The meatless battle is a very controversial topic that at this time I am a little scared to talk about because I was out of it for a while; call it financial crisis or not having enough resources or friendships to stimulate this endless struggle. But at this point in my life I think I have enough resources to go back to this battle. Maybe this was strongly triggered by the fact that I went to see Dropdead @ the Subterranean right on the mystical intersection of North, Damen and Milwaukee Ave. in Wicker Park in Chicago this past Wednesday 08/15/07. Oh my God, Dropdead is known worldwide for their harsh criticism on animal exploitation. They played some of those classic songs and of course each one of them was a fast as hell grinding assault. Dropdead's frontman gave a few little interesting speeches on why we should not support or buy from the tobacco corporations, the whole anti-bush/antiwar movement, how animal experimentation and vivisection is practiced by assholes that don't get that animals are suffering greatly in the name of science. Enjoy some of the live pics shown...
Meatless person ( for those of you who are not sure of what exactly that term means) is somebody that doesn't eat any type of animal tissue. But this is exactly where the controversy starts, people sometimes misunderstand the term "vegetarian" for example. Some people call themselves "vegetarians" when they claim that eating fish is "o.k." . Pardon my French but to me this is straight bullshit, fish or whatever type of seafood that exists is an animal tissue, or somebody can prove this wrong scientifically? I don't think so. There's also the controversy of being a very strict organic "vegetarian" or "vegan" because this leads to a great philosophical dilemma in which sometimes, as hard as we might try to exclude any animal byproduct from our lives , we are always going to be linked somehow to an animal byproduct. I work for a restaurant that's all about meat, even though they have a few items on the menu that are meatless. Even bicycle wheels have animal tissue on them. It is like the difference between real and ideal. Ideal is something that we do not have a knowledge of yet, so i think as far as we do not consume any kind of meat (remember that even Calamari is from the animalia kingdom), buy any exotic furs and try to find cosmetics that are not tested on animals we are putting a heavy burden on resisting the massive animal slaughter/exploitation that people demand everyday because of their selfishness.
I remember that the greatest impact of becoming a "meatless person" was the multiple inter-human discussions i had about the topic, and especially when you talk about it with your family and close relatives because it is almost like a son telling her Catholic mom that he is an atheist or gay. And the biggest attacks against my stand were the typical "squared-shaped" mentality that reigns in this world, arguments like: "animals were meant to be killed for humans" or "you are not going to get enough protein in your diet". To a certain extent this is true, a poorly planned "meatless" diet can be dangerous but if you always substitute the right things everything should work out fine. Like I personally couldn't stop eating cheese because it's one of the greatest things ever. But I am going to try to get it organic so at least you know I am not supporting hormone shots in cows. You can also look at it this way, would you let your pet be slaughtered to become a human commodity? Probably not, but there is also the fact that you can´t have a fascist attitude towards what people have done as part of their "Culture" for years and also represents a source of income for certain people, including myself. If is an animal that was ready to die because of its own conditions is also another point of view about the situation.
Meatless person ( for those of you who are not sure of what exactly that term means) is somebody that doesn't eat any type of animal tissue. But this is exactly where the controversy starts, people sometimes misunderstand the term "vegetarian" for example. Some people call themselves "vegetarians" when they claim that eating fish is "o.k." . Pardon my French but to me this is straight bullshit, fish or whatever type of seafood that exists is an animal tissue, or somebody can prove this wrong scientifically? I don't think so. There's also the controversy of being a very strict organic "vegetarian" or "vegan" because this leads to a great philosophical dilemma in which sometimes, as hard as we might try to exclude any animal byproduct from our lives , we are always going to be linked somehow to an animal byproduct. I work for a restaurant that's all about meat, even though they have a few items on the menu that are meatless. Even bicycle wheels have animal tissue on them. It is like the difference between real and ideal. Ideal is something that we do not have a knowledge of yet, so i think as far as we do not consume any kind of meat (remember that even Calamari is from the animalia kingdom), buy any exotic furs and try to find cosmetics that are not tested on animals we are putting a heavy burden on resisting the massive animal slaughter/exploitation that people demand everyday because of their selfishness.
I remember that the greatest impact of becoming a "meatless person" was the multiple inter-human discussions i had about the topic, and especially when you talk about it with your family and close relatives because it is almost like a son telling her Catholic mom that he is an atheist or gay. And the biggest attacks against my stand were the typical "squared-shaped" mentality that reigns in this world, arguments like: "animals were meant to be killed for humans" or "you are not going to get enough protein in your diet". To a certain extent this is true, a poorly planned "meatless" diet can be dangerous but if you always substitute the right things everything should work out fine. Like I personally couldn't stop eating cheese because it's one of the greatest things ever. But I am going to try to get it organic so at least you know I am not supporting hormone shots in cows. You can also look at it this way, would you let your pet be slaughtered to become a human commodity? Probably not, but there is also the fact that you can´t have a fascist attitude towards what people have done as part of their "Culture" for years and also represents a source of income for certain people, including myself. If is an animal that was ready to die because of its own conditions is also another point of view about the situation.
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