To Mistake the Symptom for the Disease

"Animal exploitation and murder are no more the result of a particular belief system, political system, or economic system than are human exploitation and murder. To think that they are is to mistake the symptom for the disease. The disease is selfishness, greed, arrogance, and a lack of compassion. As Lord Acton told us, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Human history demonstrates that whenever a system (economic, political, religious, whatever) is installed that is designed to end, or at least ameliorate, human oppression, it is fairly quickly corrupted into a new mechanism for the same old oppression. Communism, is one example, institutional Christianity another. Political and economic democracy slow the process by distributing power widely enough to prevent its concentration while placing a significant share of it in the hands of those most vulnerable to oppression. As Winston Churchill reminded us, "Democracy is the worst system of governance ever devised except for all of the other systems that have been tried from time to time." Radical social revolutions simply put a new class of oppressors in charge. I wish it were not so, but it is."

"To put it bluntly, we enslave and murder animals because it is in our self-interest to do so and we have the power to get away with it, not because of capitalism, liberal democracy, the Judeo-Christian dominionist tradition, or any of the other reasons so commonly given. These are merely after-the-fact justifications. We enslave and murder animals because we can and we enjoy the results. Change the political or economic system, and that fundamental fact will still be operative, and the enslavement and murder of animals will continue unaffected except that it will now be justified by a different set of theories, one that is compatible with the new system."

- Norm Phelps -

Until there are no beings whom we still define as "other"

The Problem: The Human Species Itself

"Animal liberation is the most difficult liberation struggle of all because speciesism is primordial and universal. Speciesism is arguably the first of any form of domination or hierarchy and it has spread like a deadly virus throughout the entire planet and all of human history. The problem is not limited to Western culture or to the modern world, such that there is some significant utopian past or radical alternative to recover. The problem is the human species itself, which but for rare exceptions is violent, destructive, and imperialistic. Universally, humans have vested interests in exploiting animals and think they have a God-given right to do so. To change these attitudes is to change the very nerve center of human consciousness. That is our task - no more and no less."

- Steve Best -

Violence and Control are a Part of Us

There is a reason why humans see leather as cool and sexy.
Violence and control are a part of us.

You can fight it and explain to people that it is wrong and that animals suffer for it.
You can tell people that they can buy synthetic materials instead.

But leather is a lot more than a material that jackets are made of.

Leather is status. it is a symbol.

Trying to convince people to buy synthetic fabrics is not how you change things.

Synthetic fabric is synthetic revolution.

Humans want leather because it is a symbol of power and domination. The problem is internal and there is no jacket in the world that can ever change that.

* Text taken from the Only One Solution website.

Trends

The campaign against fur was once considered to be the most successful campaign ever by the animal rights movement. But after almost a decade of being branded politically incorrect, fur is back in fashion, coming in all colors, shapes and sizes.

The Fur Council claims that in 1985 only 42 fashion designers included fur in their collections. 20 years later the number has risen to more than 500.

The fur industry resurgence in the last 5 years is an irrefutable evidence of the sole significance of trends in human behavior and public political views.

It is not empathy, rationality, concern and ethics that dictate humans’ behavior, it is fashion, in this case ambiguously speaking. It is trends, not rational and practical compassion.

In spite of Al gore, Cindy Crawford, the Atkins diet, super size me and so many other trendy examples, activists still rely on trends and on celebrities to carry on moral and social justice campaigns.

Animal rights activists know just as we do how provisional and arbitrary trends are and that the same people that are against slaughtering animals for their fur, turn around and eat their flesh, or wear their skin.

Disappointment after disappointment, but the activists never learn.

They cover their eyes and ears because they can't control their urge for a short term goal.

The expectation that the same principle of action only using the good celebrities in a smart and sexy way will change the world is false and ridiculous. The same methods that are responsible for so much of what is wrong with the world can’t be the solution too.

Instead of looking for the current trends and how to use them for their goals, instead of dividing the world to good and bad celebrities.

Animal rights activist should ask themselves what are the chances for a vegan non-speciesist world when the moral message becomes a minor by product of the current trend and the mega celebrities’ reputation improvement efforts.

* Text taken from the Only One Solution website.

Thanksgiving Feast

A dead turkey is what symbolizes more than anything, a holyday that is supposed to symbolize humans’ thankfulness to god for all the wealth he supposedly gave them.

It seems to be absurd that even the day that symbolizes humans’ gratitude to god, nature and everything around them, they celebrate it by ignorance, violence and contempt to everything around them.

Hundreds of millions of turkeys are tortured for months, murdered and eaten in the thanksgiving feast.

A violent feast of ostentation and hypocrisy.

It symbolizes how greedy and boastful humans are. Not modest and grateful.

Unfortunately it is not surprising that this is their thanks.

A critical examination of humans’ nature and of life in general, makes it very logical. And when atrocities like these are logical…

What is your dilemma?

* Text taken from the Only One Solution website.

Simply The Best

Humans are the best species ever!

Innocents When They Sleep

In order to produce comfort pillows and worm blankets for humans, this is the "discomfort" geese "have" to endure...

Humans are not innocents even when they sleep.

* Text taken from the Only One Solution website.

Sadism as a Starting Point

The animal rights movement calls bullfights, rodeos, circuses, marine parks and zoos violence in disguise of entertainment.

The truth unfortunately is much worse.

It is entertainment.

The human race is entertained by torture and abuse.

Humans seek for the power and dominance over other species and they enjoy it. There is no other way to explain the amusement children get from brutally murdering a bull or aggressively roping a calf.

Bullfights, circuses and rodeos are some sort of a celebration of humans’ victory over other species, a symbolic display of their tyranny.

We have to comprehend this. Enjoying such a brutal and violent shows, like rodeos, bullfights and circuses are a part of the human race’s nature.

You can try to convince people not to participate, you can try to promote legislation against those cruel acts, you can demonstrate, you can liberate a few animals, but you can’t change the fact that this is a part of the human race. Humans enjoy humiliating and hurting others - humans and non humans.

Stop fighting the symptoms, deal with the real problem.

* Much of the text taken from the Only One Solution website.

Eating Meat is Just a Symptom

To convince someone to go vegan as an attempt to save the world is similar to an attempt to save a sinking ship by tossing out water with a teaspoon.

The world is not just an unfair and cruel place, everything is rotten from the roots.

The world is too sick, and life itself is the disease.

Wake up!

A world, that battery cages could have been invented in, is a world that unlegislating them won’t cure anything.

Battery cages are just a symptom. Eating meat is just symptom.

Two of the severest ones, but still symptoms.

The only way to stop the symptoms of the problem is to identify the main root cause and directly work to abolish it.

Stop dealing with the symptoms and start dealing with the causes.

* Much of the text taken from the Only One Solution website.

Reason is Not Enough

Have you ever wondered why is it so hard to convince someone to go vegan?

We don't need to tell you how morally initiatory and how nutritiously simple veganism is.

So how come it is so hard, even for many people who define themselves as "animal lovers", to become vegans?

Could it be that the obstacle to veganism is the messengers? Not enough health food stores? The price of soy milk? Not enough vegan celebrities? Not enough visual evidence about what is going on in factory farms?

You know it is not any of these.

The animal rights arguments are so simple and right. They are based on solid facts and evidences. Nobody can confront them rationally.

So why is it so hard to convince someone to go vegan?

The reason is that reason is not enough. Good arguments are not relevant.

Rationality is not enough in this world. It has proved itself as an insufficient element in order to change people’s habits.

Rationality can’t beat motivation.

"... humans are much more social than rational creatures. In everyday life on average, people try to merge into society, behave correspondingly, and afterwards rationalize their behaviour, i.e. find "rational" reasons why they act as they act. This observation is so obvious that it does not seem to merit quoting empirical support."
- Martin Balluch -

* Non-quotation text taken from the Only One Solution website.

Pure Speciesism

For some reason animal rights organizations "decided" that no matter what humans do, they must stay.

This is pure speciesism.

The most violent, greedy and destructive specie - the one which is the root cause of the problem they fight against - must stay. Amazing.

The automatic chance humans get and the speciesist request to be patient won't be given in case of human victims.

Right now, animal rights organizations act as if the human species is simply the best specie ever...

Every day that you choose to give humans immunity, you choose the other animals should wait.

* Part of the text is taken from the Only One Solution website.

Vegan Education - the problem is with the addressees

Gary Francione is wrong. The world is not vegan and as long as humans exist, it never will be.
To think creative vegan education can somehow, sometime, cause the human race to act in non-speciesist manner is to ignore human nature.

How high the human barrier is?

Excellent & comprehensive explanations are given by the Only One Solution team on their FAQ page:
1. Why not work hard to make a vegan world?
2. Social revolutions are possible. Don’t you believe a revolution in the way society seize non human animals is possible?
3. The human race perspective on itself and on the world has changed through time and will keep on changing, all we need is to be patient

One way the team from WhyCulturedMeat.org try to confront vegan educators/converters is by asking "If an individual is a good person, rational, intelligent, loving and caring, even wealthy, how come he/she is not a vegan?". Then, they give plenty of examples to support their position.

Do you still believe a vegan world is possible?

Cognitive Dissonance among Vegans

Consider the following:
A. Most vegan activists will agree that humans - as all species - are selfish and violent by nature and that most of them do not care about nonhuman suffering.
B. Most vegan activists dedicate their activity time to vegan education and believe animal exploitation will end within 100 years.[1]

Don't you agree these two cognitions are inconsistent with each other? It is impossible to convince humans - who hold the freedom of choice - to behave against their own nature.
Vegan education is based on moral justice, while humans' choice is based on self interest. In our case, these are two contradictory things.[2]

It's so frustrating to admit, but the reason this dissonance is so common among activists is selfishness (which we all struggle with):
"Let's be honest. The animal rights movement as we now know it will never become a revolutionary struggle because the representatives of the oppressed enjoy enough privilege from the system they oppose to prevent them from supporting, let alone engaging in actual revolutionary activity that would risk those comforts."
--Rod Coronado, "Hypocrisy Is Our Greatest Luxury" (no longer available online)

The Only One Solution Manifest begins its attention to vegan education with the next paragraph:
"Have you ever wondered why is it so hard to convince someone to go vegan?
We don’t need to tell you how morally initiatory and how nutritiously simple veganism is. So how come it is so hard, even for many people who define themselves as "animal lovers", to become vegans? It is a question we have constantly asked ourselves when we were "vegan converters". Could it be that the obstacle to veganism is the messengers? Not enough health food stores? The price of soy milk? Not enough vegan celebrities? Not enough visual evidence about what is going on in factory farms? You know it is not any of these.
The question we are asking ourselves now in the only one solution movement is how come animal rights activists don’t see that the problem is with the addressees?"

Most activists probably know deep down it is not the messengers but the addressees, but as Rod Coronado put it so well, the price is too high.


[1] According to recent survey (which is no longer available online) that was first presented in the 12th International Vegan Festival, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 22-25, 2009.

[2] Some people would argue that acting morally is part of anyone's self interest, but this is not true. For most people - morality is a negligible consideration, it is important for them to feel peaceful with their choice. Meaning, they will seek (and find) a justification to continue with their violent acts ("animals in nature kill and eat other animals all the time", for example) and continue to ignore the most basic moral principle ("Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you").