Scribe
Scribe
2012
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
Speaking his mind (I use the phrase loosely here) Rep. Steve King (R–IA), in a a recent tele-townhall said, “It’s wrong to rate animals above human beings… There’s something wrong [for society to make it a] federal crime to watch animals fight [but] it’s not a federal crime to induce somebody to watch people fighting.” Now that’s some artful reverse logic, if I’ve ever heard it — turning animal equality arguments on their head to promote animal cruelty
Arguments aside regarding species equality, how does corralling dogs in a fighting space, egging on their aggression to fight, perhaps to the death, equate with humans "choosing" to watch human sport-fighting. That (human sport-fighting) is an act of free-will, whether barbaric or not, according to ones' viewpoint. Freedom of choice is the critical factor, which the dogs are not privileged too.
In fact, choice is the primary, moral, adjudicative principle, in my opinion, framing the animal rights debate on eating meat. Is there a divine principle by which meat-eating (choosing perceived human need over animal need) is spiritually backward (unenlightened)? The evidence, as I see it, for the correctness of strict abstinence from (euphemistically-speaking), "harvesting" our animal relations for sustenance is not substantiated. The evidence compiled anecdotally throughout history and scientifically on my current generation – mid-fifties to 60s clearly lines up on the side of an omnivorous diet being natural for optimum human health and well-being. So, if there is an ultimate divine injunction against eating meat, it would require more human evolution (DNA change) to successfully result in superior wellness.
Therefore, as I see it, it becomes a personal karmic-choice of the individual (vegetarian-vegan / flesh) regarding diet. One not based on an ABSOLUTE, but the personal-self. Historically, Homo sapiens tied to land-based, traditional spiritualities have reconciled the contradiction of species equality with species sacrifice through prayer, permission asking, and propitiation of divine-source reality. Unless and until, we evolve those suggested vibrational-higher bodies (perhaps a minute few have already done so), the majority whole of human beings will have to relegate their "perfection of spiritual character" to a non-reciprocated perfection of health and wellness. What that says to each determines "each his/her own."
What does this have to do with dog fighting? Nothing directly — and I began with a personal censure of dog fighting — but indirectly, everything. The human role of dominion over or steward of the earth is the quintessential ground for all debate concerning our place in the often posited perfectly-ordered universe. The question of our place on earth is never more profoundly raised than by the act of eating (sacrificing another species).
Perhaps seeing perfection where it cannot exist says more about us than it does perfection or divine order. Perhaps we keep closing the door that we are trying to open. Perhaps the distance between dogma and dharma is lifetimes, as long as we insist they're the same.
Sunday, August 5, 2012