To lower the temperature a bit, it's interesting that you mentioned how adrenaline originally taken from horse donors can now be artificially synthesized. Although, we may not like to think in terms that transcend the class struggle, I do think some of the issues related to animal welfare may be amenable to *technological fixes*. Eventually, in vitro meat, for example, is likely to substitute for some percentage of meat products currently consumed. To the extent that it doesn't simply raise the consumption of animal protein altogether, it will lead to fewer slaughterhouses, and thus less suffering. And conceivably, it may be more environmentally friendly as well. You won't have the same levels of methane produced or animal refuse. And this will be a good thing, regardless of whether one wants to call oneself an animal rights activist or not.
----- Original Message ---- From: nada <dwalters...@gmail.com> To: Suresh <borhyae...@yahoo.com> Sent: Wed, October 28, 2009 4:23:18 PM Subject: [Marxism] Animal Liberation and Socialism Suresh, I actually agree, because your judgment is devoid of anthropomorphic moralism. And "we" are making this judgment. You are already miles ahead of Singer. Singer and all ALF "types" have no such approach to this issue...they use the concept of 'rights' (you have yet to do this, I suspect you will not) and elevating animals legally to that of humans. We can, and should be, sympathetic to the plight of higher animals, our 'near cousins' facing extinction and...cruelty. But the Singer and Spira creed is that the *biggest* issue is humans using animals as food source. Everything else is secondary to this since this, in their view, is the biggest moral violation of animal rights as it involves the most number of animals. It's been a while since I read Singer's material so I don't know if it means everything from bovines to herring. I actually don't know if he makes a distinction. David ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/borhyaenid%40yahoo.com ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
