Sept. 2, 2011

"Really, A Mouse or Your Child? Really?"
Johnnie Walker Wisdom, Only Less Inebriating

What is most galling about those vociferously opposed to animal liberation and animal rights, particularly those who are in favor of continued use of non-human animals in medical research and vivisection, is their seeming inability to marshal any substantive facts in defense of their position. Leaving aside the fact that their position is basically indefensible, both philosophically and in reality, so to say, they are left with caterwauling appeals to emotion.

Pointedly sickening is the question asking; who should be saved, a mouse or a child? This is a pathetic appeal to the heart strings at best and rank pandering to emotion at worst. Regrettably this type of "argument", if you can all it that, is particularly effective with the uneducated. Rather than seeking the truth of the matter themselves, they rely on billboard wisdom, which is much the same as Johnnie Walker wisdom but only slightly less inebriating.

It is much the same in the modern political arena where substantive debate has been supplanted by appeals based on the image. Or, as Debord would call it, The Society of the Spectacle, where the image has become supreme, the spoken word no longer considered germane and mere perception is reality. Absolute facts count for nothing.

In the arena of animal liberation and animal rights there are absolute facts and irrefutable truths which bear close scrutiny. The other side simply chooses to not engage in any meaningful way, relying instead on the general ignorance and apathy of the masses as concerns not only this but many other issues. In this way they seek to secure themselves a victory in the arena of "public thinking", although truth be told there is not much of that going on anyway.

However, the truth and facts will win out. We see this more and more everyday, particularly with the younger generation, who it seems are more inclined to decide for themselves what constitutes right and wrong - truth or fiction. Let us continue to forge a new reality as regards animal liberation and animal rights and let us allow the other side to whither on the vine.

Will Hazlitt
Press Officer
North American Animal Liberation Press Office