Just to clarify

I have recently gotten myself into numerous veganism-related discussions, some more amicable than others. I felt that perhaps I should clarify why I feel so strongly about the vegan lifestyle, and why I will not shut up J

Yes it is a personal choice. But while omnivores exercise that choice, animals suffer and die. People attack vegan ideology from economic, cultural, personal liberty and other perspectives. And whereas I feel that the facts stand up for themselves in these matters, the plain and gory truth is that, for you to eat an animal, the animal must die. For you to eat eggs, a chicken must lay them. For you to eat dairy, a cow must become pregnant, have a calf, and be milked.

This is where Mr James LaVeck's brilliant quote comes in:

"There is a reason why human rights groups do not endorse 'humane' methods of executing political prisoners, and why children's rights advocates do not collaborate with the pornography industry to develop standards for films that make 'compassionate' use of runaway teens. To do such things is to introduce moral ambiguity into situations where the boundaries between right and wrong must never be allowed to blur."

Yes I completely subscribe to that. Even if slaughtering methods were humane (which it simply cannot be due to the overwhelming demands for meat, and let's for one minute forget how animals are raised), it is my honest opinion that taking away a sentient being's life – except in extremis, such as a dog with a terminal illness – can never be anything but cruel.

As for eggs and dairy, is it possible to provide these to a 7-billion strong population in a "humane" way? No, again the demand is too big. We simply do not have the space for truly free-range chickens, and cows do not produce enough milk to be viable if their calves are left with them. Besides that, as long as animals are exploited for their "products" they will remain a commodity, in the same way that slaves were still a commodity no matter how well they might have been treated by some of the slave owners. And being a commodity means not having universal, inalienable rights. It means being vulnerable to abuse, it means never being free, and it means that when you are no longer economically useful, you will be discarded by the cheapest means.

Gary L. Francione calls our relationship with animals morally schizophrenic, and I feel this is accurate. We accord some rights to companion animals and all decent people are horrified when cruelty is inflicted on these companion animals. But most of the same people seem blissfully unaware that similar cruelty is perpetrated against "food" animals every day. And of course people generally do not feel that animals should have rights like humans do, forgetting how the same rhetoric, the same excuses were used to subjugate black people and women, to excuse the horrible abuses of religious inquisitions and in the early lunatic asylums.

We are told that anthropomorphising animals is bad science, but is it? Animals, especially mammals but to a large extent birds, have similar brain structures and similar neurotransmitters, and their brains behave in similar ways to ours when similar stimuli are applied. So how different can their emotions be? Even here our beliefs about animals display a certain logical disconnect. We accept that animals can feel fear, but not that they can experience love, or grief. Except maybe a dog, right?

When these things are brought to people's attention, those doing so are usually seen as "extremists" and all-round unpleasant people. But knowing how animals – whom I passionately love – suffer every day, for every egg or slice of bacon someone eats, how can I be expected to remain silent? I do not judge nor do I seek to prescribe. What I want to do is to challenge misconceptions, but perhaps more importantly, I want to challenge why people hold the opinions they do. Is it truly your opinion or did you inherit it?

Scientology

I had some brief dealings with the Church of Scientology SA some years ago, and considered them slightly dodgy but not much of a real threat. After all, I will fight for anyone's religious freedom, no matter how nutty I may think their religion is.

Then I watched the video Psychiatry: An Industry of Death - a take on psychiatry, psychology etc by the "Citizens Commission on Human Rights" (part of the CoS).

You have to see it to grasp the full impact of what they are trying to do but please keep your tinfoil hat on. I am a psychology student (not psychiatry - I am somewhat sceptical of some of the practices and ideas of modern psychiatry) so am familiar with most of the names and concepts they bandy about, and did quite well in critical reasoning, and if I didn't by nature have my bullsh1t deflectors permanently set on high, I would have been taken in.

(Aside:
One of the spurious accusations they make is that psychiatry "created" racism. Odd, considering (among other things) these lovely writings from L Ron Hubbard himself:

"The South African native is probably the one impossible person to train in the entire world--he is probably impossible by any human standard"...

and this

"The number of engrams [bad things m'kay] in a Zulu would be astonishing. Moved out of his restimulative area and taught English he would escape the penalty of much of his reactive data; but in his native habitat the Zulu is only outside the bars of a madhouse because there are no madhouses provided by his tribe."

*cringe* )

I found the video to be a mixture of strawman arguments, ad hominem attacks, sensationalist language, vague statements, brisk dismissal of all empirical evidence and scientific methods used in psychology or psychiatry (like fMRI), depressing footage, well, you get the idea. When closely examined their logic falls to pieces and you realise that there isn't even real conviction there; that they are painting the "other" evil to further their own goals. In fact very much like Mein Kampf which I am reading at the moment, to try to understand Hitler's rabid hatred of Jews. There wasn't any real hatred - if you can make your scapegoat look bad enough, people will rally to your cause. I figure this is what the CCHR attempts to do, linking modern psychiatry with hideous things like inhumane 18th century "asylums" and eugenics, and laying the blame for school shootings, suicide etc. squarely on the shoulders of mental health professionals.

By now I was getting worried. I thought that the fact that they are money-grubbing scaremongers, trying to prevent people from accepting help from mental health professionals was a bad thing, but hey, maybe they just got my back up because I am planning to be a mental health professional one day. You know, live and let live.


I decided to read up more on the matter and consulted the other oracle, Wikipedia (so I'm a lazy researcher). I read the following links with increasing trepidation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditing_(Scientology)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-meter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scientology_Security_Checks


Around here it really started to make my skin crawl:

http://www.xenu.net/fairgame-e.html

I really worry about a "Church" that considers it entirely acceptable to trick, sue or lie to or destroy their critics ("enemies").

But what really got to me was they way they treated their own members, especially ones that have grown up in their organisation, or had dedicated the better part of their lives (and most of their money) to it. I'm biased, yes. Damn right I'm biased against a system which demands complete belief and complete obedience; slavery, tyranny and general human rights abuses *really* p1ss me off.

Grand claims to make? Indeed. But I don't really think there are gentler ways to describe this:

• "Sea Org members are not permitted to have children while working for the organization. Couples who get pregnant are either pressured to abort the baby, or they must leave. Often, these people have been in the Sea Org so long, they have nowhere to go, no resume outside of Scientology, no job experience, no finances, no property, and no non-Scientology friends.



• Anyone who leaves the Sea Org without permission is declared a Suppressive Person by the Church of Scientology, and is ostracized from family, friends, and loved ones. It is very difficult to get permission to leave the Sea Org...The "approved" leaving process involves up to 3 years of hard physical labor, E-metered confessionals, social isolation and group pressure.



• Sea Org members live in horrible conditions...Members are often denied proper sleep and are often forced to skip meals because of the pressures of the job.



• Sea Org members are denied proper medical care. They are not provided health insurance, are not given sick days, and the Sea Org will not purchase their medicine for them…Sickness is also treated as the fault of the sick person…



• Because Scientology has religious status in many countries, labor laws do not apply to the Sea Org. Therefore, Sea Org members have no protection from long and abusive work hours. Many work 17-20 hours days because of the pressures of the job.



• Spouses and family members in the Sea Org rarely see each other. The Sea Org management reserves the right to ship different family members off to work in other countries or areas without any approval from the spouse. Husbands may be sent away from their wives, mothers may be sent away from their children, etc. If the family complains, they are punished.



• Families who have members in the Sea Org and other members who are not in the Sea Org rarely see each other. Mothers and fathers with children in the Sea Org may not call them directly, but must call the organization and ask to speak with them.



• Letters that Sea Org members write to their families, and letters that they receive from the outside, are screened by Sea Org censors for "entheta" (unhappiness, negativity) before they are passed on. …



• If a Sea Org member commits a punishable offense, they are sent to the RPF, or Rehabilitation Project Force, ... People on the RPF may only eat the food left over after the other SO members have eaten… are not allowed holidays, receive even less pay than SO members, and are required to do hard manual labor for long hours. People can be assigned to the RPF for up to 10 years.



• Members are put under tremendous psychological pressure. They are expected work as hard as need be without complaint, sacrificing food, sleep, family, and off hours."

From http://www.exscientologykids.com/

(Read the stories of the Ex Scientology Kids, and do read the "What's the deal with" sections - Fair Game, Disconnection and OTIII)


I was shocked and appalled. I refuse to buy clothes made in sweatshops, because the idea of long hours, little pay and zero legal recourse makes me sick. Yet people are probably being held in similar circumstances at the big, pretty and obviously expensive CSSA building not far from where I live. The Sea Org and the RPF transgress numerous human rights upheld in our Constitution (See dignity, life, freedom and security, forced labour, freedom of religion, freedom of association, health care...you get the idea I think). Why are we allowing this institution in our country??

For more info:

A local Facebook group group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=24149244728

Anonymous on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8692134295

Anonymous on the Web
http://www.whyweprotest.net/


Lisa McPherson, who died in the "care" of the CoS
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Scientology/ReleaseForms/Introspection.html

Operation Clambake http://www.xenu.net/ provides us with, among others, the dodgy personality test the "Church" uses (which I am planning to complete and then submit to both an independent psychologist and to the HPCSA http://www.hpcsa.co.za/ for their perusal):

http://www.xenu.net/archive/oca/

And this handy flyer which I am hoping to be handing out at the "fayres" where the CSSA are apparently recruiting people:
http://www.xenu.net/archive/leaflet/xenuleaf.htm

Finally for some gratuitously ad hominem (but somewhat pertinent) attacks on Mr L Ron Hubbard himself:
http://www.cracked.com/article_16337_l-ron-hubbards-5-most-impressive-lies-besides-scientology.html

Disclaimer:

I again state that I am strongly pro religious rights. I will fight for anyone's right to freedom of religion, even for a Scientologist. Even though I think the beliefs are nonsensical, that is not what I object to. What I object to is the way the CoS deals with both its critics and its followers who, for whatever reason, become unable or unwilling to give the "Church" everything it wants. It might be ok if you could check it out and make up your own mind whether it's good or bad, but the point is they won't let you leave.

Anyway I think this covers it, am feeling quite emotionally drained from all the things I've read so I'll let you make up your own mind.