Human Apathy and the Struggle for Non-Human Individuals

BY CAMILLE A MARINO

I see human behavior through a rather unflattering lens. So maybe that's the reason that I put very little emphasis on persuading humans that other sentient beings deserve respect and consideration. I recognize the moral necessity of animal rights. And I need to advance the agenda by attacking the sources: the capitalist structure that relies on the apathy of our population to continue the despicable forms of expliotation upon which they depend. I have a finite number of years on this planet. I refuse to spend them pandering to a mob mentality that is offended by my disgust at their selfishness, apathy and ignorance. By the time I leave this world, I will have effected change, despite the righteous indignation of the mobs. You see, people have not changed since I've been paying attention. And I don't expect them to anytime soon.

I put myself through school at night. I would work all day and cut through Manhattan to get to class on time. I'd watch the socio-economic classes burst into Grand Central Station in a blur and separate into tidy little groups. There would be laborers and office workers heading underground and disappearing into the filthy subways for their treks back into the boroughs. There would be middle management drones and the pin-stripped-suit capitalists walking urgently, seemingly wary of human eye contact with inferior (or less economically viable) humans. These people, of course, headed out to the various suburbs... Connecticut and New Jersey mainly. A few more people would disperse into the bowels of the city. And that was rush hour.

My classes would let out anywhere between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., depending on how many courses I could cram into a given night. So, I would head toward Grand Central Station on my own trek back to Brooklyn. And it seemed to me that I was the only person in all of New York City who was troubled by the homeless individuals, hungry and dirty, littered on the dirty floors throughout the terminal. The contrast between the homeless and the homeward bound was disturbing during rush hours; but at the hours where there was far less traffic, the human disconnect was glaring. I had my own problems trying to pay for a ridiculously-expensive education (capitalists put a huge price tag on learning) but if I had a couple of dollars (literally two dollars) I would have to give a homeless individual one. Why was I the only person who noticed? Why didn't anyone else, people who were far more well off financially than I, care? It takes no feat of mental acuity to come to a conclusion:

It was easier not to pay attention to the suffering that people saw face-to-face every single day, at least twice a day. The homeless people, like the non-human individuals I fight for today, were disenfranchised and "lesser" members of society. If people noticed, they would have to act, or at least care.

Well, let me fast forward two decades. While millions of animals suffer and die in shelters, why do we let capitalist filth keep breeding dogs and cats for profit? Because their ignorant human counterparts create a demand. Why are the horrors of factory farming so secreted into the social consciousness? Because without ignorance humans would be unable to enjoy the flesh and secretions they gorge on. Why are millions of non-humans imprisoned in cages and subjected to the most unimaginable torture regimens? Because humans choose to remain ignorant. Most people do not even know that once the non-human torture trials end, the human experimentation begins. But the capitalist system keeps on running fueled by society's utter ignorance. And there is only one commonality I can isolate that allows the entire system to function: apathy.

The immediate consequence of exploring the unpleasant topic of non-human genocide is that one must modify his/her behavior. If humans as a whole find it easier to look the other way when members of their own species suffer, I can't imagine what I could say or do that would prompt these same people to acknowledge the screams from the cages, crates and chains, the blood dripping from mutilated bodies, the fear and pain to which sentient beings are subjected. I have no magic words to make people choose to acknowledge their own complicity in these crimes.

I stand proudly at one extreme -- that of refusing to perpetuate atrocity. And those whose behavior I despise stand at the other extreme -- complicit in torture and genocide. And there is no compromise. If I can change a mind here or there along the way, great. But negotiation is not an option.

So I've chosen to focus on attacking what lies in the middle. Those who make their money by exploiting the inconsequential non-human members of society. Those are the people whose behavior we can affect. Those are the people who need to be persuaded that violence is not profitable. Only when sadists cannot comfortably make money will non-human individuals be allowed their inherent rights to life.