This is Mass Society

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a04

Confined in crowded conditions chickens will violently peck one another due to the stress.  Pigs will bite each other’s ears and tails.  The animal agriculture industry’s answer to such problems is to simply cut off the tails and blunt the teeth of piglets prior to confinement so as to minimize so-called “carcass damage” which translates into profit loss.  Chickens have the ends of their beaks seared off with a hot blade in a process known as debeaking or sometimes, euphemistically, as beak trimming.  The animals are mutilated so as to better fit the industrialized food system while creating minimal friction (i.e. profit loss).

Chickens are seen inside cages on a truck near a poultry market in Dengzhou

The August 20, 2013 issue of WIRED Magazine featured the photography of Michael Wolf who has documented the incredibly dense, high rises of Hong Kong in a project titled Architecture of Density.

The article accompanying Wolf’s photos explains:

“In the United States, we’re spoiled with space. Even in New York City, where it can sometimes feel as though you’re walking on top of the person in front of you, we have the luxury of expansive parks and comparatively well-sized apartments. To live in Hong Kong is truly to live in a mega-city, where your apartment building can have a population greater than entire towns in Nebraska.”

Like the creation of large scale factory farms, the creation of Hong Kong’s massive high rises is a strategy to maximize profit with attention to the biological needs of the captives being limited to what does and doesn’t interefere with the pursuit of profit:

“The driving force behind Hong Kong’s expansive high-rise culture is purely economic. To maximize revenue, the government needs to keep the land expensive, which means they need to keep it rare. Contractors will bid on a small plot of land, driving the price up, and whoever wins has the choice: Do you build high or low?”

All the economic incentives are in favor of density: packing people into high rises, packing chickens into battery cages.  It’s amazing we humans aren’t pecking each other to death…but then again maybe we are.

The consequences of living in such dense spaces and at such vast scales is difficult to determine.   Not surprisingly, crude experiments have been carried out on other animals but these have not proven to be conclusive.  Most notable are the experiments of John B. Calhoun.

CalhounJ

In 1962, Calhoun published “Population Density and Social Pathology” in Scientific American.  Calhoun created self contained “rodent universes” (his term) that initially provided for the basic needs of the confined animals but simultaneously set the stage for rapid population growth and severe overcrowding.  The results included sexual deviancy, aggression, mothers neglecting or even attacking their pups—in Calhoun’s words “going berserk”.   Infant mortality reached levels as high as 96 percent in some groups.

“Like Pavlov’s dogs or Skinner’s pigeons, Calhoun’s rats came to assume a near-iconic status as emblematic animals, exemplary of the ways in which behavioral experimentation at once marks and violates the human-animal distinction.” (source)

Calhoun was criticized—by J.Z. Young, amongst others—for carelessly extrapolating results from his highly controlled rodent experiments to human society.

Experiments with human subjects carried out by psychologist Jonathan Freedman in 1975 reportedly did not find similarly negative results.  Additional studies since that time have seized on numerous variables as to why different people either succeed or fail to cope with dense living environments.  In short, the same density does not affect every person in the same way or to the same extent (in fact, not every rat was affected in the same way or to the same extent in Calhoun’s experiments).  Much of the stress that is reported is attributed to an excessive amount of unwanted social interaction; some people are better able to manage social interaction and can create their own sense of personal space despite being in a high density population. (source)

But to adequately consider the question of density, it is important not to overlook what might be considered to be the indirect harms of density such as noise and other forms of pollution.  These things do negatively affect dense populations even if the subjective experience reported by some individuals being in a densely populated space remains positive.  A recent study conducted by NASA scientists and published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology established a link between population density (as opposed to simple population size) and air pollution.  And an editorial in The New York Times recently cited a study of people living near airports which found that even those who reported sleeping soundly and being undisturbed by airplane noise exhibited “blood pressure spikes, increased pulse rates, and set off vasoconstriction and the release of stress hormones”.

So in the absence of definitive answers, we are left to ponder the photography of Michael Wolf.   Wolf, in fact, does not view the density of the high rises as dystopian.  He currently lives in a 21 story building and describes the experience of “look[ing] out on a sea of 5000 apartments” as “fascinating”.  While I think his photos are indeed fascinating, I see them as fascinating in the same way that turning over a rock and seeing countless crawling creatures quickly scatter is fascinating.

I can’t help but think that only badly mutilated or severely stunted animals—human or nonhuman–could live in such spaces; that we are being mutilated for the sake of a larger system and that such density limits our potential.  Like battery chickens, we spend our whole life without the freedom to spread our wings.

a76

Note: John B. Calhoun began his career at Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine.  Jackson Laboratory was the subject of a  previous post..

Recommended sources:

Medical Historian Examines NIMH Experiments in Crowding
http://nihrecord.od.nih.gov/newsletters/2008/07_25_2008/story1.htm

Escaping the Laboratory: The Rodent Experiments of John B. Calhoun and Their Cultural Influence
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/22514/

The Urban Animal: Population Density and Social Pathology in Rodents and Humans
http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/2/09-062836/en/

Psychological Musings: The Effects of Population Density and Noise
http://psychological-musings.blogspot.com/2011/07/effects-of-population-density-and-noise.html

upc chickens

Many Voices

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sea gull

“when we no longer hear the voices of warbler and wren, our own speaking can no longer be nourished by their cadences”  –David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous

Sitting atop a large rock on the Oregon coast with eyes closed.  The sound of the waves pours into my ears and I imagine the water pouring in close behind it.  The water swirls around my head and cleanses the toxic accumulation of so many human voices.

A healthy frame of mind requires a varied aural diet; a disproporationate number of voices from any one source or any one species can be detrimental.  Listening exclusively to human voices can warp the brain like a piece of old wood and dangerously distort one’s vision.

Humans listening exclusively to other humans have locked themselves into a house of mirrors where they regularly bump into and injure others as they are unable to effectively navigate the terrain.

The voice of the ocean was soothing.

While the ocean was speaking with its waves, birds flew in and out of view.  Their voices were less rhythmic and sometimes sharper than that of the waves.  They announced their presence, caught one’s eye, and departed, perhaps off to visit others.

Even the mussels and the barnacles have voices if one is willing to listen.  Compared to a 5 to 6 foot tall mammal, they are relatively small.  Compared to the ocean, they are relatively quiet.  But by bending at the knee, cupping an ear, and leaning close their collective chorus becomes audible.  They are filtering the ocean water; they are tightening or loosening their grip on the rock beneath them.

Animals and elements can show us the way out of the house of mirrors that is our own creation as well as our own prison.  We have walled ourselves in but their voices are not reflected in the glass and so by listening we can escape into the wider world and join them.  Only then can we begin to heal the broken relationships that result from our absence and neglect.

oregon mussles

Letter to the Editor re “Next Out of the Printer, Living Tissue”

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Letter to the Editor re “Next Out of the Printer, Living Tissue”
Date submitted: August 18, 2013
News outlet: New York Times

A recent article on Darryl D’Lima’s efforts to print living tissue such as knee cartilage with a 3-D printer had a moderate tone (“Next Out of the Printer, Living Tissue” August 18).  It presented D’Lima’s efforts without succumbing to the enthusiasm of zealots who sometimes suggest that whole organs will be printed and transplanted into patients in the near future.

Yet there was no mention in the article that D’Lima has overwhelmingly produced dead rather than living tissue; specifically, dead rabbit tissue.  D’Lima has been performing medically unnecessary surgeries and killing rabbits in his lab for years.

To present only the possibility of a future benefit without also presenting the very real harm that is currently being inflicted on animals is a disservice, if not a deception, to your readers.

Darryl D'Lima (ddlima@scripps.edu) performs deadly experiments on rabbits.

Darryl D’Lima (ddlima@scripps.edu) performs deadly experiments on rabbits.

From Social Justice to Social Science? A Response to Nick Cooney

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Nick Cooney, author of Change of Heart and Veganomics, recently published a blog post at HumaneSpot.org that he described as possibly “the most important blog post [he’s] ever written.”  The post was titled “Changing Vegan Advocacy from An Art to a Science” and in it he argues that:

“not only can we use direct testing to improve our vegan advocacy efforts, but that we have an ethical imperative to do so.”

The idea is that that the animal liberation movement needs to invest far greater resources on controlled experiments to carefully craft a message and to design outreach materials so as to maximize their effectiveness.  For example, Vegan Outreach offers several different booklets detailing the horrors of animal agriculture and promoting vegan eating.  Cooney writes that:

“Whenever there are four videos – or leaflets, or vegetarian starter guides, or vegan eating websites, or humane education talks, or whatever – one of them is going to be most effective at changing diets and saving lives. That is simple fact”.

Cooney therefore suggests that the animal liberation movement begin to do the work of determing which is the most effective rather than relying on hunches, personal preferences, or anecdotal evidence.  Humane League Labs, the research wing of The Humane League (founded by Cooney), is dedicated to conducting such research and has, amongst other things, evaluated Vegan Outreach materials.  According to the Humane League Labs website they also plan to evaluate the efficacy of Facebooks advertisements that promote veganism, to determine what makes factory farming videos most compelling, and to assess whether “go vegan”, “go vegetarian”, or “eat less meat” is the most effective request.

I have not conducted a scientific poll, but my general impression is that Cooney’s post has been well received by animal advocates.

Activists as Alchemists?

Edmund_Dulac_-_Wind's_Tale_-_3

“The Alchemist and His Gold” by Edmund Dulac

Cooney’s title indicates a desire to convert vegan advocacy from “an art to a science” but he begins his article by comparing the current state of vegan advocacy to alchemy which is neither an art nor a science but rather a pseudoscience.  After this sleight of hand, the widely agreed upon shortcomings of alchemy are then presumed to translate into shortcomings of the current state of vegan advocacy.  It is a weak analogy and consequently a weak argument.

This alchemy analogy allows Cooney’s prefered solution of pouring resources into focus groups and marketing studies to assume the heroic role of chemistry which puts the alchemists out of business, shutters their schools, and, in short order, has provided medicine, smartphones, and clean drinking water…in other words: better living!

But if vegan advocacy is better understood as an art rather than a science (or a pseudoscience) then grassroots activists are street artists who are not simply operating with a formula and closely following a script; what works for one will not necessarily yield similar results for another.  Holding the line, Cooney could simply insist that these are simply additional variables that well designed studies could theoretically control for; but at some point positing variables begins to look like adding epicycles to make a theory work.

Sell it Like Soap

Introducing a second fairly weak analogy, Cooney writes:

“In the business world, testing and research are used all the time to help corporations sell more products and make more money.”

and thus he concludes:

“If testing can be used to sell products, to win elections, and to save human lives, it can also be used to save the lives of animals. Not only can it be used, but it’s my strong belief that those of us who care about farm animals have an ethical obligation to use testing and research to guide our vegan advocacy work.”

The analogy between business success and the success of a social justice movement is tenuous at best tending to mislead more than inform.  Businesses must overwhelmingly focus on short term gains looking toward quarterly profits; social justice movements must think in long spans of time.  CEOs don’t suggest that “the arc of history is long but it bends toward profit” to boost the morale of impatient shareholders.  Businesses are strictly hierarchical; social justice movements may have influential leaders but often lack the same type of control mechanisms.  Businesses are staffed by formally trained professionals and experts; social justice movements do not have such employees.

Of course, the analogy would not be quite so weak if the animal movement was not a movement of people but rather was a movement of nonprofit corporations.  But which of these is a more accurate description of the movement may simply be a glass half full-half empty question that lacks a definitive answer and there is little indication from his article which description Cooney favors.

As a sidenote, this is not a novel approach.  It is the same idea behind the spurious notion of voting with our dollars.  And was also voiced by John Lennon and Yoko Ono who in promoting peace said they would “sell it like soap”.

Who Needs Activists?

The word “activist” is used only once in Cooney’s almost 3000 word article.  It is used to refer to “vegan activists” who would be “in a quandry” if test results did not align with their philosophy such as if the phrase “Go Vegetarian” proved more effective in changing dietary habits than the phrase “Go Vegan”.  That is to say, the word “activist” is only used once and in that one instance it refers to people who are presumed to be quite ideologically rigid.

Far from simply quibbling about Cooney’s word choice, the point is that converting a social justice movement into a research project leaves little room for the participation of grassroots activists other than scripted legwork.  The real work would be done by social scientists leading focus groups with national nonprofits commissioning the studies and distributing the results.  The only role for activists would then possibly be to receive the results of such testing and to act and communicate with the approved vocabulary, font choice, and brochure color.  Activists would not be autonomous actors making meaningful decisions about their own campaigns but would be expected to defer to experts.  Indeed, Cooney writes that:

“to the extent we disregard empirical data in favor of philosophy or sociological theory, we are valuing the ideas in our head over the tangible misery of animals just out of sight.”

This would likely be the charge hurled at activists who go off script.

And Finally, a False Dilemma

“We as a movement have two choices,” writes Cooney.  Only two choices?

Cooney insists that we must choose between his approach and the status quo that he describes as analogous to knowingly embracing the pseudoscience of alchemy.  It is a false dilemma.  We are not restricted to either mimicking the politicians who take positions and choose their words based on the latest poll results (Cooney cites Barack Obama’s reelection campaign) or else adopting the methodology of those who sought to alchemically turn lead into gold.  We are not restricted to a choice between science and pseudoscience but rather can allow vegan advocacy to function as an art or better yet as a component of a social justice movement.   There need not be a party line that activists must adhere to once “the science is in”; rather strength (and efficacy) may be better found in a diversity of people adopting a diversity of approaches.  This does not mean that people are simply left to rely on their own hunches; at least not anymore than a skilled painter relies on exclusively on hunches as to what will resonate with a viewer.  It does not mean that all choices are equally good simply because there is no definitive answer that is always and everywhere preferable.

Conclusion

The principal mistake being made by Cooney is that he is providing a technical answer to what is essentially not a technical problem.  He doesn’t want to replace alchemy with chemistry rather he wants to replace painting with chemistry or social justice with chemistry.  It is not his mistake alone, it is a cultural inclination.  The tangible successes of science have prompted us to apply its methods beyond reasonable limits.

To this end Cooney quotes Bill Gates, “I have been struck again and again by how important measurement is to improving the human condition.”  Cooney says that “[t]hose words are so powerful, and from such an authoritative source” that he is compelled to repeat the quote a second time and does so.

It is not clear to me why Bill Gates is deemed an “authoritative source” on questions pertaining to animal advocacy or to advancing a social justice movement but the ability to measure something is not the same as the ability to control or change that thing.

There is far more than an algorithm between us and animal liberation.

Productive Personality Disorder

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harold lloyd

“Time’s inexorable nature provides the ultimate model of domination.”
–John Zerzan, “Time and Its Discontents” [1]

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) was released last May and has since attracted a significant amount of criticism.  Many such as the Coalition for DSM-5 Reform have argued that:

“the lowering of diagnostic thresholds in several categories, rais[es] the spectre that thousands of individuals experiencing normative distress might be labeled with a mental disorder and treated with psychiatric drugs that have dangerous side effects” [2]

Normal human behavior is seemingly being pathologized with only a very narrow range of behavior being deemed healthy or normal and not in need of intervention.  Not only have additional disorders been added since the last edition (DSM-IV) but fewer criteria are now required in order to be diagnosed with a previously established disorder.  Allen Frances of Duke University has written that:

“Grief is now Major Depressive Disorder; medical illness is Somatic Symptom Disorder; everyday worries are Generalized Anxiety Disorder; the forgetting of old age is Mild Neurocognitive Disorder; being geeky smart makes you an Aspie; gorging is Binge Eating Disorder; having temper tantrums is Childhood Bipolar Disorder; and all of us have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).” [3]

Diversity is antithetical to industrial society where efficiency requires interchangeable parts.  Expanding what counts as illness therefore serves the both the function of creating new customers for high priced pharmaceuticals as well as providing rationale for modifying human behavior that is inefficient or otherwise undesirable from the perspective of industry.

While I wholeheartedly share these concerns, I am going to articulate a concern different from the above theme.  I am going to suggest a new disorder that could also be added to the DSM-5: Productive Personality Disorder (PPD).* So here it goes:

Do you feel the need to be always busy?  Do you feel compelled to “accomplish” something as a means of demonstrating your self-worth to others?  Do you mistake stillness for idleness? Quiet for deficiency?  Does a hectic schedule make you feel more important?  Do you feel the need to produce something simply to have “something to show for yourself”?

You may suffer from Productive Personality Disorder (PPD).

There is not a pill to take and consulting a doctor is not advised.  PPD is not an illness that simply afflicts individuals.  PPD afflicts whole societies and only derivatively afflicts members of a society.

The good news is that the harm imposed by PPD can be mitigated.  Unfortunately, the needed course of action is precisely what those afflicted with PPD struggle to do: pause.

Given the difficulty of such an instruction, some therapeutic exercises may be helpful.  In no particular order:

  1. Go outside.  Admire the shape of a nearby rock.
  2. Listen to any sound within earshot.  Recognize it as music.
  3. Look to the horizon.   Trace its contour.  Watch it move.
  4. Make eye contact with an animal.  Wish them well.

It’s important to remember that PPD is not your fault but has been imposed on you no less than the deliberately inflicted injuries imposed on nonhuman animals in a laboratory.  Your very birth may have been scheduled according to the needs of hospital bureaucracy or a doctor’s vacation schedule.  Compulsory factory style education is rigidly scheduled with ringing bells to set a prescribed pace and often includes paperwork to be completed before a student can relieve his or her bowels.  In “Time and Its Discontents,” John Zerzan writes:

 “In the world of alienation no adult can contrive or decree the freedom from time that the child habitually enjoys–and must be made to lose. Time training, the essence of schooling, is vitally important to society.”

Time training.  Learning to be busy and without opportunity to reflect.  To pack up your books and move to your next class when the bell rings and not until the bell rings.  Furthermore, all modern (read as: electronic) correspondence is now dated, time stamped, and archived (not simply by the NSA).  I can, for example, look back and learn that on November 27, 2009 at 6:26am, I shared a story online about a chupacabra sighting (the creature in question turned out to be a coyote—so really, it was a coyote sighting).

For many, the urge to do something (anything!) may be based on the realization that the current of our culture is towards destruction and therefore to simply be is to feel complicit.  The pace being set is that of a person with their hair on fire.  Yet, in a different time and place, with a different cultural current, to simply be would be to contribute; the practices of everyday life could potentially benefit others.  To exist would mean to be complicit.

This rationale for frenetic action even in the face of a world on fire is captured and defused by Paul Kingsnorth:

“Perhaps to a political activist, sitting by a stream in a forest seems like self-indulgence in the face of mass extinction and climate change, but it is the opposite. If you don’t know why that stream matters, you are not equipped to protect it. If you have forgotten how to listen to it, you may end up on the wrong side, as so many have before you.” [4]

It takes time to visit and to listen.  And to then, but only then, act decisively.

——————–

*It will be most embarassing for me if this fanciful disorder is actually included in the DSM-5.

Gratitude

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I would like to suggest one reason that might help explain the widespread belief in the god of traditional Western theism.

Gratitude.

I do not mean to suggest that this is the sole reason or even the primary reason for belief in this particular deity.  I mean only to suggest that it may be a reason.

For the purpose at hand, it is important to keep in mind that the god of traditional Western theism is a personal being with whom one may have a relationship; indeed this deity seeks such a relationship.  This god is not an impersonal force like love or gravity.

My suggestion then is that people posit such a being, in part, so that they may more easily and more frequently express gratitude.  Our language and cultural conventions often make it difficult to express gratitude toward anyone or anything other than a person.  Yet it is increasingly clear that the practice of expressing gratitude is essential to our wellbeing.

There is some similarity to the argument from design originally articulated by Thomas Aquinas (and by lesser intellects as well).  Aquinas argued that that the level of complexity found in the natural world was best explained by the existence of an extremely powerful god capable of designing it in such a fashion.

The difference, of course, between the argument from design and what I might light-heartedly call the argument from gratitude is that while the former aims to prove the existence of a particular god, the later aims to account for the widespread belief (or delusion) in such a god.  Both arguments do cite the complexity and the grandeur of the natural world in coming to their respective conclusions.

So if one rejects belief in the god of Western theism and accepts the argument from gratitude, then how ought one proceed?

I would recommend that we push the limits of our language and remodel cultural conventions so that we may more readily express gratitude to a wider range of subjects than simply human beings and personal deities.

We can send gratitude down into the earth like a taproot and up into the sky as if on wing.

The most obvious class of individuals to whom we may begin expressing gratitude  toward would be the full breadth of our animal relations.  Consider a few ways that we humans are the beneficiaries of the work being done by other animals (note: this is only the labor that is freely engaged in by other animals as it would be inappropriate to express gratitude for the forced labor of the animal captives who populate slaughterhouse, laboratories, circuses, zoos, and other places of exploitation):

  • “Earthworms dramatically alter soil structure, water movement, nutrient dynamics, and plant growth.”
  • Bees pollinate a vast number of the plants that humans rely on for food.
  • Writing about vultures, biologist David Haskell has said that “[l]ike living prayer flags, their presence delivers a very real ecological blessing to the land” and explains numerous benefits they provide.
  • It is possible that human language has roots in birdsong.

With minimal (but highly rewarding) effort, this list of benefits could be extended to almost any desirable length and could exhibit a diversity rivaled only by the tree of life itself. To steal a line from philosopher James Rachels, we have essentially been “created from animals”.  There is also the Native American idea that “every animal knows more than you do” and thus allows us to open ourselves to their instruction.

But surely, we can stretch further, cast off additional cultural constraints, and find ever more opportunities for gratitude.  It is not simply human beings and other animals to whom we may feel grateful.    There is nothing stopping us in feeling grateful toward the many plants who nourish us, a particular tree who provides us with a cool shady space on an otherwise uncomfortably hot day, and even the microbes who call our bodies home and make our lives possible (a recent New York Times articles reports on “our resident microbes”).  A previous post (“In Praise of Dead Trees”) listed many reasons for which one may be grateful toward dead trees, fallen logs, and downed wood of all sorts.

If we are especially ambitious, feeling completely unconstrained, and are overflowing with gratitude, we may experiment with expressing gratitude toward recipients beyond the biotic community toward impersonal forces like gravity, the wind, or magnetism.  A particularly impressive example can be found in Stephan Harding’s “Dedication to the Elements of the Earth” where he describes the elements as “animate proto-beings, tiny atomic persons. The stuff of life” and asks how such proto-beings should be treated and honored.

The practice of so narrowly limiting to whom we may express gratitude has not been without its harmful consequences.  The only alternative that I can see is to change course by expanding the range of subjects to whom we may express gratitude; to look beyond humans and deities.  It is unlikely that our experiments will yield uniform results or that there will ever be an ultimate consensus but a general movement towards greater inclusiveness and more frequent opportunities to express gratitude would likely be a healthy change of pace.

The inspiration for this post was given to me by Toketee Falls while hiking along the North Umpqua Trail...and for that I am grateful.

The inspiration for this post was given to me by Toketee Falls while I was hiking along the North Umpqua Trail…and for that I am grateful.

Five Reasons to Look Up at the Supermoon

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Supermoon 2011
On the night of June 22 (and June 23), the moon will be closer and, consequently, appear larger than at any other time in 2013.  That this event coincides with a full moon makes it a “supermoon”.

While this may appear to be a matter of trivia to many who do not have an independent interest in astronomy, I would suggest that those concerned with Animal and Earth Liberation pause and look up.

EarthSky indicates that for “United States’ time zones, the moon will turn full on June 23 at 7:32 a.m. EDT, 6:32 a.m. CDT, 5:32 a.m. MDT and 4:32 a.m. PDT.”

1.       Changing Paradigms

Quite often for strategic reasons Animal and Earth Liberation efforts manifest in a vast number of scattered individual campaigns, single issue pursuits, and one-off events.  There are campaigns focused on bear bile farming, suction dredge mining, mountaintop removal, road building, factory farmed animals, honeybees, wildlife poaching, animal experimentation, climate change, species extinction, nuclear power, noise pollution, light pollution, water pollution, plastic bags, the disposal of e-waste, urban farming…ad infinitum.

To make progress on all of these interwoven issues requires a paradigm change on the part of the general public.  Every person cannot be an expert on every issue but with a change in world view the burden of proof can naturally shift, the questions asked may change, and initial reactions to new assaults on Animals and Earth may swing.  For example, if one held the view that animals are not property, that they are morally different from tables and chairs, then it may not be necessary to mount separate arguments against the existence of zoos, circuses, animal laboratories, and fur farms.  The change of a fundamental belief has far reaching ripple effects.

Asserting the unquantifiable value of being present for natural events such as the supermoon contributes to that paradigm change.  But of course assertions of value are insufficient and by themselves ring hollow, the event must actually be valued.  If it is important that one actually stops to take notice.  Its importance is not simply asserted but rather is revealed in the actions of people.

2.       Shifting Biocentrically

For any of the individual campaigns mentioned above there are often a variety of arguments that advocates might make depending on who they are trying to sway.  If promoting veganism, one might cite medical literature to suggest that it is healthier and contributes to a longer, more productive life.  If promoting habitat preservation for wildlife, one might suggest that wild animals represent a greater economic asset alive than they do dead.  If one is promoting alternative energy sources, the discussion may address issues of efficiency.

Yet these are all explicitly anthropocentric reasons for taking certain action; they play to the presumed prejudices of the person being addressed and avoid the work of shifting paradigms and promoting a different set of values.

A particularly egregious example of this is PETA’s claim that killing chickens via a process known as controlled atmosphere killing (CAK) as opposed to an electrical stunning model would benefit industry by reducing carcass damage and increasing revenue.

3.       Re-joining the Community of Life

The human species is radically alienated from the biotic community—the community of life.  The harm we have caused ourselves and others stems largely from that alienation.  Actions that bring us closer to the natural world and re-introduce us to the others whom we share it with are of the utmost importance.

Joanna Macy says of that while we may treat the earth as “a supply house and a sewer” it is in fact “our larger body”.  Likewise, it is the larger body of other animals, no less important to their well being than claws, wings, teeth, tails, and fins.  This is one reason why animals in zoos so often disappoint; in a very real sense, they are not whole animals.

The moon is obviously not part of the earth but it is definitely part of our world, it is part of the lived experience of residing on earth and in that respect is a commonality between human and many nonhuman animals.

4.       Caring for Self

Activists are notoriously busy.  In the wake of pressing demands, taking time out to look at the moon may seem to be an unwarranted indulgence or as simply unimportant.  But it’s quite the opposite: neither unwarranted nor unimportant.  It is a matter of self-care on par with getting adequate sleep, eating well, and being physically active.

It serves to put things into a healthy perspective and to remind oneself of the purpose of ongoing struggle.  It is not adequate and not healthy to wait until “after the revolution” to linger beneath a full moon, put one’s feet in the water, or let the voices of birds steer one’s thoughts.  The opportunity to do these things—to live—is right now.

5.       Knowing Other Animals

It is impossible to adequately cultivate healthy relations with other animal without knowing the world in which they live.  This includes the cycles of the moon, the change of seasons, geographic features, climatic features, and on and on.  The fact that we are alienated from the natural world means that we often inadvertently harm others.  We fail to anticipate that bright lights that blot out the night sky will cause serious harm to animals.  Until avian bodies accumulate at the base of skyscrapers, we don’t think of how birds will react to these tall glass buildings.  We are even surprised to discover that human produced insecticides might kill insects and that that may not be beneficial.

So take the opportunity to look up at the moon, deliberately lose track of time, and know that not a minute will be wasted.

An Anti-Tech Perspective on Edward Snowden

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snowden_c

We cannot develop and maintain the infrastructure that makes the surveillance state possible, combine it with a hierarchical political system, and then expect that those in power will restrain themselves from making use of these tools for less than noble purposes.   It is a naïve but pervasive notion that technologies are neutral (“Guns don’t kill people—people do.” “Surveillance technologies don’t snoop…”).

Furthermore, we cannot rely entirely on a steady stream of heroic disclosures such as those of Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning in order to consistently rectify wrongs.  Manning has already been tortured and is now a character in a show trial. Snowden is intelligent enough to know that he will be pursued and may very well suffer a similar fate (“I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions, and that the return of this information to the public marks my end,”  Source)  And yet, will these self-sacrificing efforts suffice to bring down the surveillance state?  They may briefly pull back the curtain allowing those who take the time to look up from the screens on their phones to glimpse what is happening but then what?

Note that this is not intended to discount the importance of people like Manning and Snowden; rather, it’s simply to note that whistleblowers provide information at great cost to themselves in hopes that the public will then take action.  They cannot right wrongs single handedly.

The technology that makes global spying possible cannot exist alongside personal privacy.  The presence of policy, guidelines, laws, whistleblowers, and even Constitutional amendments does not change this fact.

The potentially uncomfortable aspect of this is that there is significant overlap between the technology that makes the surveillance state possible and the technology that makes the average Western consumer lifestyle possible.  The amount of overlap is almost certainly a matter of speculation given that the capabilities of the surveillance state are by their nature not clearly understood.  But it does not seem to be unreasonable conjecture to suggest that any society with technology sufficiently advanced to produce iPhones and Google Glasses will be a surveillance state.

Ross Douthat—paraphrasing security expert Bruce Schneier—wrote that “it isn’t that the Internet has been penetrated by the surveillance state; it’s that the Internet, in effect, is a surveillance state.”  But neither Douthat nor Schneier follow this important point to its logical conclusion.

Douthat suggests that likening our current surveillance state to totalitarian states of the 20th century is: “useful for teasing out how authoritarian regimes will try to harness the Internet’s surveillance capabilities, but America isn’t about to turn into East Germany with Facebook pages.”

Douthat’s concern about the surveillance state is decidedly mixed.  He acknowledges that “radicalism and protest will seem riskier, paranoia will be more reasonable, and conspiracy theories will proliferate.” But continues by saying that since “genuinely dangerous people will often be pre-empted or more swiftly caught, the privacy-for-security swap will seem like a reasonable trade-off to many Americans — especially when there is no obvious alternative short of disconnecting from the Internet entirely.”  He does not explicitly state whether or not he finds this to be a “reasonable trade-off”.

Schneier recognizes that these concerns cannot be addressed by the free market but suggests that instead “strong government will” is necessary (even while he knows it’s lacking) and he laments that “no one is agitating for better privacy laws.”  But a state that is willing to torture whistleblowers is unlikely to feel constrained by privacy laws.  As Edward Snowden has said of his co-workers at the NSA: “they do not defend due process – they defend decisive action. They say it is better to kick someone out of a plane than let these people have a day in court. It is an authoritarian mindset in general.”

The crux of what I am saying that is we cannot legislate our way out of this mess.  Passing policy cannot square circles and it cannot create a society that has both surveillance state technologies and personal privacy. The information provided by whistleblowers is incredibly valuable but if it only results in new guidelines and perhaps a congressional investigation then its importance has been squandered.  Literal dismantling is required and not simply symbolic tinkering.  So long as the technology exists, it will be employed for the ends that it is currently being employed.

The Burden of Knowing

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“You literally could not go anywhere in Germany without running into forced labour camps, P.O.W. camps, concentration camps” (source)

–Hartmut Berghoff, director of the German Historical Institute in Washington DC

In May 2011, I attended a screening of the film Bold Native in Albany, New York.  Peter Young was part of a panel discussion following the film and he prefaced his remarks by listing several sites of animal abuse that were located within a short distance of where the event was being held.  This is something that he can do regardless of where he is speaking.

Approximately 10 billion land animals are killed for food every year in the United States alone.  It has been estimated that over 100 million animals are exploited in laboratories (although this number is difficult to know with any degree of precision given that the vast majority of animals used in experiments are not covered by the federal Animal Welfare Act).

Killing on this scale requires a massive infrastructure.  The numbers themselves may be impossible to relate to but wherever you might live there are very tangible elements of this infrastructure nearby.  Young said that whenever he arrived in a new place he felt compelled to find where such sites were located; he deliberately imposed on himself what he called “the burden of knowing”.

We know that right now cows are being hung upside down, having their throats cut open, and watching the blood spill from their body.  Animals in laboratories are having holes drilled into their skulls while others are being decapitated, burned, poisoned, and addicted to dangerous drugs.  Fur-bearing animals are frantically pacing in tiny cages and gradually losing their minds.  Elephants are being loaded into box cars with chains around their legs.

But this knowledge takes on a considerably greater urgency and imposes a greater burden when we know the physical address where it is happening; an ever greater urgency still if we are familiar with the path that links where we are currently sitting to where the violence is happening.  In many cases, people may pass such sites of exploitation on a daily basis perhaps on a commute to work without knowing.

When I lived in New Haven, I was amazed how many people could walk past academic buildings without ever realizing that animals are imprisoned inside.  As a point of fact, Yale University has far more animals in its laboratories than it does students in its classrooms; in that sense, it is an institution dedicated to animal exploitation that happens to offer some unrelated classes as well.

There are directories that have already been compiled and that serve as good starting points for locating such information:

The above resources have been compiled by those within the Animal Liberation movement but no less (arguably more) important are sources produced by and for animal exploiting industries themselves: industry publications, trade journals, etc (Examples: Meat & Poultry, Pork Network, Meatingplace, and more).  Often the advertisements in such publications are themselves quite valuable as they might list a business’ name, location, web address, and the “services” provided.  If information pertaining to animal experimentation is being sought much of this can be found at university websites and, specifically, faculty webpages.  Experimenters advance their careers by producing journal articles where they necessarily provide great detail on how they exploit and kill animals.  (Hint: often the most valuable information in such academic publications can be found in a section with a title such as “Materials and Methods” (animals are deemed “materials”)).

Peripheral industries and suppliers should not be overlooked.  There are many businesses that may rarely, if ever, come into physical contact with animals but instead manufacture cages, knives, saw blades, stereotaxic devices, guillotines, ear bars, and much more (spinal cord removers! brain suckers!).   Much like knowing the physical location of where animals are currently suffering, seeing the range of tools and machinery that is employed seems to heighten the reality of the ongoing animal holocaust.

These businesses are necessary components of the overall infrastructure that treats animals as disposable commodities; furthermore, in many cases they may be small businesses that manage to evade scrutiny because they do not have names that are recognizable to the general public.  The best source for up to date information in the food industry is the annually updated Red Book put out by Meat & Poultry; they also produce an additional annual publication titled, Top 100: Ranking the Industry’s Leading Companies.

For information on suppliers to the lab animal industry, the American Association of Laboratory Animal Science has an online Laboratory Animal Science Buyers Guide.  Categories in the Buyers Guide include, but are not limited to, “Animal Housing”, “Animal Model Suppliers” (live animals), “Facility Design”, “Laboratory / Surgical Equipment”, amongst others.  Like with Meat & Poultry publications, addresses, phone numbers, and websites are often provided for listed companies.

Sites such a whitepages.com or zabasearch.com can generally be used to find addresses and/or phone numbers for individuals.  Perhaps someone who profits from animal exploitation or directly engages in violence toward animals lives in your neighborhood?  It could be prudent to be aware of this if it is the case.

Please feel free to use the comment section to share other valuable sources of information that I have not included above.

aero scalder


“AeroScalder is entirely enclosed and consists of two chambers; an air conditioning chamber where the moisturized hot air is prepared and, next to it, the scalding chamber itself through which birds are conveyed and into which the scalding air is blown.”

Note: In the Summer 2008, a series of documents (Flashpoint Vol. I, II, III, and IV) were released with information on animal research labs, lab animal breeders, slaughterhouses, and fur farms.  These are now significantly outdated (another reason why annually published industry sources are often more reliable).  While the sources listed above are generally preferable, I have included links to the Flashpoint documents here for those who might still be interested.

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UPDATE (Aug. 12, 2013): The Earth First! Wolf Hunt Sabotage Manual
“Earth First! Media has released a manual which provides detailed information for disrupting wolf hunting in those states that allow it. Titled The Earth First! Wolf Hunting Sabotage Manual, the text, complete with step-by-step graphics, explains how to find and destroy wolf traps, handle live trapped wolves in order to release them, and various methods, including the use of air-compressed horns and smoke-bombs, for stopping wolf hunts.” (source)