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Man cannot live on grilled cheese alone. And I don't squish bugs. Hey...didn't Jesus eat fish?
Better add water to the list. Millions of lives are lost purifying water.
Maybe grilled cheese with rain water would be ok.
Good question
I've been a vego since I was twenty-one.
I'm aware that if I was vegan I would be much less hypocritical -
all those calves that die, and the way they get treated before they reach the slaughterhouse.
I could get around it by keeping diary goats - they produce far more than their babies need -
half the milk for the kids and half for us, keep all the neutered billy-goats as lawn-mowers.
But I know the complications, extra fridges, expensive fences and shelters, never being able to go away for a few days...
I have no problem with eating plants. The way they "sense" is biochemical and mechanical. They have no nervous system, no physical means of experiencing consciousness of suffering. I'm a horticulturalist, sort of. Plants thrive on being pruned and propagated.
Bugs. Well there I'm a species-ist. I have unmitigated prejudice against some species. Ticks, flies, mosquitos, anything that will eat my plants - I spray them with a mix of canola oil, soap and water. It clogs up their spiracles so they suffocate. That makes me a pathological murderer because I feel no guilt, not one iota of remorse, for their suffering and death.
But show me Australian native honey bees, or European hive bees, or butterflies and their dear little caterpillars and I'll do everything in my power to grow them flowers dripping in nectar. Come little darlings, come hither! Come fertilise my flowers for me! Set the seeds for next year's crops!
But where I really fail is with the weeny bugs. The ones too small to see. With the air, in they pour, into my lungs with every breath, where my omnipotent immune system slaughters every one. My body's a universe committing genocide in every moment that I live. I could wear a mask everywhere I go. But I'll be honest. I just don't want to. It's too inconvenient. Too antisocial. Or is it? Really? Well, some people do get freaked out by masked faces.
Life matters. In all the vastness of space our little planet is our only chance at life. We try to find a balance between the needs of all life forms, or at least, so I believe we should.
Despite my vego-ness, there's a place for the meat-eaters as higher order carnivores in a system that would collapse from over-breeding if no meat-eaters existed. Except that we ourselves overbreed....
Ah, well... I'd better shut up... or else...
The suggestion is that we should sacrifice the way we choose to live our lives to state that all lives matter without being inherently hypocritical?
Really roll that one over...
No, read it again.
Your Question:
"If all lives matter should we stop eating animals, plants and squishing bugs?"
My Response:
"The suggestion is that we should sacrifice the way we choose to live our lives to state that all lives matter without being inherently hypocritical?
Really roll that one over..."
I'm questioning your premise. Consider, there is no real difference between suggesting we change the way we live in order to confidently state that "all life matters" and the suggestion of some that black people should change the way they live in order to state, withstanding, that "black lives matter."
I only noticed the correlation because I've seen so many right-wingers make the suggestion. I truly see no difference between the two, both are false narratives. I was attempting to bring that to your attention...
I will not have a discussion about any topic with someone who reassigns meaning to my words. It's a waste of both our time, so let's avoid that. Ok?
I'm noticing Fork's responses and attempting to reframe the difficulty.
Animals, plants, and bugs are alive, but so are we.
If ALL lives matter, then our lives matter just as much as the lives of animals, plants, and bugs.
In order to live, we MUST eat foods from organic sources such as plants and animals (- otherwise we die.)
Therefore, if we cease killing living things in order to eat, we are acting as though our lives matter less than the lives of those we did not eat.
So
If we accept that all lives matter,
and that it is impossible to live without killing lives (plants can do this)
we have to find other ways of forming our ethics in accordance with our values.
For instance, what is it about being alive that matters most?
Is it just the fact of life itself?
Or is the quality of life and well-being as important or more important?
If well-being matters most, what is the level of quality and who decides?
To what degree does being sentient or self-aware have a bearing on the value of a life?
Is all death bad?
Or is it only deaths caused by or associated with suffering?
How do we deal with the natural behaviours of predator animals against prey animals?
There are lots more questions.
You might enjoy Peter Singer's "Practical Ethics."
Life is not defined by death. That ' All lives matter' slogan deals with affording dignity to each individual and having every opportunity afforded them for peace and happiness that you also wish for yourself.
That is all.
Saying plants should not die is a different argument entirely. There is not one piece of anything in existence that is not some form of life, even a rock.
It is the manner of respect that men of higher consciousness give to each creature that defines the right or wrong here. A plant simply does not care in the same way we do. There is no other way to explain it. But we SHOULD care. Because if we do not appreciate bounty versus waste, we will all soon die.
We need to see the difference in cooking and eating a carrot versus raping and pillaging the Rain Forest. This is the point where we need to raise our consciousnesses and draw the line.
This is not about Death. This is about respect, gratitude and love of all creatures. You can eat a potato. The potato doesn't care. Just don't pull the whole plant out by the roots and toss it away as garbage. That is waste and is a sin. It is a sin against the environment. It is a sin against Mother Nature.
