Tuesday, May 15, 2007

A misanthrope pretending to be a humanitarian...


...is like a cannibal on a healthy diet, who only eats vegetarians.

We are currently in the middle of National Vegetarian Week in Poland. Oh, joy. Sometimes they can act a bit like little Hitlers - vegetarian fascists.

Although only 1.5 percent of Poles don’t eat meat at all, the few fundamentalist grass-eaters that are here have some tasty tactics to force their obsession on the rest of us. Polish Radio reports:

’Come and buy our mouth-watering dachshund veal! Cheap shoulder of cocker spaniel. Dog paws and heads. Only two zloty a kilogram.” – a butcher wearing a white blood stained coat shouted at a makeshift stand in the centre of Warsaw.

He was wielding an enormous axe, chopping what looked like animal parts, but in reality were soy cutlets covered in mashed beetroot[!!!]. But some passers-by actually believed it was real meat. “This is absurd. It shows how ignorant many people are if they assumed it was real meat”, says Cezary Wyszynski, a vegetarian since 1996, from the Viva Foundation, championing animal rights.

Note the contempt that animal lovers have for their fellow man: 'ignorant'! Now who would that be, then?

Iwona Kossowska from the Empatia or Empathy Association explains why the organizers decided to shock people.

“We want to show the people of Poland that it’s sad to divide animals into those that are loved and those that are eaten. We ask – why? Is there a real difference between a dog whom we love and a pig that we eat?’

Er...
Each year 470 million animals are slaughtered in Poland. More than one million a day. Almost one thousand every single second. No one seems sympathetic to those animals. They are completely unnoticed and forgotten. They are proudly eaten every day. Sold in supermarkets. No one cares for them. So, we want to recall that not only dogs and cats deserve attention and care. Pigs, cows, calves, chickens, fish, rabbits, goats, sheep are living creatures that feel the same as do cute and loving dogs.”

Note ‘sold in supermarkets…’ – another current obsession that some ‘liberals' share with their conservative nationalist counterparts in Poland. Both would like to go back to the good old days (and still the sad experience for the many car less poor today) when a mother had to drag her kids from shop to shop each day, paying for over priced food from miserable, unhelpful shop keepers.

Of course, in some countries people do eat dogs. And the reason why people don’t eat dogs in Poland and the rest of Europe is that dogs were used for work – they controlled the sheep that were kept for wool or eaten.

What’s sadder than animals kept in bad conditions – and there are many – is humans that become obsessed with animals, above any concern for humans. These are misanthropes dressed up as humanitarians.

And there are many of those, too. Too many.

The vegetarian is another example of our modern day obsession with our bodies. Food is not seen as something that we in the West have lots of, to be relished and enjoyed for its own sake. For the grass-eaters and tree huggers food says something about ourselves – it’s become a pseudo morality.

The militant vegetarian is someone who is a product of an age with little else to believe in, so the body and what is put in it becomes, literally, a ‘way of life’.

But what a sad, ultimately meaningless, way of life.

And anyway - vegetarians eat...(sniff) beetroots! Don't they have rights, too?

23 comments:

Frank Partisan said...

OT sorry: I didn't delete the comments for political reasons. It was personal. I think you should know by now I don't censor political views. I have the right to censor trolls, who smear me on a personal level. I wish I did it sooner, when he threatened to spam my blog. He's not at my blog to debate only bait.

Anonymous said...

Hi there

The subject matter

Last night - I had roast chicken dinner with mashed spuds Loads of butter), roast spuds, carrots, cauliflower cheese, leeks, gravy and stuffing !! - lovely young beatroots accompanying this traditional dish:-) of course:-)

Pickled ;-)

Fantastic :-)A joy to behold:-)

You jealous?

You should be:-)

My Polish friends - don't do Bisto?? or stuffing (not that I blame them) so go on - give us a truly traditional Sunday Polish dish - (I'll ask them the same - of course:-)

I have now thrown down the gauntlet:-)

Issie

beatroot said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
beatroot said...

Renegade.
I am getting irritated by your constant off topic remarks. If you have nothing to say about the current post then don’t bother, OK? What you have just written will make no sense whatsoever to my readers. Any more of these and I will delete them - not for 'political' reasons, but just because this is complete gibberish.

Issue
Baby beetroots? BABY BEETS. This is infanticide!

Frank Partisan said...

There was a Polish professional wrestler named Wladek "Killer" Kowalski, who was booed for being an open Polish vegetarian.

Damien Moran said...

Jaysus BR, don't lump us all into the one bowl of bulion;) We're not all crazy soya butchers. I can't get my head around this national veg. display of shocking carnivores into empathy for cows and chickens - it's educationally thick and in terms of proselythising value, self-defeating.

I for one, gave up meat in jail - you can guess part of the reason why. The other reason was because it was Lent and I usually give up something and take up something else (e.g. being less stubborn). After Lent had finished, I just didn't have an appetite for meat any longer so stayed off it altogether.

I think it would have been a lot better if the Veggie crew just set up a stall and gave out free veggie food for people (especially hungry folks who don't have so much disposable income or a home to cook something), as the vast majority of carnivores I know think our menu is tasteless and joyless - nothing could be further from the truth.

Damien Moran said...

A few more thoughts.

It would be a good public service if members of the National Veg. Society also focussed on educating the public to be more aware of the foods they eat, where they come from, where to find your local bazaar, how and where to get organic food (which always tastes better)- and not have to do without your few pints of beer on a Saturday night. It's still terribly expensive unfortunately.

I think there is a growing desire from people to know what they are eating and where it came from. For example, yesterday I was in Żółty Cesarz (ul. Bruna 34), a non-fascist Veggie shop with good book selection and organic cleaning products, fair trade coffee, tea, chocolate, etc. Someone called the clean dread-headed shop assistant to inquire whether they sold organic chickens! Laughable? Well, yes if you don't give a fuck about your body and environment. I don't think it's fair to just take a general swipe at folks who are trying to consume goods that are grown locally and organically, rather than from 5,000 kms away or the result of factory farming. Also, the staff in this shop are very nice people.

Upton Sinclair did a great service to the public by exposing the shite working conditions and unhygenic practices of the meat-packing factories in Chicago (The Jungle, 1906).
Eric Schlosser has also informed us in an articulate fashion about the hidden truths and costs behind the mass production of meat for the fast food industry in the U.S. and elsewhere (Fast Food Nation, 2001).
The 200 Food Not Bombs collectives give out free, very tasty veggie food to homeless folks and activists alike - putting to use the huge amounts of good food fucked out by shops on a daily basis, not just supermarkets.

In my opinion ecologically sound eggs (marked with an '0') taste better than factory farm produced ones (marked '2' or '3').

So we're not all gobshites who go for the shame tactics you've pointed out here.

In relation to the morality issue, you make a good point. It's hard to prove that it is actually more moral to consume milk, eggs, yoghurt, cheese, pork, beef and chicken from your own or your neighbour's farm than to purchase and consume oranges from South Africa, soya from Brazil, and bananas from Ecquador - all of which are generally produced by underpaid farmers, register a shit lot of food miles, and get a shitload of chemical doses before they end up in the vegetarian's gut.

varus said...

Does this also have anything to do with the principle of free choice and the wish to be left in peace? I eat meat (sausages a particular favourite)but do also eat vegitarian dishes and have to say that they are often extremley tasty as the recipes have had more time and care put into them as oppossed to simply having meat and two veg. However, i don't lecture others on their eating habbits or try to convert people to sausageanarianism. Therefore what gives these people the right to do such. If they have an opnion, fine, write a book and if i'm interested i'll read it. But stop the emotional blackmail and outright harrasmennt.

Anonymous said...

Ivan Putski coulda kicked Killer Kowalski's ass.

beatroot said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
beatroot said...

Damo – you been in clink? You can’t say something as interesting as that without giving us a bit more. What you do, man? And how did the inmates take to your veggie ways?

But of course I am not lumping all vegetarians into the same bowl of soya. It’s time to confess. I was a vegetarian once for six years. The deadly bacon sandwich led me back to the straight and narrow meat and two veg. I just think what we eat is no big deal – eat nice, varied diet and enjoy it. And then shut up about it.

And I am with Varus – my favourite thing in this part of the world is sitting outside eating fantastic Polish grilled sausage, with top Polish mustard, bread, and drinking a glass of cold Czech beer. Heaven.

Damien Moran said...

Looks like I'm still experiencing hell in Poland if that's the case BR, cause I don't drink alcoholic beverages either! "Jaysus, and you call yourself Irish," is a common remark I get (in good jest of course).

Was in clink (only 5 1/2 weeks) for damaging a U.S. Navy plane in Shannon airport, prior to the Iraq war, with four others. €2 million disabling work in 5 mins - not a bad days work! Was on bail for 3 1/2 years, has 3 trials - 1st 2 collapsed - last July we were acquitted by unanimous decision of jury. More details about me at mefirstblogentry - Personalisation is off-putting for some I understand but I think our stories are the shortest distance between us and clarification of the truth. About our trials and acquittal more info at Indymedia and also at Peace On Trial.

Inmates didn't give a fuck about my salad overdoses. They were happy to see the back of another evil looking slice of beef (not evil cause it came from a cow, rather the rank look of it appearing more like a screw's faeces).
Sorry, hope you weren't having a sambo while reading that last comment:/

Maybe the crispy, salty bacon will lead me down a one way path of temptation some time in the future - who knows!

I gave up the beer in Haiti, also during Lent. I'm more careful nowadays about what I give up, for fear that I'll never have it again;)

beatroot said...

Was in clink (only 5 1/2 weeks) for damaging a U.S. Navy plane in Shannon airport, prior to the Iraq war

So you have the solidarity of all us root vegetables everywhere, always.

But no alcohol, no bacon butties? Jaaaaaaayyyysus.

Damien Moran said...

I know, 2 potentially fatal factors in impeding my integration here. Especially on special occasions, when I am obliged to hoist my glass of orange juice amongst a mass of vodka shot glasses. Being the odd one out ain't always easy - but the Poles I hang out with are a tolerant lot.

Brad Zimmerman said...

Hardcore vegans and vegetarians, environmentalists, anti-abortionists: the new puritans.

Whatever you're doing that they voluntarily don't do because they think it's (essentially) morally wrong ...then YOU are wrong and need to be converted or worse.

Regular vegans and vegetarians, environmentalists and (are there regular anti-abortionists?) don't give a shit because it was their personal choice and they don't feel the need to act as some overbearing parental figure.

Frankly, eating meat and driving a car is fun. It tastes good and it feels good. Sure there are reasons not to and I applaud those who pick one of the alternatives. In the end, though, cows and pigs are walking food and I don't want to be stuck on some slow, smelly-ass, 1/10th full bus to Zakopane or northern Slovakia if I want to shoot down there for the weekend.

PS: The only reason I'd ever give up eating meat is because it's an absurdly inefficient use of resources. If someone has a good recipe for tempeh jambalaya let me know.

Anonymous said...

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beatroot said...

Wormwood, what are you talking about?

Anonymous said...

Frankly, eating meat and driving a car is fun. It tastes good and it feels good.

W
I
I

If it feels good, do it!

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