Let’s face it – most often in our everyday lives, our primary concern is our own well-being. And to some extent, self-centeredness and self-absorption are natural human instincts that are essential for survival. But too often, we see that self-absorption is a quality that can tear at the fabric of all aspects of life. And unfortunately, human selfishness is causing a bigger amount of affliction than most people realize, such as the universally ignored, worldwide suffering caused by the meat industry.
Ironically, this drive for self-preservation is what unites every being with blood flowing through their veins. Desperation for survival makes perfect scientific sense, because it ensures the well-being and prosperity of creatures as individuals and as a species. On a psychological level, with this drive for survival comes an innate desire for happiness that every creature pursues in a different way. This philosophy of “earthlings” states that all creatures are essentially the same because of the basic needs and desires that we all possess – such as breathing, the urge to mate, the will to live, and the desperation to avoid pain.
Following this logic, is it not reasonable to further declare that every creature deserves the same right to life?
Nearly all people consider genocide terrible, but there is still a continuous mass killing that remains universally unacknowledged – the slaughter of the billions of living creatures worldwide that are essentially born to die. Speciesism, the idea that humans are inherently superior to every other animal, directly opposes the “earthling” philosophy. An element of speciesism even lurks in the definition of the word “genocide”, which refers to the “deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political or cultural group” rather than of all sentient beings. Why do we as a race still condone the sickeningly methodical elimination of animals that are not essentially any different from us? Does a group of living beings not deserve the right to life or happiness because another “higher” creature denounced it?
So the idea that our natural drive for survival and happiness comes before every other creature’s natural drive for survival and happiness is not only selfish, but unethical, because it is illogical. We as a society are plagued by a fundamental cultural prejudice that does not recognize the basic rights of all sentient, cognitive creatures. This commonly accepted belief is the blocking force that will hinder any movement towards a higher level of human understanding. The moral superiority that is necessary for human advancement can be achieved only through brutal reasoning, as is expressed in this question that I pose to you:
Are our taste buds an important enough reason for billions of animals to “live” miserable existences in factory farms and then suffer excruciating deaths in slaughterhouses?
We must address the harm that our speciesist attitudes have caused. We must admit to the large-scale environmental, moral and health repercussions of our actions. It is imperative that we examine the true moral integrity of what we eat and challenge the institutions that have perpetuated our unethical culinary practices. Our gustatory preferences have impacted our world in greater ways than we have realized, and now is the time to change.
If we as a race are to advance spiritually, morally, and intellectually, we have no choice but to care for the pain of the animals that inhabit the same world that we do. We must face that the industry of animal food products is arguably the greatest enactment of human self-concern. If we are more empathetic to the terrible pain of the living creatures around us, we will transform into more compassionate beings ourselves. We must release the billions of animals from the chains that we have bound them with. But we must do it together. By respecting all forms of life, we will learn to treasure the world around us, enabling us to change it for the better.