{"id":8544,"date":"2019-01-27T13:48:29","date_gmt":"2019-01-27T21:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/?p=8544"},"modified":"2019-01-30T13:49:10","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T21:49:10","slug":"what-savages-we-must-be-vegans-without-morality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/2019\/01\/27\/what-savages-we-must-be-vegans-without-morality\/","title":{"rendered":"What Savages We Must Be: Vegans Without Morality"},"content":{"rendered":"<pre class=\"moz-quote-pre\">What Savages We Must Be: Vegans Without Morality\r\nby Flower Bomb\r\n\r\n~ New morals, Same governance ~\r\n\r\n\u201cMorality is common sense ideas that we can all agree on. We need to\r\nexpand morality to include non-human animals.\u201d -Logic commonly found in\r\nthe vegan movement\r\n\r\nMost movements who attempt to make social change en masse rely on the\r\n\u201cappeal to morality\u201d tactic as a primary method of gaining support. For\r\nexample, \u201cMeat is Murder\u201d is a common catch phrase within the animal\r\nrights movement. This catch phrase relies on the assumption that all\r\npeople are against murder since, by the same logic, murder is morally\r\nreprehensible. But this assumes that there is a singular, universal\r\nmorality that guides everyone\u2019s decisions when, in reality, it may have\r\ndifferent interpretations to some, and only guide those who embrace it\r\nto begin with. For example, some self-proclaimed moralists defend the\r\nviolent manifestations of patriarchy; others advocate white supremacy\r\nand many moralists support violence towards non-human animals. \u201cCommon\r\nsense\u201d is only common to those who make up the membership of a specific\r\ngroup, who feel the need to universalize its principles. But \u201ccommon\r\nsense\u201d does not apply to others outside that group who have\r\nself-interests that run contrary to its assumed collective \u201cgood\u201d. Often\r\ntimes, it is not a lack of morality that is problematic but the very\r\nexistence of morality; the set of principles and values independent of\r\nthe complexity of self-interest, which externally guide and justify\r\none\u2019s actions.\r\n\r\nAnthropocentrism is the belief that human beings are the most important\r\nentity in the universe. Anthropocentrism interprets or regards the world\r\nin terms of human values and experiences. The term can be used\r\ninterchangeably with humanocentrism, and some refer to the concept as\r\nhuman supremacy or human exceptionalism. -Wikipedia\r\n\r\nAnthropocentric morality provides the justification for a wide range of\r\neco-destructive and domesticating disasters. Representing a worldview\r\nthat constructs the human\/animal dichotomy, anthropocentrism is\r\nreinforced by a capitalist-industrial society that requires the\r\nlarge-scale death and destruction of wildlife in order to exist. The\r\n\u201crighteousness\u201d of human domination provides the socio-political\r\nnormalization required to pacify any potential for emotional outrage\r\nagainst this systematized violence. So between vegan morality and\r\nanthropocentric morality, which one is \u201cright\u201d?\r\n\r\nMoral nihilism is the meta-ethical view that nothing is morally right or\r\nwrong. There are no moral features in this world; nothing is right or\r\nwrong. Therefore, no moral judgements are true; however, our sincere\r\nmoral judgements try, but always fail, to describe the moral features of\r\nthings. Thus, we always lapse into error when thinking in moral terms.\r\nWe are trying to state the truth when we make moral judgements. But\r\nsince there is no moral truth, all of our moral claims are mistaken.\r\n-Wikipedia\r\n\r\nMorality is a social construct that does not represent a universal\r\ntruth, nor the interests of all people. While also failing to account\r\nfor the complex circumstances in which moral-based decisions are\r\nimpractical, morality limits the scope of decision making and individual\r\naction. Therefore, in order to condition morality on a mass scale, rigid\r\nobedience is required which necessitates an equally rigid violent\r\napparatus to enforce it.\r\n\r\nObeying morality of any type requires putting aside individual\r\nexperience and personal motives of self-interest. This also means\r\ndisregarding the pragmatic considerations concerning the practical\r\nconsequences of one\u2019s morality-based decision. In society, morals are\r\nsocially conditioned in order to maintain a standardized system of\r\nbeliefs. This system discourages individualist thinking and questioning\r\nof not only that system, but of the foundations of authority in general.\r\nThe primary method for this discouragement is to advertise a desired\r\nbelief as a \u201ccommon sense\u201d or normality that \u201ceveryone\u201d knows or\r\nfollows. This immediately places the \u201cgroup\u201d above the \u201cindividual\u201d.\r\nWith individual self-interest, one might refuse to obey without\r\nquestioning, therefore group-think is socially reinforced to discourage\r\nindividual responsibility, creativity, and thinking for one\u2019s self.\r\nExamples of the deployed socialized hostility towards individualism\r\ninclude labelling those who assert their individuality as \u201cselfish\u201d or\r\n\u201cegotistic\u201d and therefore undesirable.\r\n\r\nA movement that moralizes veganism means instituting another social\r\nsystem that would enforce new morality-based laws and norms. Not only\r\nwould this require an (ironically) violent apparatus for reinforcement,\r\nbut would still come without a guarantee of a more \u201cpeaceful\u201d,\r\n\u201ccompassionate\u201d capitalism. As long as there are systems of governance,\r\n(including the contradictory \u201ccompassionate capitalism\u201d) there will be\r\nrebels. As long as there are laws, there is corruption within the\r\napparatus itself that enforces them. As both a historical and\r\ncontemporary social project attempting to create peace and compassion on\r\na mass scale, moralism has failed.\r\n\r\n~ Beyond morality: no government can ever give us freedom ~\r\n\r\nAnarchy is the absence of government and absolute freedom of\r\nindividuality. -Wikipedia\r\n\r\nThe same apparatuses of coercion that reinforces morality (religion, the\r\nstate, etc.) are the enemies of freedom. While one might say these\r\ninstitutions could reinforce the vegan morality that would liberate\r\nnon-human animals, these same institutions require individualist\r\nsubjugation to their collective \u201cgood\u201d. But their good wouldn\u2019t be a\r\n\u201cgood\u201d of my own; it would be their thinking over mine, empowered by its\r\nassumed \u201cuniversal truth\u201d. This is the same logic of control and\r\ndomination that is used by those who dominate and consume non-human\r\nanimals. Guided by the values of human supremacy, there is a sense of\r\nentitlement that positions them above question. The same apparatus that\r\nconditions morality holds that \u201cbeyond question\u201d position. But as an\r\nindividual, not only do I question it, I reject it all together.\r\n\r\nMy individualism is empowered by self-interest and informed\r\ndecision-making. My refusal to surrender my mind to the \u201ccollective\r\ngood\u201d of consuming the flesh and secretions of non-human animals is a\r\nreflection of my own rebellion. Along with the inspiration from other\r\nindividual vegans I realized the power of thinking independently,\r\nselfishly, and egotistically \u2013 against the mass society whose normalized\r\ntraditions and values conflict with my interests. As an individualist,\r\nbeing vegan is practical in extending individual autonomy to non-human\r\nanimals. My refusal to socially reinforce their commodity status allows\r\nthem the natural right to exist as their own autonomous individual\r\nselves, the\r\nsame way I would expect to be respected by others. I refuse to\r\nindividually participate in the mass normalization of their domination.\r\n\r\nAnarchy, for me, means individual negation to laws, order, and systems.\r\nThis anarchy not only opposes both vegan and anthropocentric morality\r\nbut morality all together: morality being the abstract form of\r\ngovernance that attempts to subjugate my individuality. My veganism\r\nrequires no external governance to enforce or guide it. It is an\r\nindividualist choice that reflects the consistency and practicality of\r\nliving my life against authority.\r\n\r\nFor veganism to be logically consistent with animal liberation, it must\r\nbe anti-authoritarian. From this point forward, the totality of\r\ncapitalist, industrial civilization must be called into question. Being\r\nvegan and pro-capitalist is a contradiction since the full functioning\r\nof capitalism requires large-scale exploitation of natural resources,\r\nsubsequently destroying and wiping out entire eco-systems. Capitalism\r\nrequires the expansion of technological industrialization to accommodate\r\nthe demands of mass society. Mass society requires the ever-expanding\r\ndisplacement of wildlife to house the growing human population.\r\nCivilization is rooted by agriculture which is predicated on the basic\r\nformula of taking more from the land than putting back. This results in\r\nirreversible damage to all eco-systems that directly affect non-human\r\nanimals.\r\n\r\nTo be vegan and pro-statist is a contradiction, since veganism aims for\r\nanimal liberation, while the State is the antithesis of liberation \u2013\r\nreinforcing laws that utilize physical force to coerce all beings into\r\ncompliance. The common denominator with the State and vegan morality is\r\nthe shared positions held as \u201cuniversal truths\u201d above the individual.\r\nBoth coerce; one mentally and the other physically. Both compliment each\r\nother\u2019s intentions on conditioning \u201cthe masses\u201d, and both encourage the\r\ndisregard for individual self-interest, creativity, and\r\nself-responsibility.\r\n\r\nIf the basis of animal liberation is freedom, empowering a governing\r\nagency to enforce moral-based laws upon individuals is a contradiction.\r\nIt reinforces speciesism through the division of human and animal; if\r\nhumans are in fact animals, and the vegan aim is animal liberation, why\r\nwouldn\u2019t \u201chuman\u201d animals liberate themselves from the same shackles of\r\nboth speciesism and governance as well? Speciesism is reinforced through\r\nhuman supremacy, and if human supremacy is to be dismantled socially,\r\nanimal liberation applies to everyone. From this point of view,\r\ngovernment is not needed for granting rights: the right to bodily\r\nautonomy and equality comes with the dismantling of governance \u2013 both\r\nthe governance of morality and statism.\r\n\r\nIt is not a morality that governs my actions, but rather an\r\nindividualist desire to wage war upon all systems, moral or not, that\r\nattempt to subjugate me and destroy the earth I require to survive. My\r\ndecision to become vegan did not come from a vegan morality or a new law\r\nprohibiting me from consuming flesh and secretions. It came from\r\nungoverned free thought which helped me view society in a critical way,\r\ndiscovering pragmatic ways of enacting my own project of liberation. My\r\nvegan anarchist praxis is a shared affinity with the non-humans who\r\nfight against the constraints and torture devices of modern technology,\r\nslaughterhouses, and the human-made hell of industrial society. There is\r\nno God, government, or morality to save us. Only our individual selves,\r\nthe decisions we make and the actions we take.\r\n\r\n~ Arming the will to survive with attack ~\r\n\r\nSavage (of an animal or force of nature) fierce, violent, and\r\nuncontrolled. -Wikipedia\r\n\r\nOne common tenet of morality is the commitment to non-violence. As an\r\nindividualist, I find violence to be useful in some circumstances, and\r\nimpractical in others. But it is this open-ended utilization of violence\r\nthat morality-based non-violence prohibits. When it comes to animal\r\nliberation (or from the statist perspective, animal rights), veganism is\r\noften advertised as a \u201ccruelty-free\u201d, \u201cno harm done\u201d or \u201cnon-violent\u201d\r\nmovement. This not only ignores the historical examples of successful\r\nanimal liberations through violence, but it also promotes a limited\r\nrange of strategic activity. The reinforcement of a non-violent morality\r\ndiscourages the use of violence against the institutions and individual\r\nagents of speciesist domination. Human supremacy utilizes every and all\r\navenues of violence to maintain its control. To limit the arsenal of\r\nresistance to mere defence rather than incorporating attack is to\r\nstrategically limit the range of possibility and potential in advancing\r\nanimal liberation. When animal liberation is confined to the legal arena\r\nof statism, the agency of individual insurgency has been surrendered.\r\n\r\nWithin mass society, speciesism is not just confined to grocery stores;\r\nit is also embedded in the social and cultural traditions reinforced by\r\nindividual participation. Therefore, individuals socially reproduce the\r\nnormalization of non-human animal abuse, control, and domination. And\r\nwhile some of these individuals might emancipate themselves from the\r\nspeciesist mindset of human centric entitlement, others might embrace\r\nand defend it. Therefore, violence becomes a necessary task carried out\r\nby those individuals who refuse to stand by and allow the social\r\nreproduction of anthropocentric morality and practice.\r\n\r\nI find affinity with those of the wild that struggle against the\r\nmachinery of industrial society and those who fight to defend the\r\necological habitats within which they survive. The need for intensified\r\nconfrontation with speciesism is one that encompasses an\r\nanti-authoritarian strike against the ideology and institutions of\r\ncapitalism, the state, and anthropocentric morality. Beyond mere\r\nlegislative reform, animal liberation from this perspective necessitates\r\nthe destruction of all cages and apparatuses that physically captivate\r\nnon-human animals. Simultaneously, a war waged against the forces of\r\n\u201chuman\u201d animal captivity and enslavement opens avenues of exploration\r\nbeyond the superiority complex - the role and identity of \u201chuman\u201d as\r\ndistinct from animal and wildness.\r\n\r\nThrough spontaneous ruptures to the civilized order, vegan savagery\r\nasserts resistance through attacking the foundations that produce\r\nenslavement. From non-participation to feral insurgency, anarchy is the\r\npersonification of any individual with the courage to become wild\r\nagainst domesticating subordination.\r\n\r\nBut vegan savagery is more than just violent veganism: it is the\r\ncelebration of life against the laws of morality, civilization, control,\r\nand domination. It is the refusal to internalize the\r\ncapitalist-industrial view of others as mere objects to exploit,\r\nconsume, or enslave. This allows individuals to define themselves as\r\ntheir own autonomous beings, armed with the agency to attack those who\r\nattempt to subjugate them.\r\n\r\nAs a vegan anarchist, my fight for freedom is parallel with the\r\nstruggles fought by the wild since the dawn of industrial society and\r\ncivilized domestication. What savages we must be - fighting for freedom\r\nwith every breath, reclaiming our lives through every act of violence\r\nagainst the machines of social control and domination! While the\r\nmovements of morality continue to ignore the vital reality of amoral\r\nviolent necessity, some of us continue to wage war against speciesism\r\nwith nothing more than a fire for freedom in our hearts. In solidarity\r\nwith the wild, and in defence of the ecological terrain I call home, my\r\nfight is fierce and ungovernable. Toward veganism beyond morality,\r\ntoward industrial collapse and total liberation!\r\n<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Savages We Must Be: Vegans Without Morality by Flower Bomb ~ New morals, Same governance ~ \u201cMorality is common sense ideas that we can all agree on. We need to expand morality to include non-human animals.\u201d -Logic commonly found in the vegan movement Most movements who attempt to make social change en masse rely &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link btn\" href=\"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/2019\/01\/27\/what-savages-we-must-be-vegans-without-morality\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8545,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544\/revisions\/8545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}