We Will Change The World
The video of Jamie Oliver needlessly killing baby chicks demonstrates something about the human race.
The video isn’t so much about Oliver’s shock and awe publicity stunts. The video isn’t so much about factory farming and baby male chicks. The video isn’t much about “humane” killing. The video is more about the audience response:
No one got up to stop him. No one walked out of the room in protest. No one screamed, “Stop!” Everyone just sat there.
The other day, six people were sitting in the back section of Cosi on the Upper West Side. All six were working on laptops and sipping coffee, tea, or lemonade. Drip, drip, drip. The ceiling started to leak. Drip, drop, plop. It started coming down pretty hard. All six people looked at the water, but only one person stood up. He said, “I’ll go tell the manager.” The rest of the people didn’t say anything. They just sat there. No one got napkins to help collect the water and keep it from getting on their laptops. No one fetched a bucket to collect the water. No one moved their tables further away from the puddle. Everyone just sat there.
A close friend of mine drove her car along Sahara Road in Las Vegas. About two blocks ahead of her there was a traffic pile-up. It was slow-going getting up to the cause of the pile-up. Once she drove up to it she noticed someone’s barbecue had fallen off the back of their truck and was now blocking the right-hand lane. So did she act like everyone else and just drive around it? No, she stopped her car, when it was safe she got out, and she pulled the BBQ off the road. It took her all of three minutes. She cleared up a major traffic congestion with a very simple action.
When something goes wrong, the vast majority of the human race won’t do anything but just sit there. The majority will accept needless animal cruelty, leaky roofs, and BBQs in the road as if nothing’s wrong. They’ll simply say, “It’s not my problem” and they won’t do a damn thing to fix it. They might even rationalize their inaction by citing inconvenience, for example they might say, “Veganism is too hard” or “But everyone else eats meat, dairy, and eggs.”
Vegans tend to be a bit more pro-active. Vegans, even the shy, meek ones, know they have some power to change the world. Vegans, don’t just sit there. Vegans do something.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” ~ Margaret Mead
Vegans WILL change the world.
“One person at a time” is my mantra: I push it deep down, that overwhelming sense of helplessness that confronts me when faced with our species’ endless rationalized inhumanity, and I simply say “One person at a time.” As a point of fact then, we vegans can change the world, although at a measured pace.
~ Recent blog post: A comment on the "plant problem". at http://www.not-quiteright.net/tvg ~
It amazes me how many people accept the status quo in this world. This video, though I didn’t watch all of it, is infuriating. I mean, that it goes on in the egg industry is obviously infuriating too, but did anyone at that dinner really learn anything? I certainly hope so - not that it would make killing innocent baby animals okay anyway.
Ugh.
OKay, positivity: YES, WE WILL CHANGE THE WORLD. We simply have to.
~ Recent blog post: Vegan Women’s Club at http://creaturetalk.wordpress.com ~
You’re right, Mindy. We will.
I don’t know where Jamie Oliver is going with this - it does sound like he is as horrified as anyone else by this industry - but doesn’t he continue to use eggs? So I’m confused by it. I think he could have made the point by stopping at the point of killing the chicks - maybe a video of an actual killing factory instead? There is no doubt this was effective but those little chicks were sacrificed for “the cause”.
Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done if I were in that room. Would I have stood up to stop the killing? Would I have known it was actually going to take place? Would I have been too late? I feel certain that you, Elaine, would have stood up. I’m just not as sure about myself, had I been there alone.
My mantra is “it makes a difference to this one”. From the starfish story originated by Loren Eiseley, according to one source. Yet I can’t be sure I would have been the one to make a difference to those chicks.
I was curious about The Starfish Story so I googled it and here’s what I found: