Sunday, October 7, 2007

Ambiguities of Animal Rights

by Peter Staudenmaier, Communalism March 2003

...There are a number of legitimate reasons to abstain from eating meat or to oppose cruelty to animals.
This essay explores some of the illegitimate reasons for doing so. Such an undertaking is fraught with difficulties, not least of which is the strained sense of incredulity and indignation that critiques of animal rights almost invariably arouse. The topic leads onto tricky terrain, both ethically and politically, in part because it directly impinges on dietary predilections, a matter that is at once profoundly private and inescapably public. Although animal rights involves much more than vegetarianism or veganism, it does tend to exacerbate the seemingly inherent self-righteousness of food politics, where puritanism is often mistaken for radicalism. Read the full essay...

No comments: