The Power Of A Pen
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On the importance of theory:
“To be sure, vegetarianism harks back to Plato and Plutarch. And in America, the first cruelty busts happened in the late 19th century in New York. But society viewed animals largely as chattel, until Regan and a handful of other philosophers (including Peter Singer, a controversial professor at Princeton) pushed animal-rights issues into the academic mainstream.” (source)
The recognition and respect of powerful intellectuals (such as university professors) is one crucial element of a social movement. Never doubt that the written word, if read by others, is a tool as mighty as the sword. Theory, at times, IS activism. And vice versa.
I’d imagine the majority of us are vegan largely because of one or more articulate and powerful books we’ve read. John Robbins’ Diet for a New America did it for me.
I had a question for readers of this blog, and I’m not sure exactly where the appropriate place to post it is, so I’ll put it here since it’s relevant to the general topic of communicating about veganism/animal rights. I don’t watch TV a great deal these days, but I vividly remember a couple of the ads for animal products that I’ve seen in the past that were notably deceptive about what eating meat entails (animal death and suffering). There were the Charley the Tuna ads where Charley was for some reason eager to have his dead body stuffed into a Starkist Tuna can and eaten by somebody, but mistakenly believed Starkist consumers wanted tuna with good taste rather than tuna that tasted good. Then there were the Ronald McDonald ads where hamburgers grew in a “hamburger patch.”
So, my question is: I’m trying to locate other examples of such ads (and especially videos of them) as well as any analyses of advertising by the meat and dairy industries from a vegan/animal rights perspective. (Material for a segment on advertising in the psychology classes I teach.) Does anyone know where would be a good place to look? I’ve struck out so far Googling.