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Anarchism in its most mature form in the United States, has demanded
freedom, not for one individual or one group, but for each and every
individual.
---Eunice Minette Schuster
Truly man is the king
of beasts, for his brutality exceeds theirs. We live by the death of others:
we are burial places! I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and
the time will come when men such as I will look on the murder of animals as
they now look on the murder of men.
--Leonardo da Vinci
=======================================================
Due to a
number of transitions, challenges and new endeavors, I haven't reached out
to you--TPC's 5,000 plus email contacts--for a couple of months. To each of
you, I simply want to say thank you for your readership, support, and the
activism that you do on behalf of humans, nonhuman animals, and the Earth.
Here is a brief summary of a few of the changes related to Thomas
Paine's Corner:
a. Dr. Jerry Vlasak, who is a board-certified surgeon
specializing in trauma and critical care, a seasoned activist, and a press
officer for the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, is now our
Senior Editor of Animal Liberation.
b. Dr. Steve Best has become
TPC�s Associate Editor. He is also an associate professor of philosophy at
UTEP, an award-winning writer, a noted speaker, a public intellectual, an
author or co-author of 10 books, and a seasoned activist.
c. Dave
Warwak has joined TPC as Senior Editor of Radical Veganism. He is a
meditator, philosopher, poet, humanitarian, artist, musician, and author of
�Peep Show for Children Only�. Formerly a tenured middle school art teacher,
he became an animal rights activist after he was notoriously fired for
teaching kindness (veganism) to his students. Warwak�s mission has since
been to tell children the truth about our world. He also publishes and edits
Vegan School 101.
d. Vi Ransel, TPC�s new Senior Editor of
Anti-capitalism, is a researcher and poet of exceptional caliber. Very
little is known about her.
e. Jason Miller, Senior Editor and Founder
of TPC, has joined the North American Animal Liberation Press Office as a
press officer. (That doesn't mean I'm spending less time on TPC, my writing,
and my other forms of activism. It means I'm getting less sleep!)
For
your amusement, education, inspiration, or perhaps even irritation:
1. The North American Animal Liberation Press Office (NAALPO) was founded to
communicate the actions, strategies, and philosophy of the animal liberation
movement to the media and the public. Many of these actions are illegal
under a current societal structure that fails to recognize the rights of
non-human animals to live free of suffering, but validates and promotes the
�right� of industries to do whatever they want to animals for profit or
research. Within these conditions, those in the underground working for
animal liberation often cannot speak out directly. Nevertheless, their
actions and message is urgent and deserve to be heard and understood. (Note:
NAALPO and its staff do not engage in illegal activities and receive
anonymous communiqu�s from underground activists who do, thus having no
knowledge of their whereabouts or identities).
http://www.animalliberationpressoffice.org/
2. Why is Thomas
Paine's Corner advocating veganism and animal liberation in conjunction with
its anti-capitalist agenda?
For reasons partially captured in this
video: http://www.meat.org:80/
AND
Click on the link below to find a collection of essays that
form a comprehensive treatise on animal liberation and how it is
inextricably linked to the total liberation of human animals, nonhuman
animals, and the Earth:
http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/total-liberation/
NOTE:
In the interest of alliance politics, despite the fact that we are vegan and
animal liberationist in our worldview, we are willing to work with
liberationists, radicals, and anti-capitalists of all stripes, provided they
respect and support our pursuit of animal liberation.
3. Classwar
in America, the Ongoing Assault � From the Gilded Age to Tea Bagger Rage, a
Romp through the Recent Episodes of the Class War in America by Vi Ransel
Americans have learned that every time we rise up, we are viciously
whipped back down, leading to an obedient, peasant mentality. We �know
better� than to get uppity. We�ve become victims of Maggie Thatcher�s
notorious TINA dictum, �there is no alternative.� We allow our children to
be mis-educated, as we were, to pledge allegiance and abject obedience to
nationalism, xenophobia and consumerism, to accept their place in the
pecking order. We just knuckle under and get down to work. (If we�re still
allowed to have a job.)
http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/classwar-in-america-the-ongoing-assault-from-the-gilded-age-to-tea-bagger-rage-a-romp-through-the-recent-episodes-of-the-class-war-in-america/
4. Minding the Animals: Ethology and the Obsolescence of Left
Humanism by Steve Best
Despite our deep-rooted biological and social
evolution, �humanity� is a social construct involving the identity and
conception humans have of themselves as members of a species. In its
arrogant, alienated, and domineering Western form, human identity reflects a
host of problematic assumptions, biases, prejudices, and myths derived from
religion, philosophy, science, and culture as a whole. The massive, tangled
knot of ideologies involved in the social construction of our species
identity need to be critically unraveled, so that we can develop new
identities and societies and forge sane, ethical, ecological, and
sustainable life ways. To an important degree, the new identities must
emerge from an ethic of respect and connectedness to all sentient life �
human and nonhuman � and to the Earth as a whole.
http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/minding-the-animals-ethology-and-the-obsolescence-of-left-humanism/
5. On the Unmasking of Demons: Yes We Must by Dr. Bee Z. Bywydd
We are a species of superstitious monkeys, in insectoid mutational
phase, armed with mass-incineration weaponry, at the edge of a teeming
galaxy. All of us are possessed by demons, a lying Legion of deceptions and
delusions. Our Earth has maxxed-out on demonic monkeys and now She�s
coughing out storms to flush our fires away. So we�re all in a Panic. Or
running for our lives, shivvering in the deep freeze, slogging through toxic
flood waters. Deep in the Voodoo, shite out of luck, over the falls in a
Titanic barrel of insane monkeys. Because our society is an onion of lies
within lies, all ruled over by ominous wargods and mass-incineration
weapons. We chatter on about superstitions and pseudo-news, nearly cut off
from any natural identity. Our instincts have been hijacked and most of us
are living like serfs in Roman-occupied city-ghettos. Being entrained to
think we must kill to get our way. This is �God�s will�?
http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/on-the-unmasking-of-demons-yes-we-must/
6. Consumerism: an Historical Perspective by Sharon Beder
Consumption was promoted through advertising as a �democracy of goods� and
used to pacify political unrest among workers. With the help of marketers
and advertisers exploiting the idea of consumer goods as status symbols,
workers were manipulated into being avaricious consumers who could be
trusted �to spend more rather than work less.� But if we admired wisdom
above wealth, and compassion and cooperation above competition, we could
undermine the motivation to consume.
http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/consumerism-an-historical-perspective/
7. Presence of Malice: UK Activists v. Lee Hall by Steve Best and
Jason Miller
The militant direct action (MDA) element emerged in the
1960s with hunt saboteur groups who used various tactics to confuse hunting
dogs and place themselves in the path between the hunters and the hunted. In
1974, the Band of Mercy emerged as a more militant sabotage-oriented
movement that attacked hunting and vivisection until its leaders Ronnie Lee
and Cliff Goodman were captured and jailed for a year. Goodman turned police
informer, but in 1976, after his release, Ronnie Lee began a new and more
militant underground organization, aptly named the Animal Liberation Front
(see Steven Best and Anthony J. Nocella II, �Terrorists or Freedom Fighters?
Reflections on the Liberation of Animals�).
http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/presence-of-malice-uk-activists-v-lee-hall/
8. The Stink of Privilege by John Steppling
A culture of
tips. Service workers are the organ grinders� monkeys, the obsequious men in
starched collars behind the bar, or carrying your bags, waiting diffidently
for the guest to dig into his pocket for a coin or two. The question of
snobbery is raised here too. The snotty head waiter or girl at an exclusive
clothes store. Such is the dialectical sado-masochistic dynamic of
privilege. And sadistic it is. The exchange value of humiliation. When one
stays at a five star or four star hotel, or resort, one is buying into an
almost sexual relationship that is about domination. It�s an almost dumb
play that stands in for the larger societal forces of domination. The hatred
is not just directed one way, from the bell boy to guest, but from guest to
bell boy and from guest to him or herself. It�s a constant doubling down on
self- loathing.
http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/the-stink-of-privilege/
9. Who�s Afraid of Jerry Vlasak? by Steve Best
Vlasak has
defended the use of violence on two grounds. On moral grounds, he believes
that any tactics � ranging from threats and break-ins to sabotage and even
assault or murder � are legitimate given the suffering exploiters inflict on
animals, the impossibility of ending their misery through legal systems that
cater to exploitation industries and define animals as property, and the
moral imperative to save animals from the violent clutches of exploiters. On
pragmatic grounds, Vlasak believes that the use of violence would be an
effective intimidation tactic and would stop numerous individuals from
exploiting animals while preventing others from ever embarking on that
heinous path.....Similarly, when Vlasak urges animal liberation by any means
necessary, he is asserting the right of animals to self defense. But since
they cannot defend themselves (except for instances such as where elephants
or tigers justly kill their trainers), humans must act on their behalf. And
if violence is needed to save an animal from attack, then violence is
legitimate as a means of self defense for animals. If one likes, this could
be called extensional self defense, since humans are acting on behalf of
animals who are so vulnerable and oppressed they cannot fight back to attack
or kill their oppressors.
http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/who%e2%80%99s-afraid-of-jerry-vlasak/
10. Weed It and Reap by Joseph Fasciani
In spite of all our
manipulative techniques, we are really only one species of critter
surrounded in the air, water, and land by countless other critters, most of
whom we go through life completely unaware of, although it�s finally become
obvious that we do so at our immediate and fatal peril. But that�s as it
should be, for this is how the systems interact, exchange information, then
rebalance as best they can with what remains. Do we believe we are somehow
miraculously exempt from this overarching reality?
http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/weed-it-and-reap/
11. Invisible Paths by Charles Eisenstein
In a sense I am not
describing a path at all, since there isn�t one in the new territory of the
pioneer. Indeed, what I am describing is a departure from a path, the
ready-made paths laid out before us, and the creation of a new one. You know
the ready-made path I�m talking about. Typified by that odious board game
�Life,� it begins with school, traverses the territory of marriage, kids,
and career, and, if all goes well, ends in a long and comfortable
retirement. This program has been rumbling for decades now, as high rates of
divorce and radical career change demonstrate. I, for one, am not planning
for retirement; the very concept feels alien to me, as does the notion that
my Golden Years are to be any time other than right now.
http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/invisible-paths/
12. Man�s hereditary ignorance has a reservation in the cold ground by
Dave Warwak
Earth is the Universe�s cosmic toilet shitting out the
hate into the cold ground and keeping the love to rejuvenate itself. We have
all been hoodwinked in the worst possible way. This is the hereditary
ignorance we must fight today. Will we save ourselves for another loop
around the Milky Way, or will the misery and hate suck us in and away, only
to implode and scatter for another time?
http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/man%e2%80%99s-hereditary-ignorance-has-a-reservation-in-the-cold-ground/
13. A Society Of B.S. (Bad Science) by Sylvain Lamoureux
We
are told that �crime� is opportunist but yet we live an opportunistic life
ourselves. We jump at a �good deal� or an �investment� opportunity without
thinking of who had to �lose� in order to allow us this �deal�; another�s
misfortune may just be our gain. We have learned to �accept� and �adapt� to
this system while perpetuating it through to the next generation. The kids
grow up with concepts like �you owe me� or �criminals are bad people�,
echoing the lies of society and making themselves a part of it. They are led
to believe that one must not stray too far from the herd and that �hope� and
�love� will make everything better.
http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/a-society-of-bs-bad-science/
14. He no longer heard the cries of the animals or saw the flowing
blood�. by Jason Miller
Like the primitive religious and scientific
dogma that spawned it, vivisection is a relic of the past that has out-lived
its usefulness, if it ever had any. From an animal liberationist�s
standpoint there are no moral justifications for tormenting and murdering
nonhuman animals to �advance science,� but even when considered from an
intelligent hardened speciesist�s perspective, vivisection is a detrimental
practice, for it is a tremendous waste of time, money and effort, and it is
more of a threat to human health than it is a safeguard.
http://thomaspainescorner.wordpress.com/2009/05/08/he-no-longer-heard-the-cries-of-the-animals-or-saw-the-flowing-blood%e2%80%a6/
