Language: Killing vs. Murder (WAS: Vores; Eskimo Longevity and Meat Consumption [Brief])

[Guest guest]

Hi Silver,

 

Did he really write these things? (Excerpt from your post, below.) I don't

read any of that stuff, I just hit delete, so I'm seeing it here for the

first time. (I do DO read YOUR posts, of course. Anyway, thanks for

responding. I imagine people have the awareness to step right past such

verbiage. Amazing!

 

I do appreciate your comments about honoring all life. I had a conversation

once, several years ago, with someone not of this discussion group, wherein

I asked about her eating of meat. (This is someone who seems to me to be

morally and spiritually aware, in general.) She responded that she " would "

kill the animals herself, if she were in a position to do so, that this

feeling inside her signified her respect for the lives of the animals are so

killed. An interesting response ... completely off my map, but an

interesting response, nonetheless.

 

There is a profound difference between killing, which means, simply, the

taking of life, and murder, which is a term of law and perhaps of

philosophy, whereby people attempt to distinguish between blameless killing

that is " morally right " , " patriotic " , " justifiable " , " necessary and

therefore justifiable " , " accidental " , and so forth, vs.blameful killing,

a.k.a. " murder " . One of the first distinctions many people make is that

" murder " can only, by definition, apply to humans, such that the conscious

killing of all other life forms cannot be murder. Again, an interesting

perspective ... completely off my map, but an interesting perspective,

nonetheless.

 

From my perspective, having studied a fair amount of human history, among

other things, I believe that our species, at least taken collectively,

possesses virtually no capacity whatsoever to distinguish, in the long run,

one form of killing from another. The moment we consciously, willfully

choose to kill any life form, we open within ourselves a door that seems to

enable us, eventually, to kill all life forms, including our own species,

and on a scale most people probably really cannot imagine. I mean, who can

really picture the full meaning of saying that nearly 50 million people were

killed during World War II? Who can picture, really, the full meaning of

saying that the medical industry is directly and irrefutably responsible for

killing more than one million Americans each and every year ... roughly the

killing rate at Auschwitz at the peak of its " production " in 1944? What do

such numbers really mean? And why are those who managed Auschwitz guilty of

having committed " crimes against humanity " , whereas those who run the

pharmaceutical establishment and therefore the medical industry are to be

perceived as mankind's salvation?

 

I have sometimes imagined another, more advanced species orbiting the Earth,

monitoring our various communications, and I have surmised that they might

perceive the United States as the planetary asylum. I say this, because so

much of what goes on here these days truly IS insane.

 

Just thoughts,

Elchanan

_____

 

Silver Devi Dasi

Saturday, September 15, 2007 9:53 AM

rawfood

[Raw Food] Re: Vores (WAS: Eskimo Longevity and Meat Consumption

[brief])

 

what flipped me was when you accused Elchanan of making personal attacks on

people - I don't see anywhere that he has done that, and I don't believe he

needs my help to defend him, but I can see a clear cut case of the pot

calling the kettle black when you resorted to referring to him as a fanatic,

and as some old man or old lady without a life, telling others here how to

get one, and how he doesn't have his finger on nature's pulse..

 

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