animal rights

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Fri Mar 3 09:15:18 PST 2000


At 12:10 PM 3/2/00 -0500, Michael Yates wrote:
>Having said this, however, it surely is true that the capitalist
>treatment of animals used for fur, shoes, and food is unusually cruel
>(and mirrors the capitalist treatment of workers or human resources as
>the economists say) as is a lot of the research done with animals. So
>there may be good tie-ins in the struggle for animal "rights" and
>anti-capitalist struggles. Alliances are possible in some circumstances,
>especially with those animal "rights" folks who are also anti-capitalist
>and pro-human.

A good point indeed. The whole issue is not just about compassion, but about social order. More precisely, social construction of categories of beings that worthy and unworthy of fair rewards for their work/contributions. Once we accept the notion that some categories are unworthy "human" rewards for their work (cf. horses) - then it is only the matter of merely expanding that notion to other categories, such as unpopular minorities, women, workers....

In the end we have a system of beliefs and legitimations where upper and lower classes are thought to operate on two much different reward systems - the 'economically rational' upper class that will not work until sufficiently rewarded (cf. 7-digit salaries), and the 'economically irrational' lower class that will not work if rewarded too much (cf. no minium wage/ no social safety net policy).

Indeed, the circus and the zoo (esp. the 19th century varieties) are the epiphanies of social order that condemns certain groups to ruthless exploitation.

wojtek



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list