visionofprog

Why be kind? Well, we can start with the basic precept that biologically speaking we want to live long enough so we can produce offspring which carry our genes into subsequent generations. Biological organisms that want to die go extinct rather quickly, and individuals who want to die don't really need to answer this question because it doesn't matter to them. If we're not kind to the people around us our chances of survival dramatically reduce. So while we ultimately are acting on selfish grounds what it produces overall is this sort of illusive altruism.

This is a question I've never really resolved in my own mind, and I was hoping to get some external commentary.

 

I was reminded yesterday about the issue when a friend and I were talking about PETA's reaction to the Obama fly-swatting video. Apparently they were upset at the actions of the president for unnecessarily ending the life of the poor fly. This is the stupidest thing I have ever head; there is no such thing as animal cruelty to animals which cannot feel. Further, our conception of what is "pain" is only comparable to what other conscious animals feel. This is because the pain we feel is an experience, and experiences are only meaningful to things with consciousnesses.

 

However, even animals with consciousnesses -- why should we care whether or not they are unhappy? In principle, there is something that compels people to say "we should", but that's just misapplied knee-jerk programmed empathy whose purpose was to enable intimate social interaction, not to 'protect the rights of animals'. And, as evidenced by the number of non-vegetarians in the country, people (even people who are fully aware of the horror of slaughterhouses), simply don't feel the compulsion not to eat meat. (Or said compulsion is not strong enough to make them not want to eat meat.)

 

So there is some cognitive dissonance between what people say is right and what people actually do (or care enough to think about). But I have actually thought about it. And while I feel that same empathy towards inflicting pain in conscious creatures, I simply cannot put a finger on any truly objective, rational argument for why we should care.

 

At this point, I was somewhat disheartened, but not completely. I am not, of course, a vegetarian, so it rather validated a position I was holding by default in the first place. But then I realized, if there is no reason to care about animal happiness, why should we care about fellow human happiness (where, of course, it does not affect our own)?

 

I struggled with this for quite some time, and I could not come up with a cohesive answer. It's a horrible prospect to conceive, but I see no solid line of reasoning against it.

I find it horribly ironic when vegans and vegetarians go on a tangent about cruelty and suffering, but when it comes to non-sentient life they don't give it two seconds thought. They adopt this mentality of "so what if I'm eating it or its dead?" It's the compartmentalization of life I find most irrational. I agree that killing any sort of life must be done for a very good reason (food). And I also agree that we should minimize has much pain and suffering as possible when we process this life into food. What I don't agree with is compartmentalizing life to the point where one half of the spectrum is treated indifferently.