ecology | environment

The Vegan Songbook & Hymnal: Doxology (Old 100th)

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The Vegan Songbook & Hymnal

Many ethical vegans feel excluded from the broader society in which they live because they are unwilling to embrace religious violence and bigotry.  But what if vegans could sing right along with their religious friends, doing so to the ancient, familiar tunes that are known throughout our culture?

Here’s a vegan “Doxology” (old 100th), the first of what will hopefully become a full “Vegan Songbook and Hymnal”, in which classic hymns and ancient tunes are supplied with new, non-violent, mythology-free lyrics. If you know the tune of the Old 100th (“Praise God, from whom all blessings flow….”), you can sing this song right now!

Doxology

(tune of the Old 100th)

1. Thank we our fellow creatures—all!—
All those with whom we share the Earth,
Come forth from humble birth,
Drawn to pursue our common call!

2. No barriers of creed divide
Our loving hearts from reas’ning minds.
Each one is of one kind.
Each creature to each other tied.

3. Behold our feathered friends in flight,
Scions of all that spans above,
Lifting our hearts to love,
Ascending into the sunlight!

4. Now deep inside the oceans cool,
Birthplace from which all species rise,
Wrapped in that paradise,
Fish, reptiles, mammals form one school!

5. Some, like us, on dry ground do dwell.
Some crawl, some slither, strut, or climb—
Yet every one sublime.
Beauty and grace their faces tell!

Doxology

~ The Vegan Songbook and Hymnal
© 2016. Kaleidosound Publishing

(Original publication date:  4/12/16 (FB))

2016: Rise of the Carnist Vegan

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The 2016 U.S. election cycle has given rise to a strange new phenomenon:  the carnist vegan.

Carnist vegans openly describe themselves as “vegan” but actively pay, support, promote, protect, donate to, advocate for, and vote for the meat and dairy industries.

At the time of this writing, the Vermont dairy industry—both through bestiality-based companies like Ben & Jerry’s and cow-rape advocates like Bernie Sanders—has become the darling of carnist veganism.  But that’s not where carnist veganism got started.
Back as soon as time permits with more discussion.

Carnist vegans actively promote, donate to, and vote for the practice of humans having anal sex with cows.

Carnist vegans actively promote, donate to, and vote for the practice of humans having anal sex with cows.

(Original pub date:  2/4/16 (FB))

Identifying your goal as an animal rights activist: Five tiers

~ admin

Many animal rights activists and organizations don’t even have a specific goal in mind.  Just ask them!  Most will be able to articulate a strong feeling that something is wrong and a strong desire to fix it.  But many will not be able to describe what that fix is or how that fix actually gets done.  :-/  This lack of focus is holding back the movement in a big way, in my view.

Here’s a simple chart aimed at helping activists focus their work on a specific, concrete goal.

Effective animal rights activism | faunacide convention, abolition amendment, animal protection laws, corporate manumission, vegan and cruelty-free lifestyle and life choices
Effective animal rights activism | faunacide convention, abolition amendment, animal protection laws, corporate manumission, vegan and cruelty-free lifestyle and life choices

Victory at the first three levels will represent the climax of the current animal rights movement; thereafter, the movement’s focus will shift from law-making to law-enforcing.

The latter two tiers represent the means whereby demand for cruelty-based goods and services is eliminated; such elimination undermines the financial viability of cruelty-based activities, thereby setting up the conditions necessary for victory at the former three tiers. Pick your favorite tier, and make things happen!

#animalrights #animalliberation #vegan

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(Original publication date:  Sept. 6, 2015 (FB))

Faunacide convention – 9/4/15 draft

~ admin

Here’s the September 4, 2015, draft of the Faunacide Convention. Having this language in place gives the international animal rights, protection, and liberation movement a very specific, well-defined target.

Faunacide Convention | Sept. 4, 2015 draft
Faunacide Convention | Sept. 4, 2015 draft

NOTES: The key substantive provisions appear in the first four articles. Although adhering closely to the text of the United Nations’ Genocide Convention (1948), this draft leaves institutional identification spaces blank so that any group of nations can agree to it, with or without the UN.  That said, bringing the Faunacide Convention into force through the UN will be ideal.

#faunacide #faunacideconvention #environment

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(original pub date: Sept. 4, 2015 (FB))

Faunacide Convention: Drafting with pre-existing Genocide Convention language

~ admin

It looks like the Faunacide Convention could simply re-use the existing language of the 1948 Genocide Convention in its entirety with but a handful of changes, mainly to Article 2. Adhering to the structure already in place will make it easier for people to understand and embrace.

Here’s a first draft of such a revised Article 2, with changes tracked. Please feel free to send along any language suggestions!

Faunacide Convention | initial work
Faunacide Convention | initial work

(Original pub date:  August 24, 2015 (FB))

American Abolitionist flag design

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Version 2: Excited about this version because it is participatory. Provides a specific, daily, visual reminder of the goal as well as a ceremony to celebrate and commemorate accomplishment of that goal.

Abolition | American Animal Emancipation flag
Abolition | American Animal Emancipation flag

NOTE: We should be able to apply this same technique to other countries’ flags without much trouble so that abolitionists worldwide can show their solidarity with each other. Same technique–using a pink or rainbow ribbon–can also be applied for the Equal Rights Amendment II.

#abolition #emancipation #abolitionamendment

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(Orginal pub date:  Aug. 11, 2015 (FB))

Special Challenges for Modern Abolitionists: Part 5

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Preface:  This article is the fifth installment in a series discussing obstacles to abolition—the ending of all slavery—that movements for proto-abolition—the ending of human slavery—did not have to face.

Think, think, think….

Another significant obstacle that an abolition movement faces but which is not faced by a proto-abolition movement pertains to the massive amount of thinking involved.  Specifically,  when slaves are human, those human slaves can assist with the enormous amount of cognitive work that must be done.

Changing an entire society’s unjust laws and eradicating an entire culture’s false beliefs requires an enormous amount of analysis, research, imagination, calculation, strategizing, and planning.  This intellectual dimension of a social change movement may well be the hardest part of all.  In the context of human slavery, the most direct victims—slaves and former slaves themselves—can participate fully in this difficult task.  They know the slavery system better than anyone, and they can use this knowledge to help identify weaknesses, formulate counter-arguments, and otherwise chisel away at the walls of collective delusion.

Unfortunately, abolitionists cannot expect the animals for whom they work to shoulder much of this cognitive burden.  Horses—who provided the key military advantage in human affairs for over 1000 years—cannot offer a similar advantage in the context of research and development.  Dogs—arguably the most selfless and courageous species, on average, of any with whom humans have interacted—cannot draw a roadmap for use in transforming humans into ethical nobility.  Yes, both of these species can lead by example, through the testimony of their personal behavior.  But it will remain up to humans to extract lessons from such examples, articulate those lessons, disseminate them, and apply them.

The fact that the most direct victims of slavery cannot fully participate in the intellectual work necessary for change should not discourage us.  We will win as sure as the sun will rise.  But acknowledging the special challenges faced by a full abolition movement will hopefully help to inoculate modern abolitionists against some of the burnout, frustration, and fatigue to which they may otherwise be susceptible.

A look ahead…

In this “Special Challenges” series, we’ll explore additional ways in which proto-abolition or proto-emancipation movements differ from abolition and emancipation movements.  If you have comments, suggestions, or contributions, please feel free to send them along.

(Original article pub date: 11/27/13 (FB);  12/3/13 (EthicalVeganism))

Laguna 2
Laguna 2

 

Authenticity vs. Purism

~ admin

Infighting in the “animal rights” movement

(Original article publication date:  August 17th, 2012 (Cruelty-Free))

As most of us have, unfortunately, been forced to admit, the animal protection community is rife with infighting.  For some time, I’ve been unable to understand why people who are theoretically working for similar—if not identical—goals would be so openly hostile and defamatory toward others.

Some potential explanations are beginning to surface, though.  For instance, one part of the problem seems to be a struggle between authenticity and purism.

Authenticity

When a person behaves with authenticity, he or she stays in touch with the values that brought him or her to the animal protection cause in the first place. The compassion, empathy, and reasoning that originally connected the person to other animals remains intact and pervades his or her daily actions and interactions with others.

In this place of centeredness, a person’s ego is subordinated to both the outer goal of changing society’s treatment of animals and the inner walk of simply being a living embodiment of these values.  The ego’s desires for beating others, being right, taking credit, gaining adoration, controlling others, and acquiring power are seen as counterproductive with respect to the outer goal and disruptive with respect to the inner walk.

Purism

When a person in the animal protection movement fixates on purity itself, the entire focus shifts away from the goal and the walk.  The new focus becomes a game of competing for who can be “more pure” than others in the movement (“I’ve been vegan longer than you,” etc.).

Control and credit are the “rewards” for winning the game, and these rewards may accrue to the benefit of a given individual.  But the movement itself loses, because the goal of societal change gets forgotten in the never-ending power struggle, and the inner walk of being the change is abandoned in favor of self-serving calculations and maneuvers.

Awesome rabbit pic by Vanessa Sheldon
Awesome rabbit pic by Vanessa Sheldon