8glementation. Les rats de laboratoire sont trait\u00e9s infiniment mieux que les animaux reproduits pour l\u2019abattage, ou que les chiens encore vivants sur lesquels on d\u00e9chire la peau \u00e0 vif. Je pr\u00e9sente souvent une image d\u2019un cas r\u00e9el montrant un chien chinois qui se fait d\u00e9chirer la peau du corps et qui est dans un \u00e9tat de souffrance et de terreur inimaginable. Ses yeux sont encore ouverts et il agonise pendant 10 minutes avant de mourir. Ce genre de chose atroce est notre priorit\u00e9 premi\u00e8re. Et ce genre de chose peut \u00eatre d\u00e9fendu avec le principe que ce n\u2019est pas n\u00e9cessaire pour notre survie ou notre sant\u00e9. Ce n\u2019est pas le cas des exp\u00e9rimentations et recherches m\u00e9dicales. Certaines recherches contribuent vraiment \u00e0 sauver des vies humaines. Gardons ce dossier pour plus tard. Remettons les choses en contexte.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Traduction Fran\u00e7aise par Th.F. au dessous du texte en anglais. SUMMARY: With rare exceptions (involving progeny and other kin) Darwinian evolution (if it were a matter of conscious design) would have to be described as brutal and psychopathic. Our own species, however \u2014 thanks to the evolution of language and with it the invention of … <\/p>\n

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