Omni-vore

BE GOOD TO YOURSELF

I just read the chapter on The Ethics of Eating Animals, pp. 304-333, in Michael Pollan's 'The Omnivore's Dilemma.' I have read flyers from Mercy for Animals, and have been persuaded to try and be vegetarian/ LESS carnivorous, without much success.

I love pastor tacos, medium rare steaks, lamb, and chicken salads, for example. I have been treating myself to 2 pastor tacos every Tuesday for quite a while, from Los Pericos mexican restaurant in San Leandro, and always look forward to it. My favorite meal as a kid was skirt steak, coated in flour, and wonderfully greasy. Nuggets and quarter pounders from McDonald's have always been satisfying.

But I'm trying to be good, God! in fact, and therefore want to set an example, and live morally. This makes life interesting, for me. First of all, I don't believe in souls or heaven or human supremacy, made in the image of God. Everyone is destined to die, and we'll probably all be extinct in the (long-long) long-term. Behavioral standards are basically rendered moot, from this perspective, in my opinion. Nothing matters. Everybody is God, and anybody is allowed to do anything. It's all good. There is no sin. That's why anything can be forgiven. A centipede is also made in the image of God.

(some) Animals are delicious. Most of them wouldn't be alive in the first place, if we didn't breed them for consumption. Humans are just another type of animal. We're basically no different than flies, krill, cockroaches, you name it. I kill pests in my room all the time, and there is a spiritual dimension to it. I kill ants, spiders, beetles, flies. I killed snails, bees, and a butterfly when I was a kid. I accidentally killed a pet cockatiel bird. I know that I am a killer. I've loved meat all my life, and am aware of all the murderous implications. I love violence in movies, find it cathartic. I have accepted my identity, as a murderer, a sinner, evil, even -at times- a demon. I am intimately familiar with the banality and ubiquity of evil. My name has satan in it. A (former) friend of mine called me a vampire. I have struggled with insanity, and wondered if I have ever, in fact, NOT been possessed. I take medications for schizophrenia. I hear voices. I also experience reality as a construct, my thoughts and behavior seemingly always being monitored, by God-only-knows who or what. Maybe David. I do not want to be a hypocrite, or try to be morally holier-than-thou. But I do still think my philosophical aptitude and critical-thinking ability exceeds the ability/value of most, and in any case I like to write, so I will share my thoughts. At least I think they're my thoughts. I am a vessel, like everyone else, and experience consciousness as my own, despite the interpenetration of mind I have become familiar with and inured to. Everybody is schizo, because prayer is telepathy is a voice, and dreams and thoughts are shared in our hive/corporate minds, no?

Here is a law I think holds for all:

If it is okay for me to kill others, then it is okay for others to kill me. That is the karma and reality of such an attitude, perspective, stance. And because I want to live, I must forego any superiority or right or desire to be Death, and -I have just concluded- must also Cease and Desist from Eating Meat. Hitler was a vegetarian. So is Charles Manson. So there is no great moral status that comes from this, necessarily. The Jains are said to sweep the ground, so as not to kill insects. People bug me at times just as much as cockroaches, if not more. But the imperative still stands. I don't want to be eaten. I have always been pro-life (I was adopted), and I am now of the persuasion that this must extend to animals, because that is all we humans are, and I do not think we should eat each other, eat our children, kill each other, fight each other, fight wars, or abort, or allow the state to kill criminals, or euthanize disabled, or kill our children if they are homosexual, or marry outside their caste, or any other reason. I am a pacifist. War should not be possible. Nor nuclear detonations, or thermobaric bombs, or even homicides, by fist or gun or bomb or bat or blade. Dogs and cats deserve no more or less status than people, or pigeons. People should not starve while dogs eat, just as whales should not starve to save the krill. Nature is a bloody mess, and humans are just tubes, like worms, from mouth to anus, that happen to be bipedal apes with big brains, voiceboxes, opposable thumbs, and a culture that is truly magical. We must tolerate and try to celebrate one another. We must forgive with the same ardor that we seek for being forgiven. We must take the long, hard road out of hell. Paradise is a bit further. Let's help each other get there. The worms will eventually eat us all, of course. So let's make earth a better place while we're alive, and not defer heaven to some hoped-for but entirely ridiculous “afterlife.” That is my philosophy.

Everyone has killed bugs, so no one is any better than me. I may be God, but nobody is any worse than me, either. I am not a cannibal, but I do occasionally eat Jesus, if not drink his blood. Oblivion is the universal justice. Virtue is virtual (like immortality).   I was a killer.  But I don't want to say I am, any longer.  Animal-cruelty is a sin, and I want to put it behind me, and be Good.   I think you should, too. 

God is a killer.  I AM.  We all are.  Meat is delicious.  I said there is no sin...  Well, whatever. 

Still, we should do the right thing, even if karma isn't real.