a recent conversation with an omnivore

An acquaintance from college recently told me that a PETA video depicting animal abuse was funny. His comment led to the following exchange:

Me: You're twisted. I can understand not wanting to believe those things happen, but there's something wrong with a person who could laugh at them.


Him: I didn't say I don't believe animals are slaughtered so I can eat. I believe it happens and I am ok with it because I am an omnivore and being a vegitarian is boring.

I thought it was funny because of the inflammatory tone the piece took to try to shock people into not eating meat. It was essentially propaganda. And if you can't find the humor in that, you're twisted.


Me: Yes, it was propaganda. I don't think any of its producers would argue otherwise. But even propaganda can deliver an important message. I'm not really sure what's funny about that. I guess you found it amusing to see images of the animals being tortured, rather than an obscure reference to slaughter than allows you to remain oblivious.

It's reassuring to know that there are people out there who put so much thought into their decisions... people who are okay with inflicting pain and death on helpless animals because they think it'd be boring to do anything else.


Him: Propaganda is in itself funny. The point of view and "graphic" images are what they are. I believe you have to take everything with a grain of salt and try to gain perspective. I don't think propaganda lets you have perspective. Propaganda wants you to make decisions based on one sided information because the images and the message they are giving you is so horrible how could you dare choose anything else.
Are far as helpless animals, I have never seen anything more ready to die in life than cows. Cows are just waiting for that bullet and it would be unjust not to kill them. So yes they are helpless, helpless to die on their own. It is fortunate that we humans have the means to kill them.


Me: Yes, propaganda has a one-sided perspective, but I'd really like to know how exactly you might put together a propaganda piece for the slaughter of animals given that there's not any good reasons for doing it. You can have a healthy diet without meat. Vegetarian food has more creativity and often more flavor. And, it doesn't require death. Then again, people who have never been on a vegetarian diet think it might get boring.

And, did you really say that about cows wanting to die? I won't even argue directly against such a ridiculous statement. But I do want to know how you can justify breeding animals just for the purpose of killing them if you really think their entire lives are that miserable.


Him: So where do you draw the line as being a vegitarian? Is it a nervous system that makes alive so you feel compassion to not eat them. Their is no way you can prove that animals can have complex emotions but there is no way I cannot prove they can't. To that same line of thinking you cannot prove that plants don't feel. They are alive, they have a metabolism, which is the basic definition for life. So if you follow the idea I cannot things that have life that cuts out plants as well. If you upgrade to the only things without a central nervous systems you can guilt free eat plants as squids because they don't have one either.
It's all about where you willing to draw the line of killing. I draw the line at people. You draw it somewhere in the animal kingdom, but plants and fungi are not below your contempt, fine. I don't make films about you needlessly take them off this planet.


Me: I'm glad that you actually put some thought into it this time rather than saying that a vegetarian diet is boring or that it's merciful to raise cows for the purpose of killing them.

Your point makes me wonder how you feel about other forms of animal abuse. The logical extension of your argument is that you can treat animals in any way that pleases you so long as you refuse to acknowledge that they may have feelings.

Your argument also implies a continuum of compassion. While I haven't chosen a position on that continuum that's so extreme that it can't maintain human life, I have chosen not too remain in a relatively uncompassionate position simply because it’s what everyone else does.

You said that you draw the line at people, but I’m not sure I believe that. I’m guessing that there are some animals you wouldn’t eat (dogs, cats), which makes the line you’ve drawn a good deal more arbitrary than mine.


Him: I have eaten at korean restaurants before, I know I have had dog.

New "green" projects

The last few days at work have been really great. Glenn hasn't had much work for me, so he encouraged me to talk to other planning directors and find ways to help out. When I asked Jason what I could do to help out, I got assigned to two really great projects.

One of the projects was helping with brand manager training. He asked me to prepare and present a discovery deck for the spherical branding training session. Getting to train people after being here only six months was an honor in itself, but the brand made it even cooler. I'm not actually allowed to talk about it, so I'll just say that it's potential sub-brand for a huge company clients and that's it aligns perfectly with my interest in green (eco-friendly) business.

I'll be less involved in the other project, but I'm still really excited about it. We recently pitched and won the Current Energy business. Current Energy (if you haven't heard) is a new energy efficiency store on Knox Street near the Apple Store. It's got a really cool set-up (somewhat reminiscent of the Apple Store), and it's full of products that save energy including efficient lighting and water heaters, programmable thermostats, solar chargers... Since I've now prepared and presented discovery decks for two green brands, Jason asked me to help out with this one. While I won't be leading it up, I really like that I've reached a place where people are coming to me as the expert on green.

While it's not exactly a green brand, I've got another new client that's also pretty cool. I'll be working with Glenn on Sino Swearingen, a company that makes private jets.

I'm so glad the slow holiday period is finally over!

lala.com

I recently posted about bookmooch.com, which quickly became one of my favorite sites when I learned that I could trade books for free. Last night, I found out about lala.com, and it's up there with bookmooch.

lala.com allows you to trade music. It's not free, but at $1.75/trade it's cheaper than bookmooch, which requires you to pay shipping on outgoing trades. You get a free cd just for signing up, so there's no reason not to check it out. You send original cds with or without cover art in a "protective case" provided by lala (I have yet to see them, since i just signed up last night). The site is more advanced than bookmooch, but I guess that should be expected, since they charge for trades.

Last night I registered about 30 cds that I was willing to trade. I was instantly offered five trades, which I had the choice to accept or reject. Then, they cut me off until they can verify that I'm actually sending the cds. But since I sent five out, I also had five that were on my wishlist sent to me. So, now I've got six cds on the way including the freebie for signing up.

Like bookmooch, lala works best with lots of members, so sign up. It's a really great program and a cheap way to get new music.