Monday, July 21, 2014

Death becomes us



Meat gave up on me.

For a hardcore carnivorous, who believed that to save animals bordering on extinction, we need develop a taste for them, this new development is somewhat weird.

As a misanthrope with a death wish, this is not part of any diet. I have never had a physical done because I am of the old school who believes that what you don't know cannot kill you.

When I look back on that fateful day, I developed a repulsion for all animal based food product , I seem to see a pattern. A coming together of specific events to finally kick me where it made perfect sense.

I was reading K Pax. It's a three part book based on a person in a mental institution who claims to be an alien from the planet K Pax. A movie was made on the first part in which Kevin Spacey played the role of prot , the alien. What struck me about the book was his eating habit. He eats only planet produce. His reasoning is that life should not be sustained by another life but rather from its living energy. I found that fascinating. I have always felt hypocritical about my stand about life , humanity and all such crap while stuffing myself with flesh that came from dead animals. But truth be told, the book did not bring about the change. It was just fodder for my thoughts.

Then one day, someone posted a YouTube video about a cow being taken in for slaughtering. The whole video, which lasted about 4 minutes was this cow standing in a narrow corridor that leads to an entrance that is opened and shut with an automatic gate. The cow cannot see what is happening to the cow which went in before her. But she knows that something is wrong. She moves back. She tries to turn and escape but the corridor is too narrow. I saw the panic. The fear. The desperation to live. The resistance to an impending death.

I think I cried.

And that was the end of meat. Every living creature deserves to live. To feel for the murder of a human child but feel nothing for a fish, seems so fundamentally flawed. It seems like a convenient conscience.

Now my wife is convinced that I am going to set off in search of a boodhi tree.

I doubt it.

There is nothing remotely moral or some higher path shit that I connect to. I am way too much of an asshole for that. My actions are purely selfish and self centered. There is definitely something going on with me, but I attribute that to decades on alcoholism and possible mental damage.

But I do have a possible solution for world hunger and population.

Cannibalism.

Propagate that, get that thought process a little momentum and we will solve two of the biggest problems that seems to plaque humankind.

Two birds with one stone.

9 comments:

Madhumita said...

Welcome back. Here's to many more colossal fights regarding your blog content!

tys said...

dont worry...i think we are the only 2 people here

Aviral Shrivastava said...

Hi tys. No, I have been waiting for your post for quite some time. And it's nice as usual. Welcome back.

tys said...

@aviral : thanks ... its great to see that there is still one person who reads the nonsense i write...

T said...

I am a staunch vegetarian for the same reasons. When I first met S (now my husband), he told me he had given up meat and had not even touched it for the past 6 months, coz he saw a video of a cow being slaughtered. It was one of the things we connected on - how killing animals is wrong yada yada.

An year down the line, just before we got married, the moron changed again to a hard core carnivore whose mission in life is to travel as much as he can and try every dish which is a specialty of that place.

Nothing disgusts him, be it a fried cockroach or a snake. Made me realize hardcore carnivores cannot change. Sigh. So much for his "transformed outlook towards living creatures".

tys said...

@T.C : :) someone once asked Jiddhu Krishnamurty, why he is a vegetarian . He answered, 'Pity'.

Anonymous said...

fish eats fish...does it make a difference?

Tys on Ice said...

@anon : to who? to the fish or to you?

Anonymous said...

if its to the fish you cannot answer... if its about me still you are clueless so..