The Soulful Eye

I’m not  in the Fox demographic.  Not exactly a stunning statement, I know.  This is the day however that Glenn Beck and I actually agree on something.  There’s been a good bit of coverage lately on the agriculture/environment relationship, with this and this for example.  This is not a new thing but it’s news to some people.  Anyhoo.  The point is that it wasn’t news to Al Gore when he was making his movie An Inconvenient Truth either.  Al Gore makes a movie about climate change, takes it around the world, makes all kinds of people aware of the issue, wins a Nobel for the thing … all without ever uttering a single word about something that is currently actually having more effect on the global climate (considering all the factors in play with contemporary animal agriculture) than planes, trains, and automobiles.  Meat.  The original report came out the same year as his movie.  I cannot fault him for not including the material in the movie – movies take time to make.  But he never said anything about it after the report came out, nor does he seem to mention it, even now … even with all the subsequent work that’s been done (just google it or start with some of the articles on the Resources page).  So … rant on Glenn Beck … a lot of people agree with you that Al Gore needs to put down his cheeseburgers if he really believes anything he says about climate change (which I know Beck doesn’t).

I obviously think we all need to step away from the cheeseburgers – and it’s not because of the ‘green’ reasons, but they certainly don’t make the case for animal cruelty and exploitation centered lives any more rational, or moral for that matter.  I can understand why people who are concerned about climate change are more attracted to the idea that all we have to change is the kind of light bulbs we buy … it’s so much easier  … in fact it’s almost like not having to change at all … which is, of course, very convenient.

I’m not even going there on the vegetarianism is indoctrination thing.  If by “indoctrination” he means the common sense of the word, “teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically” and he (or anyone for that matter) wants to talk about rational, critical arguments for food choices I’m all about having that conversation.  That would, however, depend on us agreeing to the nature of rational and critical arguments and the only thing Beck and I agree on is apparently AG and his real or symbolic cheeseburgers.