Hey everyone. :) I think I may have a somewhat different perspective on the vegetarian vs. meat-eater thing. I want to say, before I continue, that I don't mean to be disagreeable, or to belittle anyone's beliefs or anything like that. I think it's cool that we all have the freedom to come to our own conclusion about whatever we want, even if I might disagree with some of the conclusions, or with the thought process along the way. And that's what really matters, the fact that we CAN disagree, without anyone being oppressed because of it.

I was going to just be silent, and not spam the internet with my stupid opinions. But now I have had a little more booze than usual (thank goodness for the still we found in my grandpa's attic after he died; which explains a lot of things about my dearly departed grandpa, hehe), so it would seem that here I am typing my silly opinions to a world that has probably moved on beyond them lol.

Anyway, I think that a lot of people are really, like super-really, disconnected from where their food comes from, in this day and age. I think that is a shame. And when we combine that with the anthropomorphism of animals that seems to be a product of the modern era, it turns into a double-bad sort of disconnect.

I am a relatively poor Appalachian man. A farmer, raising cattle. I have been hungry, and (due to the wildly fluctuating price of beef) unable to buy a nicely disconnected processed packaged food from a corner market in a town where everything one needs is just a short walk away sometimes, despite being surrounded by food that is still on the hoof (one cannot live on beef alone, lol). When a man becomes hungry, truly hungry, the good-times fat easy outlook on food that characterizes modern society changes. And further, when a man lives among the food that he raises, even when he is not hungry, I believe that his perspective on the order of the world develops in a way that is fundamentally different than that of a man who has lived a life that is insulated from the source of his food.

Much, dare I say most, of the anti-farm propaganda that we see is just that: Propaganda. As a man who raises beef, I could show you a picture in the late spring, of happy calves playing in a field of clover, surrounded by wild-flowers and butterflies. On the other hand, I could show you a picture of some old cows, unhealty-looking just because of their old age (cattle tend to be sorted into herds by age, so that the older cattle don't bully the younger cattle too much and hurt them), in the middle of winter after a big snow-thaw, standing in mud up to their knees, covered in mud and shit, and looking terrible.

The people that agitate against the farmer, saying that they abuse the animals, they have an agenda (as I am sure I do too, and the reality is probably somewhere in the middle, but I digress), and one cannot blindly digest this sort of propaganda and become too much of an ideologue, especially if one is so disconnected from the source of one's food to begin with. There is a vast cultural divide, at least here in the US, between the people, between the city/suburban and the rural folk. Even though we all look the same, it's there. It's real, and it's causing a lot of trouble, in my opinion, when one side (whichever side that happens to be) ignorantly decides that it needs to control the other, for the "common good".

(I should interject that I don't mean "ignorant" as an insult in any way. We are all, every one of us, ignorant about many things, no matter our background, and what matters is that we are willing to listen, consider, and learn, rather than that we are/were ignorant of something to begin with.)

Oh jeez, I have lost my track of thought. A pox upon thee, liquor of the corn. LOL.

Anyway, I think that the world would be a very different place if people still had to be responsible for the basic procurement of their own food. It's easy to say that society has evolved beyond that, but it really hasn't. Food still has to come from somewhere, and a balance of food is needed to be healthy, both mentally and physically. The only thing that has /really/ changed is that in the industrialized modern era, only 1% of the people have to be farmers, instead of 99%. The cold, hard reality of the human need to kill to live is still here (just as it is with every other creature/animal). We just abstract it away, to a place where we don't have to think about it. We let others deal with it, instead of doing it ourselves. And I personally believe that our society and culture is lesser because of it. It makes a bubble that people can live in, that is in a way separated from the basic order of the world, the underlying harsh reality, from which the basic necessities of life still come.

I apologize again if I have been at all disagreeable. I respect everyone, every single one of you, even if I disagree with anyone's conclusions, or have fault with the thought process that led there. This sort of thing seems to be one of those topics that is difficult to have a rational and non-emotional conversation about, sometimes. Hehe. :)

I especially apologize, if an apology is needed, to Erkka. For spamming your blog with my own silly opinions, taking up space that would be better served for you to share yours. I have the utmost respect for you, and for the Finnish people (indeed, I often feel like Finland is the "West Virginia [my home state] of Europe", hehe). If you have any issue with anything I've had the poor judgement to open my yap about, please let me know so that I can moderate myself better in the future. :)

And I also apologize for drunk-posting. I am sure I will feel super-stupid in the morning, LOL.

In closing, something that is primarily intended to be humorous, but I think has a certain interesting underlying philosophical bugaboo: If we're not supposed to eat animals, then why are they made of meat? :3

Should I press "save", or just close the window and not make a fool of myself? Hmm. Well, I will just press "save" before I can think thrice about it. Lol. Again, apologies where any are due, if I am being too outspoken in my opinions.