Agenda for a New America
Part One
The Politics of Vegetarianism
By Vasu Murti
Chapter 6 - Temperament

The ill effects of alcohol, opium, morphine, nicotine, etc. upon
individual users have been well-documented. The Federal Bureau of
Investigation, for example, reports that some 60 to 75 percent of all
violent crime is alcohol-related. Might there be a similar
relationship between the consumption of animal flesh and human
behavior?

In a letter to a friend on the subject of vegetarianism, Albert
Einstein wrote, "besides agreeing with your aims for aesthetic and
moral reasons, it is my view that a vegetarian manner of living by its
purely physical effect on the human temperament would most
beneficially influence the lot of mankind."

U Nu, the former Prime Minister of Burma, made a similar observation:
"World peace, or any other kind of peace, depends greatly on the
attitude of the mind. Vegetarianism can bring about the right mental
attitude for peace...it holds forth a better way of life, which, if
practiced universally, can lead to a better, more just, and more
peaceful community of nations."

According to Count Leo Tolstoy, "A vegetarian diet is the acid test of
humanitarianism."

"Who loves this terrible thing called war?" asked Isadora Duncan.
"Probably the meat-eaters, having killed, feel the need to kill... The
butcher with his broody apron incites bloodshed, murder. Why not? From
cutting the throat of a young calf to cutting the throats of our
brothers and sisters is but a step. While we ourselves are living
graves of murdered animals, how can we expect any ideal conditions on
the earth?"

"I personally believe," wrote Isaac Bashevis Singer, "that as long as
human beings will go on shedding the blood of animals, there will
never be any peace. There is only one little step from killing
animals to creating gas chambers a la Hitler and concentration camps a
la Stalin - all such deeds are done in the name of 'social justice.'
There will be no justice as long as man will stand with a knife or
with a gun and destroy those who are weaker than he is."

Acts of selfishness must be defended, disguised, rationalized and
restructured to make them acceptable, even to oneself. In Passions
and Constraints, van der Haag points out that before a people can be
made to treat an enemy with cruelty, it is common to deny that the
enemy is even human - the enemy must first be redefined as subhuman,
bestial, scum.

The way we treat animals is indicative of the way we treat our fellow
humans. One Soviet study, published in Oqonvok, found that over 87%
of a group of violent criminals has, as children, burned, hanged, or
stabbed domestic animals. In our own country, a major study by Dr.
Stephen Kellert of Yale University found that children who abuse
animals have a much higher likelihood of becoming violent criminals.

Studies of inmates in a number of U. S. prisons reveal the almost none
of the convicts had a pet as a child. None of them had this
opportunity to learn respect and care for another creature's life and
to feel valuable in so doing.

But these attitudes can be reversed, even in criminals. Heartwearming
research has been done in which convicts nearing their release dates
were allowed to have pet cats in their cells with them. The result?
"Of the men who loved and cared for their cats, not a single one later
failed as a free man to adjust to society." This in a penal system
where over 70% of released convicts are expected to return to jail.

found at http://www.all-creatures.org/article...i-polveg6.html

*************************************

"When a man has pity on all living creatures then only is he noble." -
Buddha

Sanford Manley wrote:

> Ned Ludd spake thusly:
>
>> Nothing to be ashamed of. Remember, Hitler was a
>>vegetarian. (He also was a teetotaler and shunned
>>alcohol.) Another vegetarian was Plato, and his
>>"Republic" was a totalitarian society which, among other
>>things, would have prohibited music (and poets) because
>>they appealed to the emotions (Book X, "The Republic")
>>
>> Actual studies of vegetarians have found a variety of
>>both physiological and psychological disorders associated
>>with vegetarianism:
>>
>>http://www.mhhe.com/catalogs/sem/nut...rticle15.mhtml
>>http://www.morehead.org/wellconnected/000049.html
>>http://www.umm.edu/patiented/doc49full.html
>>
>>
>>Ned
>
>
> HURRAY FOR NED!
>
> I just have this thing for sanctimonious and proselytizing vegetarians
> who present their arguments as if everybody else is immoral.
>
> I support ANYONE who desires any sort of a restricted diet, but
> the minute they start to tell me what (or who) to eat, they can go
> stuff it.

......then marinate for four hours, and pop into an oven, preheated to
350 degrees.

Used to be a t-shirt that said, "Eat the Rich"; maybe we should change
it to "Eat the Self-Righteous".

DT
(Umm, wait a minute, I wasn't implying that *I'm* right! What're you
doing with that butcher knife????)

You left out the following:

1) Boogers
2) Buddha Farts
3) Already dead bugs
4) Housedust
5) Mirror Juice
6) Hand cream

PPP



> The Only PURE and TRUE Vegan (*) Diet
> -----------------------------------------
> (i.e. no killing of a living cell, except
> opportunistic, parasitic cells living in
> the food substance being consumed.)
>
>
> 1. Milk
> 2. Honey
> 3. Maple Syrup
> 4. Hashish
> 5. Opium
> 6. Salt
> 7. Urine
> 8. Bird's Nest Soup
> 9. Eggshells
> 10. The dry scaly excreta of coccids (Homoptera)
> on tamarisk or larch trees (still the source
> of manna in the Sinai Desert)
> 11. Water
> 12. Sunlight
> 13. Snake Venom (all venoms)
> 14. Aphid Nectar
>
>
> Diane's Questionable Addenda
> ----------------------------
> a. Belly button lint
> b. Ear wax
> c. Tears
> d. Sweat
> e. Toe Jam
> f. Shit
> g. Boogers
> h. Wool-grease
> i. Spider Webs
> j. Silk (tussah only)
> k. Skunk Scent
>
>
> * Uh, this could be a vegetarian diet but not a vegan diet.
> In simplest terms, vegan diet means no animal products, period. (**)
> The idea (for me) behind living a vegan lifestyle is treading
> lightly. This includes not consuming foods taken from creatures
> upon whom pain is inflicted (such as cows in factory-scale dairies),
> buying plant foods produced using sustainable agriculture techniques
> (because chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides cause
> great damage to those and other environments), recycling and reusing
> everything I can, buying products made from recycled materials,
> walking, bicycling, and riding public transportation whenever it is
> possible rather than driving a car, etc.
> Tina
>
> ** The cow, the rat, the horse, the housefly, the dog, the cat, the
> sheep, the chickens, the bees, these animals are now found all over
> the world. Many of their close relatives are now extinct or have
> greatly reduced ranges...
> Don't tell me about most americans, don't tell me about most animals.
> I'm talking about vegans and people like my friend the bee keeper.
> He personally takes care of these bees, helps them keep up the hive,
> watches out for bee wasps, takes them out to distant orchards and has
> as healthy a relationship with them as one could expect in this life.
> ...The vegan manifesto of absolutely no animal products has always
> struck me as naive and extremist. We are inextricably interconnected
> with the other life on this planet. That includes animal life.
> While I am in agreement with avoiding harm, exchange of services
> with other animals is not harm, nor is it exploitation. Particularly
> since we are the only species which can interact with so many other
> species in a helpful, non violent manner. Even to the point of
> getting predators and prey to live peacefully with each other.
> Symbiosis is the fundamental nature of how life works. Denying it
> is as bad as abusing it, IMHO.
> Jay

Yes, when I was a vegetarian I became disordered and started that subtle
but unavoidable slide toward becoming like Hitler. Eventually, I ate lots
of hot dogs and the "Hitler-ishness" gradually went away.

Ned is spot on with this one.

PPP

> Nothing to be ashamed of. Remember, Hitler was a vegetarian. (He
> also was a teetotaler and shunned alcohol.) Another vegetarian was
> Plato, and his "Republic" was a totalitarian society which, among
> other things, would have prohibited music (and poets) because they
> appealed to the emotions (Book X, "The Republic")
>
> Actual studies of vegetarians have found a variety of both
> physiological and psychological disorders associated with
> vegetarianism:
>
> http://www.mhhe.com/catalogs/sem/nut...rticle15.mhtml
> http://www.morehead.org/wellconnected/000049.html
> http://www.umm.edu/patiented/doc49full.html
>
> Ned

There is no need for the obscenities here, friend.

> I support ANYONE who desires any sort of a restricted diet, but
> the minute they start to tell me what (or who) to eat, they can go
> stuff it.