ONLY IN SPIN WORLD
Corporate Propaganda for Vegans
 by Mickey Z.
Mickey Z. is the author of several books, most recently "50 American Revolutions You're Not Supposed to Know" (Disinformation Books). He can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net .
Last year, I spoke at the Friends of Animals Foundations of a Movement Conference in New York City. To follow is an excerpt of that talk:
Only in a spin world do we need a $120 pair of sneakers to “just do it” or go to Burger King to “have it our way.” I think it would make for an interesting activist experiment if you hit your local BK and tell 'em your way is a tofu sandwich on yeast-free bread with organic sprouts and test out that corporate promise.
Only in a spin world, can you have an establishment named Popeye's Fried Chicken…where the world's most celebrated spinach eater is associated with the charred flesh of tortured and cancerous birds pumped full of hormones and antibiotics and mass-marketed to the underprivileged.
Only in a spin world does every fridge come with a meat drawer, a butter shelf, and an egg rack. Do you realize there are no vegetarian refrigerators? I guess that makes sense when the average American, in his or her lifetime, will consume 15 cows, 24 hogs, 900 chickens, 12 sheep, and 1000 pounds of assorted animals (like fish).
Only in a spin world can we can the term “humane killing” without even a hint of irony.
Only in Spin World do we accept the label “health nut.” If you go vegan, eat organic, exercise, and avoid junk food, you are a nut. Smoke two packs a day, sit on your couch watching TV, and live on McDonald's…and you run no risk of being called a “disease nut.”
Only in a spin world is a sheep no longer a sheep. Thanks to something called the “trade-related intellectual property rights” agreement of the GATT treaty—precursor to the infamous WTO—when a human gene is introduced to a sheep's mammary glands to produce a protein called alpha-1-antitrypsin, a sheep is no longer a mere “sheep.” Instead, that woolly object is now a legally patented corporate commodity known as a “mammalian cell bioreactor.”
Not a sheep, not a lamb, but a mammalian cell bioreactor.
Try it out. “Mary had a little mammalian cell bioreactor.” It may not work for me, but in a spin world, it works just fine.
We live in a relatively free country but that doesn't mean it's easy to break free of the cookie-cutter formula imposed on us. What feels like freedom is often nothing more than longer chains and bigger cages (both literally and figuratively). What passes for rebellion is usually co-opted, sanitized, and sold back to us as a trend or commodity.
Everyday life has been corrupted by a corporate mentality…and this intrusion of the business mindset has grown in direct proportion to the influence of television. Part babysitter, part opinion-giver, and part hypnotist, the TV has come to dominate American life like no other invention. We learn what to eat, how to dress, what to say, and how to think all from that glowing box in our bedroom and living room and kitchen and gym and bank and airport, etc.
The TV keeps us inactive while our biology desires movement.
The TV sells us junk food while our bodies crave nutrients.
The TV trains us to be obedient while our minds yearn for freedom.
The TV teaches conformity while our souls demand individuality.
We know how we feel. Why allow Hollywood, Madison Avenue, the government, or Corporate America define our desires? Sometimes, all it takes is thoughtful introspection to liberate oneself from the seductive, profit-motivated web and break away from the primitive corporate message of “work, consume, and obey authority without question.” We can create a society in which industrial pirates, murderous politicians, and vacuous celebrities are no longer the ideal we strive for. In such a society, I feel, the vegan lifestyle and a devotion to animal rights would not be mocked but rather, I think this would be “normal.”
But, then again, what do I know? I've always been the black mammalian cell bioreactor in my family.
|
