> On Sun, 15 Feb 1998, Peter C. McCluskey wrote:
>
> > dalec@socrates.berkeley.edu (dalec@socrates.berkeley.edu) writes:
> >
> > Also, a Power will probably know enough that the example you set by
> > your vegetarianism is very unlikely to convince it to change its moral
> > system.
>
> Well, I hope to spread the vegetarian meme as part of spreading the more
> general and more important "respect diversity" meme, such that a widely
> disseminated respect for beings will already infect the Power before she
> or he (it, they, we) *becomes* a Power in the first place.
But why do you claim that carnivores do not respect diversity? By playing my role
as a predator, I encourage diversity in the animal populations, encourage the
continued practice of evolutionary pressure to maintain the fitness of the herds.
A herd with no predator quickly degenerates in a few short years into a sickly,
weak, unfit population that something as a simple bad winter can decimate, while
several cushy years encourage overpopulation of an unhealthy herd which becomes a
health and safety hazard to not only other animal populations, but also the human
population. Excessive deer breeding for example increases the population of deer
ticks, which spread Lyme disease to the local human population, and the increase
in their hoof and mouth disease quickly spreads to cattle, horses, moose, dogs
(who will often eat deer excrement), and other wild canines.
> > >I see my vegetarianism as a dress rehearsal for Power ethics to come.
>
> By which I mean to say, as much as anything else, that with all of this I
> am also always arguing already with the Power I am liable to become
> *myself* one day.
>
> Very best, Dale
-- TANSTAAFL!!! Michael Lorrey ------------------------------------------------------------ mailto:retroman@together.net Inventor of the Lorrey Drive MikeySoft: Graphic Design/Animation/Publishing/Engineering ------------------------------------------------------------ How many fnords did you see before breakfast today?