After reading her book, which I recommend to EVERYONE, I felt like more people should know about the violent ideology that Melanie Joy named carnsim. In this blog I would like to deal with this concept, but also promote veganism, vegetarism and the animal-rights movement.
For starter I would like to introduce the concept very briefly quoting Melanie Joy. The quote is from an interview she gave in 2010 (full interview here = http://our-compass.org/2010/10/09/my-conversation-with-melanie-joy-on-why-we-love-dogs-eat-pigs-and-wear-cows/ ) :
"Carnism
is a violent ideology that enables humane people to participate in
inhumane practices without realizing what they’re doing. The
tenets of carnism run counter to the core values of most people; most
of us would not willingly support unnecessary violence toward other
sentient beings. So carnism, like other violent ideologies, must
employ a set of defense mechanisms which operate on both a social and
psychological level to ensure the participation of the populace;
without popular support, the system would collapse.
The
primary defense of the system is invisibility, and the primary way
the system remains invisible is by remaining unnamed: if we don’t
name it, we can’t see it, and if we can’t see it we can’t
challenge or question it.
The system also defends itself by
teaching us to justify eating animals, by promoting what I refer to
as the Three Ns of Justification: eating animals is normal,
natural, and necessary. (Not surprisingly, these same arguments have
been used to justify other violent ideologies as well.) There
are many other carnistic defenses, but all defenses serve the same
purpose: to “numb” us, psychologically and emotionally, when
it comes to eating (certain) animals. Carnism disconnects us from the
truth of our experience, blocking our awareness and shutting down our
empathy."
(quoted, Melanie Joy 2010, http://our-compass.org/2010/10/09/my-conversation-with-melanie-joy-on-why-we-love-dogs-eat-pigs-and-wear-cows/ )
Reading her book, informing myself further and thinking about this has troubled my sleep and made me rethink many of my habits and choices. I believe carnsim is no better than sexism or racism and it is the responsibility of our generation, my generation, to face and overcome this threat to our moralistic wellbeing. Living by the morals we promote and not denying that we act against them has been an empowering experience for me and many others I have spoken to about this matter.
If I can only reach out to a single person through writing this blog, it will have served its purpose fully.
Start questioning! It is past time we do!
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