“Extremism in the cause of compassion is no vice, and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Seneca
“That he which hath no stomach to this fight, … Instead, make this known throughout the army: whoever has no spirit for this fight, let him depart” -William Shakespeare
In response to a Facebook acquaintance’s question as to how to make the vegan and animal advocacy far more dynamic and effective movements, I gave this general sketch of a reply that summarizes some of my thoughts, concerns, and frustrations.
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I think it is important to underscore the difference between pacifism and passivism. I’m no pacifist, but deeply respect the action and confrontation based approach of Gandhi, King, and others. There are thousands or millions mouthing their words without following their actions, which apparently even animal “activists” think are too “alienating” to the God of public opinion or are afraid of an arrest charge just slightly more serious than a parking ticket. Just when was even mass civil disobedience taken off the table as a needed tactic, and renounced as violent or counter-productive? This movement has not even tried this tactic, and the much-vaunted “peaceful” means of change have barely even been explored for the opportunities available even within that particular paradigm.
We need to put the social and political and resistance movement back into the meaning of vegan and animal rights/liberation (or reinvent these concepts as such). For all the power and advantages of new social media, I think Facebook and other such technologies have played a huge role in the pacification and domestication (literally) of this movement. Some people use these tools very effectively by mediating them with actions and campaigns, others remain locked into the virtual straightjacket and spectacle of these media, confusing politics with hitting “like” and sign e-petitions.
We need to raise the bar; we are content with crumbs and too little, we have lost the capacity to imagine and the boldness to demand. We pander far too much to public opinion rather than to execute effective strikes and actions against oppressors. We have internalized the state superego, to the point of demanding we respect animal oppressors and treat them with respect and as people who have strayed from their “humanity.” We have fallen prey to this Kumbaya nonsense that we are one human family, when we shall forever be divided and there will always be enemies who want to murder, rape, and destroy, and they are not our friends or part of our community. We have denied ourselves use of the words “war” and “enemy” as being nothing but vocabulary taken from the dominator culture rather than apt analytic terms and important concepts to avoid being seduced into false alliances and collaborationism that betrays the animals and the earth.
We need to put the fight back in this movement, we need to revive what the 19th century abolitionist movement in the US was and meant compared to the pathetic caricature of what some call “vegan abolitionism” today and attempt to patent as the only form of abolitionism possible, and which amounts to nothing more than following a cult leader in chanting ”Go Vegan!” and “Adopt a dog from a shelter!” (how the hell is that abolitionist?!) mantras. They have completely corrupted, perverted, and irrevocably drained the term “abolitionism” of any meaning, and so I use the discourse of “liberationism” for various reasons.
We need to take risks, put our bodies on the line and in the way between hunters and hunted, killers and killed. We need a social resistance movement,, a new anarchist, not yet another vegan, cookbook. I’m not holding my breath, but I have done my share of CD and I would do it anytime, I just wish it could be part of a large movement of the kind Gandhi and King once mobilized, rather than myself and maybe one friend. Non-cooperation, total interference, absolute disruption, shut it down system by system, plank by plank, and escalate the struggle from occupation to appropriation to transformation.
Over the course of years, I sometimes feel like I am pissing in the wind or addressing an imaginary audience wholly unaroused by the level of outrage, urgency, and passion that I feel every day. How refreshing it would be to hear from at least two dozen people who are thinking along the same lines, and then I might regain hope this movement has a chance to make a real impact in the short time remaining to us before global social and ecological catastrophes bury us all like the wretched victims of Pompeii, whose bodies still lie in frozen agony.
With the planet in the throes of dramatic climate change, destabilization and death of all ecological systems, the sixth great extinction crisis the history of the earth (this one being caused by human activity not natural events), and with the number of animals murdered for human purposes growing each year (60 billion land animals killed each year for food consumption alone, add dozens of billion more perhaps for sea animals), “reasonableness” and “moderation” seem to be entirely unreasonable and immoderate, as “extreme” and “radical” actions appear simply as necessary and appropriate.
So yes, I am an extremist: to be anything else in these conditions, in this distinct context and moment in time, is treacherous, cowardly, unethical, and insane.
The question “what would the animals want us to do?” is no different in essence from “what would future generations want us to do?” The answer is: a hell of a lot more than what we are doing now.
Harriet Tubman, "Conductor" of the Underground Railroad
The 21st century is a time of reckoning. With the rainforests falling, species vanishing, sea levels rising, and temperatures climbing, this is undeniably a pivotal time in history, a crossroads for the future of life. It’s now or never, do or die. Windows of opportunity are closing. The actions that humanity now collectively takes — or fails to take — will determine whether our future, and that of biodiversity itself, is hopeful or bleak, merely terrible or absolutely unbearable.
And this outcome will be determined by whether or not we can wake up, free our minds, galvanize our will, (re)discover our courage, abandon the state superego, and adopt whatever tactics we need to end the total war on life and earth.
There is no guarantee we can perform this Herculean feat at the 11th hour, but it is certain that if we cannot create anything short of systemic psychological, moral, and institutional revolution on a global scale, then our fate is sealed. Consequently, we shall follow all other prior Homo species into the same black hole of extinction, taking perhaps half of all existing species with us. And that is only if we perish in the next century or so, otherwise the toll on other species could be even more obscene.
We need the largest, broadest, boldest, most systemic and inclusive visions and strategies possible, ones that fear no consequence of logic and are attuned to historical precedents and possibilities. We need the most uncompromising, militant form of politics we can muster.
To stop the ongoing war, Holocaust, and genocide against animals — we must employ every means at our disposal, from nonviolent resistance to civil disobedience; from sabotage to liberation; and from violence and guerilla warfare, and armed struggle (all better understood as self-defense and protection of innocents and the earth under massive assault). We need everything we got, and to use any and all of it –when necessary, when intelligent, and when most effective.
We must not take anything off the table, for the stakes are the future of evolutionary biodiversity as we know it, and the losses are potentially total.
Otherwise, should we wring our hands; allow ourselves to be seduced into the endless delaying and diversion tactics of the legal system; or to cling to outmoded, naive, and suicidal moral principles — while earth enemies in the corporate-state-military industrial complex have long ago removed all moral constraints on what is pure aggression and the implacable exercise of pathological power – we allow a greater violence to grow exponentially.
And once the rainforests are but smouldering ruins, the oceans acidic cesspools, the animals have vanished from the face of the earth, and the winds of climate change beat down upon us in all their fury, wiping away an evolutionary mistake, then we just might see, finally, the blood-stains on the hands of pacifists. Then we will understand the full consequences of believing in their false views of human nature and their naive faith in the state to deliver justice under pressure. Then we will grasp our own massive lapse in judgment in adhering to their foolish counsel to tolerate the intolerable, when all the while we should have taken necessary measures to shut down this nihilistic, barbaric, and omnicidal dominator culture and world system when we still had a chance.
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Hi Steve,
The abolitionist movement for all slaves, human as well as non-human, is under way. The Humane Party platform is openly abolitionist. By supporting the Humane Party, we will support the most massive attempt yet to abolish animal slavery in this country. We’re gaining momentum as our infrastructure is built. I’m so happy this is happening in my lifetime. We’re going to leave a BIG dent in the animal commodities industries. Looking forward to it!
I can only hope you are right, thank you, and let us not forget, no one individual and his cult monopolize or can patent the meaning of abolitionism, and there are now pluralist and competing forms, despite their efforts to deny us the imagine to think of far better forms that the dead-end of “the [!] abolitionist approach.” But I personally feel the word has been irredeedably corrupted and so I use “liberationism” instead; one added advantage of that is that it tells us that animals not only want to be free FROM oppression and suffering, but also free TO live their lives autonomously, pursue their pleasures, and make their own choices. In contrast, “abolitionism” and its implied restriction of freedom to only “freedom from,” not accounting for positive freedoms and desires of “freedom to,” thereby reinforcing Cartesian dualism, mechanism, behaviorist reductions of animals to machines rather than emphasizing that they are complex thinking, feeling, and social beings.
monicavlucas, I sincerely understand the desire to vote for politicians who reflect some of the values animal rightists hold. In years past I voted for Dennis Kucinich, in part due to his support of veganism (even though I knew he would never win). However, the voting system is rigged (as has been proven time and time again). There’s no point working within it. In fact, in many ways, what I believe Mr. Best advocates here on his blog is working outside of the failed corrupt system. The whole system needs to change in order for even a modicum of justice to prevail.
I agree with Mr. Best…Francione and his followers have turned whatever good the term “abolitionism” (in the animal rights context) could have once engendered into crap.
Mr. Best, your description of the contrast between pacifism and passivism is sound. I myself did not understand this difference for quite a while. But, I was programmed, like others, to not see a difference between self defense/defense of innocent others and violence. Despite all the violence perpetrated on people by those in control of this country, and despite all the violence that is upheld as glorious and acceptable in this country, there is also “anti-violence” propaganda from birth to death vilifying those who destroy property and any form of real civil disobedience. Self defense is not violence. Defense against the real abuse of innocent others is not violence.
There are a lot of semantics that revolve around the word “violence.” And the definition of “pacifism” depends on the how the word “violence” is defined. I support your views…and though I doubt you consider yourself a pacifist, I would count you as one, and I still count myself as one (I even count all those who do militant direct action). Pacifism is “the opposition to war or violence of any kind.” I am opposed to war. I am opposed to violence. And I have come to my senses to realize that self defense and the defense of innocent others is NOT violent…it is sane…it is logical. I have also come to realize that most of the abusers are not going to change just because they are exposed to the facts. In fact, the worst abusers already know the facts, and continue to abuse despite it. The abusers START the wars (if that is what one wants to call it). In defending/protecting ourselves and others against abuse, we are not even “participating” in war (as that would entail a choice – the oppressed do not have a choice).
I’m sure there will be some (many?) who disagree with my interpretation of pacifism. Tho, at the end of the day, it’s just a bunch of words. However, sometimes seeing those words in a clear light can help to expose the propaganda at hand. I think Howard Zinn is a great example of someone who was a real pacifist, tho I also think the pacifist label can be extended to cover militant direct action, since its goal is purely to defend others). You are right, abolitionists support “passivism.” Just like they permanently marred the animal rightist term “abolitionism,” THEY ARE ALSO FUCKING UP THE TERM “PACIFISM.”
Hope I haven’t offended any liberationists here regarding this…it’s just my opinion, and I hope it’s ok to share it…it’s taken me a while to see this in a clear light and deprogram myself.
Thanks for the great post.
Thanks, likewise. You have interpreted me correctly and amplified in useful ways. I am near the end of a second draft of a short book on violence I hope to publish within two months to expand on all of this. There is absolutely a distinction between violence and counter-violence/self-defense/just war and what I call extensional self=defense when we use “violence” (NOTE: in almost ALL cases militants and pacifist critics are talking about SABOTAGE, property destruction, not assassination or physical assault, as much as the murderous bastards deserve it) to protect animals who in most cases cannot protect themselves. I loathe when pacifists call militants “pro-violent”; we are NOT pro-violent, as if we celebrated or romanticized that as an end in itself; we are simply intelligent enough to realize what it takes to stop violence, and the pacifist cliche that “violence only breeds violence” is WRONG and dies a thousand deaths on a thousand counter-examples. Just as pro-choice is not equal to pro-abortion, so “pro-violence” is not equal to promoting violence; our goals are the same — peace and the end of the animal holocaust, but our methods are different.
In fact, violence and non-violence are not opposites, but, like night and day, discrete but inseparable aspects of an organic whole or process. There are countless times in history violence has been used to end a great violence and oppression. Purists think they are innocent by tolerating evil and not taking necessary measures to counter it, but, ultimately, they simply bloody their hands in other ways and support the violence they present to condemn. The binary division between violent/non-violent self-deconstruct and these “opposites” blend into each other, always interpenetrating to some degree. If we need violence sometimes to stop violence (a basic paradoxical principle of life), and so violence can lead to non-violence, it is equally true that non-violence is in fact bound up with violence if it is not intelligent and brave enough to take the necessary actions against it.
“We are nonviolent with people who are nonviolent to us. But we are not nonviolent with anyone who is violent with us.” Malcolm X
“It doesn’t mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time, I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don’t call it violence when it’s self-defense, I call it intelligence.” Malcolm X
Thanks for your response.
I very much like your use of the terms “extensional self defense” and “counter-violence” – they lesson the ambiguity. Maybe we need more “new” words/terms to really grasp the very distinct difference between self/extensional defense and the cruelty of the perpetrators.
I look forward to reading your book for further insight into your thoughts on this.
thanks
I concur with your sentiments, and I, too, struggle with feelings of futility with lethargic nature of change and the willingness to accept crumbs. Being now in my 50s and having witnessed 5+ decades of the desecration of earth and its non-human inhabitants, I am thinking along the same lines as you. I have been following your blog only recently, but wanted to be one of the two dozen like-minded people to communicate and help you keep your enthusiasm and commitment going.
Welcome here, and thank you for writing, ok, that makes 2 of us!
I’m glad to find out that I’m not alone with sentiments.
If someone tries to poison me, I will fight for my life, I will try to hinder this person to deliver the poison. I consider this as self defense. We are poisoned since decades by BASF, Dow Chemical, Ineos, Exxon Mobil, DuPont, Shell, Bayer, Mitsubishi, Chevron, BP etc.
Changing our own life is a prerequisite but it clearly is not enough.
Everybody who thinks that the idiots who loathe and ridicule the “tree huggers” and proudly cruise around in their SUVs, big like battle tanks, the hedge fund managers and CEOs, who fly around the globe in their private jets, the billionaires who laze on their super yachts, will take their cues from the kind hearted environmentalists who try to live modestly and try to harmoniously integrate with nature, everybody who believes that our shining example alone will heal the world, has a very different life experience and a very different conception of human nature than I have.
We face an uphill battle yet we should not get mired in despair, we have to enjoy our life despite the carnage around us. Only the experience of peace and love and harmony will give us the strength to fight against the evil powers.
Please include me in your band of 2 dozen. I’m perplexed too at what’s holding up the war on violence. It’s obvious that great numbers of us are fed up and enraged… But what does it take to motivate beyond the verbal pretty-please advocacy? Ogres do not reform for cookies!
I consider myself a peaceful soul – I enjoy what limited tranquility I can find by interacting with nature and the beings within it. But it’s always temporary and fleeting. For as soon as my heart is content… The nagging reality of the true misery and murders that happen elsewhere jolt me back to the war yet begun and the fight yet to be won. Everything else is just a momentary. An artificial escape.
The impending force against the violence that exists is long over due and totally justified in my mind. As you Mr. Best put it – It is self protection by extension. I’ve said it myself many times, that violence is violence no matter who the victims are… But that really needs to be qualified. Yes, to the innocent victims it is all the same… But to the abusers it’s meant to be self defense. It’s meant to be justice. A force as a response to another force – A force meant to stop violence isn’t violence! In the case of the animal users it is the force of right against the violence of might.
It seems to me that the world is almost divided in two: Those who don’t see nonhumans as victims at all! And those who do see them as such… But just not ones worthy enough to “break” with the laws that allow their offense. The animals are so f*cked.
I admit I stay safely within the bounds of what I can do and still remain unnoticed. But for those that hang their necks and lives out to do more… To make noise… To be heard… To liberate – I extend every bit of support to them as champions for their cause is mine too! Rip the bloody cage doors open and set them free!
Right on. IT BOGGLES MY MIND that the corporate-state-security complex and brain-dead pacifists use violence in the exact same sense when condemning militant direct action, and that nobody ever thinks to differentiate among different kinds of violence of difference types of foreful or violent acts — they are not all the same, and context is crucial. By analogy, extreme feminimists think that “pornography is rape”; so then what is rape — pornography?! I hope people take the point: we need to discriminate among different contexts and kinds of actions, and just using the word “violence” to cover slicing a pig’s thoat open and breaking down a door to liberate mutilated cats in sick vivisectiom experiences, this is insanity, and i can only say fuck off to any “animal advocate” whose thinking is so impoverished and conditioned that they can only can everything by hugs and kisses “violence.” They degrade and trivialize the real violence dont to animals when they call sabotage violence. Idiots! The only valid extention of the term violenceis not to cover property destruction, but what humans do to physically harm and kill one another, but also animals. Everything else is corporate-FBI propaganda.
Dear Steve,
I was unfortunate to miss your lecture last year in Germany. I live in the South and only realised you had been here when I received a video of your talk by the Saarland guys. I could kick myself, but too late of course.
Thanks for all your hard work, your passion and belief in our common cause – sadly, many have lost that over the years, as you say. I find very little movement taking place in Germany in particular, and have to admit: I often resort to working with colleagues in the UK, the US, and Australia instead. I know that may be wrong on the grounds that things need to move forward in this country too, but it is extremely frustrating. Just take the one example of hunting. Germany is firmly in the grip of the hunting lobby. The new president of the governing body of hunters in the country said, in his inaugural speech last year, that the public must never be allowed to stand in the way of the *Green Guild* (this is what they call themselves). Their self-conception is such that they will not tolerate – nor have to – any serious opposition. Only 15 min. ago there was a short report on fox hunting. At this time of year Germany hosts the so-called “fox weeks” – several weeks where huge numbers of foxes are shot. Male, female (often pregnant at this time of year), the young are dug up and killed with their parents in March/April. The bodies are thrown away (http://serbiananimalsvoice.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/germany-220210-update-fox-week-killings-go-on-and-on-for-weeks/) . It is an annual massacre of monumental proportions. The English fox hunts – viciously fought and for the moment forbidden – are as nothing compared with this slaughter. One would expect people to be up in arms against it to confront the hunters right there and then, as the British colleagues do. But nothing. We watch, we are shocked, we try a bit of political lobbying. The Saarland guys are the only ones who have gotten something off the ground in recent months, only to be thwarted a short time ago by a change in state government. In my area – nothing. Bavaria, even worse. I have documented the slaughter since 2009 now in my area (these pics are mine), but the only local anti-hunt org. has long since given up any active resistance (and told me so), and on my own I can do nothing – but watch. I used to consider myself a peacefuly soul. And I hate what the actions of these people have turned me into. But I can only agree, “It is (high) time to get angry”. I am fed up with signing petitions and sending protest letters – begging uncaring people for mercy, for seeing reason. They will not. Yes, Facebook, Care2 and others have turned us into docile creatures, sitting at our computers (as I do now), thinking we can change the world with a few clicks. We cannot.
Yes, fine, I am considered radical by fellow German colleagues; I’ve critisised them for their inaction and lethargy in the past; I sent mails out to the large lists telling people to stand up and fight; to turn the misery and cruelty we see each day into action, but have, with most, earned only silence. Again, and again. Be a Vegan, they say, and you already save many lives (I’ve known even before you said it in your talk last year that this is not true); engage in peaceful letter wirting campaigns; always be polite and stick to the facts – for heaven’s sake DO NOT BE EMOTIONAL. Why not? Because animal suffering in labs, say, is only a factual issue? If this were a child suffering in this way – wow – people would be all over the place screaming murder. And hey, that would be alright. But a screaming animal, cut apart while still conscious? Hell no.
Oh, I am fed up with it. The lies, the indifference, the “let’s be reasonable, let’s please not overreact”, and the people telling me – “girl, don’t be so impatient. One day, you’ll see, this will all be over and all this animal abuse will be a bad memory. ” “Great, fine, I say, Tell that to the poor creatures sitting in research labs, factory farms, fur farms, caged on trucks in Asia carted to slaughter in Sth. China, etc. I am sure it will be a huge comfort to them.” This movement has got stuck in a blind alley – or much of it has. This movement will placidly tolerate billions falling by the wayside every day – necessary sacrifices on the way to .. what exactly? I wish we knew.
I see too many dead eyes every week to be able to accept the way things are going at the moment. Thanks, Steve, for being a beacon in this maelstrom called Animal Rights.
Tausend dank!
You’re most welcome. I am looking forward to receiving your new book from Amazon – soon hopefully. Somehow, despite it being a new release, it takes them up to 5 weeks to deliver (from the UK). I would also like to express my sympathy for your loss of both Norman and Frank. I don’t think I said that in my post of the other article. I was so incensed yesterday … NYC ACC must be a monstrous place indeed. It is such a shame those two did not get to enjoy the chance you meant to give them. My own cats come from shelters in Europe, but I have also lost quite a few young ones who never had the opportunity to fully enjoy the home they had found. Run over, FIP (and a bungled 1 hour *euthanasia*), cancer. As many of us, I’ve dug more graves than I care to remember. It’s painful, but I have never regretted trying to help. Nor ever will. Same as you.
Indeed, and will never stop trying. Thanks for your work and for ordering my book!
That quote by Seneca is one of my favorites. I sent this blog to someone I debate heavily on this matter, they brought up some interesting points:
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2008/june/ecoterror_063008
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2009/september/domterror_090709
As I’ve become involved in supporting the tactics of 350.org and their successes at getting policy makers attention, I have hope our movement can be as effective with a civil disobedience strategy. My concern is that we are such a minority and are prone to be vilified as extremists, will our civil disobedience tactics backfire or will they make progress. The thing I’ve observed regarding the success of 350.org campaigns is that the protesters are not hostile or threatening, they are peaceful, respectful and solemn. I think as long as we organize our events in the same collaborative manor, and frame this movement in a way that the average person can empathize with, we can be successful. Tim DeChristopher only got 2 years because he was able to frame the problem before the authorities had warped the public opinion:
He went to jail, he is presently serving a 2 year sentence, it could have been 25, for what turned out to be defying an illegal sale of public lands by the departing Bush Administration.