Posted by amanda22 at 208.187.66.214 on May 02, 2004 at 16:21:09:
In Reply to: Actively worry? no. worry about the principals posted by Suplee_Mental on May 02, 2004 at 12:26:17:
: and what they mean for mankind, yes.
: If meat feeds our minds and makes us better thinkers, than the logical thing for us to do is embrace meat. For groups of people to say it's not okay to eat meat, well, that's like people saying it's not okay to be who we are, who we came from, who we could potentially be. You, as a person, are a product of meat eating people. You personally may not be able to change the effects from that, but if your numbers become great enough for long enough, would that not be a negative thing? (assuming the meat thing is correct--I'm not totally buying into it at this point)
Personally, I don't really care if other people eat meat -- that's their business. What I DO care about, though, is people who try to tell me that my choice is wrong and goes against biology. Those people are, quite frankly, fucking idiots. I could offer up a bazillion statistics about how damaging animal farming is to the environment and how THAT is more actively threatening the survival of our species, but that would just turn into one of those stat-for-stat arguments.
Consider though, that so many people are currently embracing vegetarianism: what if THAT is evolution's next big push for us? Evolution took us so far using one method of consumption, and now some people (usually progressive-minded anyway) are feeling drawn toward another type of food consumption. Maybe Mother Nature has decided that people have gotten too fat, have too much cholesterol and taxing the environment too much, so some of us are growing up to realize that meat's a pretty disgusting thing to eat. We'll breed children better designed for the type of sedentary lives we live now than for the hunting/gathering days of yore. Maybe we're just witnessing evolution tinker around a bit to figure out what's gonna work next. Because Mad Cow disease, SARS and heart disease sure doesn't seem to be working for us now.
I'm NOT saying that vegetarians are more evolved or anything, I'm just throwing out another possibility because I think biology works on levels we don't understand and evolution is working with complexities that are unfathomable to us. For humans to say that they've figured all of it out is shockingly arrogant to me.
: consider gay people. If our numbers were too great, it would threaten the species future. If gays became a majority it would significantly reduce procreation. Luckily, we don't wish to become a majority, because we know what that would mean. How would we make more little gay boys in girls without the straight people?
Okay, yeah, let's consider gay people -- our ancestors didn't have much tolerance for gay people. That helped our species propagate itself and got us where we are. So, using the same logic that you're offering up, we should stone gay people to death. It's what "best" for the species, right?
: Vegetarians, I fear, want eveyone to come over to their side.
Not necessarily. Most veggies are a pretty laid back lot, and I know very few vegetarians who actually give a shit what other people eat as long as we're not harrassed or chastised for bring about the end of the species over it. But I don't hang out with a lot of vegans. Some vegans can get a bit militant, but from what I've seen, they're usually kids who eventually grow up and mellow out.
: wow...I feel like archie bunker today
you should. ;)