Reply #47: :) metaphysical time? nah, don't feel like it today. maybe later though. [View All]

[NuttyFluffers]

i understand what you are trying to convey. it is an interesting trail of thinking to meander on. but i believe it has more to do with the understanding of the sacrifice.

like me. i have *huge* issues with modern agriculture and synthesizing of products into bizarre forms (like overuse of corn syrup and creation of transfats and introduction of it into *everything*). i believe, if to follow your train of thought, it is the 'vengeance' of the abuse of plants, whom i care quite deeply about -- often more than animals (personal thing, don't want any flames about my personal feelings). the fake, artificial-chemical saturated fertilizers, the monocultures (one *big* crop smothering out all other life), the pesticides, the herbicides, the hyper-processing into bizarre forms (olestra, veggie shortening, margarine, "extracted kelp proteins fortified with extra vitamins!", the genetic manipulation, etc. all of that deeply concerns me just as much as the overcrowded slop farms. it's all bad.

vegetarian or otherwise, as long as you are ignorantly part of the system, blithely not trying to change things, then you are part of the problem for me. i don't care how many fluffy bunnies are saved, raping whole prarie ecosystems for your mass-produced soy mcnuggets doesn't get you off the hook with me. but then i'm also pragmatic. i understand that it is not a all-or-nothing thing. sometimes there's no choice but to be 70% committed at times. either money's tight, there's no positive option nearby, or there's just not enough information available (or conversely, too much information to be absorbed), you can only work with what limited human capacity you have.

that's why i like those 'do-it-yourself' slaughter farms. you get in touch with the realities of food (life's dirty, gritty, messy, and unfortunately there's no way around that. can't 'golden child' yourself into living off of a sprig of basil and float over shit,). then you start to appreciate sacrifice. you learn to develop compassion for the horrors you *must commit* as a living thing (yes, there really is no way around it), and that compassion is such a valuable lesson.it helps keeps civilization grounded, and a grounded civilization cannot as easily commit horrors without feeling it hurt themselves. also those farms have a safer condition of food preparation as well as raising of animals.

PS: i am staunchly 100% against the buddhist notion of plants being 'ok to eat because they aren't really reincarnated souls.' i find it the height of hubris. and i find the jainist notion trying to live as fructarians as ridiculous for the majority of humanity. (for those who believe -- apologies. but i'm being honest why i can never follow such paths. they just do not gel with my path) besides, after studying their history, i know they aren't holier than thou. they had empires, holy assassins, and great wars just like any other religion, you just don't hear it in their PR. no one is innocent, and our penance is life. i'm just firmly grounded in the demands of destructiveness life entails. i know it is just part of the 'human condition,' and can come to terms with it. but, to come to terms with it, i must come to understand the sacrifice, and appreciate its nightmare. that is my path, and to follow with forgiveness, compassion, and love helps me cope. i just find the selfish evil, be it callous wastefulness or vain-glorious self-righteousness, to be the real sin.