Sunday, February 7, 2010

Get Activated

I have just finished Why We Love Dogs Eat Pigs and Wear Cows by Melanie Joy Ph. D. I first heard of this book in the last issue of VegNews Magazine. The book was not just a retelling of the countless horrifying truths about the meat, dairy, and egg industries but it had something completely new to offer. In her book, Melanie Joy, tells us about the world we have constructed in our minds. A world that we have internalized and now believe is normal and just. This world is based on the tenets of a new and amazing term that until Joy, we were missing from our language: Carnism. Carnism is all around us and it can be difficult as vegans to see it everyday. It is strangely comforting in a very primal way to put a label on what I see when I'm at a party or watching TV. Being vegan, it can be very alienating to have to stand back and watch people I love and respect rocking themselves like infants to sleep in the face of the completely disgusting practice of torturing and murdering animals. Though it is still painful at least I am sated by the knowledge that a very smart woman was able to deconstruct the entire world we live in and explain why carnism is able to persist. Please read this book and give it to your friends. No it is not perfect, yes there are some very disturbing parts. Read it anyway.

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