I SEE THE PICTURE TOO - HUMANE SLAUGHTER IS A MYTH

To continue on to a personal side of a post I wrote as Provoked - I wanted to elaborate on art, mental health, Grandin and slaughterhouses... And how they all tie together for me.

You see I can understand the bane of being "different" or judged as psychologically or emotionally "odd". The "normal world" does not take kindly to those who "don't fit", or who thump at the status quo... I know that challenging "traditional" or "popular" convention, isn't for the faint of heart... But I also know, it has it's rewards.

I was always told that I'm "too" inquisitive, "too" analytical, too "intense", too "absorbed" and "too serious". My thought processes are "too extreme". I was the kid (grown to woman), who always asked the endless "why?". But, to say that this is "too much" - Is to say that I am "too me".

I know my "type" of (critical, obsessive compulsive, bi-polar, autistic, etc.) person is exhausting to most. I also know the painful pressure to abide by accepted, restrained and "approved" expectations. To not do so, may make someone "anti-social", a "radical" or a "lone wolf"... Or it may make them an activist, advocate, doer, mover, shaker, progressive, "rule-breaker", independent-thinker, "pioneer", explorer, scientist, designer and/or creator.

We all hold, nourish or repress these attributes to differing degrees... Abstraction and expression through art is no different.

Right Brain Thinking and Seeing In Pictures:

Always consumed by the creative process... It wasn't dolls or balls that filled my childhood; But rather word games, puzzles and other "cerebral" challenges. I've always enjoyed organizing physical things as well as constructs. I was fortunate to own a large business, that required frequent and efficient re-arrangement of stock. Such exercise is good for the body and the brain...

At home, I'm meticulous about the placement of objects - I'm happiest with balanced space and matter, and have devised practical schemes to suit my needs. This attention to detail, inspired the remodeling of two homes. Seeking order, in imaginative ways has been satisfying to me, even as recreation. I'm also not ashamed to say I study and marvel at the complexity of feathers, intricate leaves, flowers, spider webs and other "useless" objects in my yard. I am amazed, and can get "lost" in the discovery of pattern within chaos. I'm gratified that I've been able to convey my aesthetic voice through gardening, sewing and expression through my art.

But the first thing I had to do in order to visualize a different way, or argue a logical premise, or aspire for a better world, was to have the courage to investigate my preconceived ideas. I needed to suspend my inherited notions about conformity and listen for my own truth; Even though this path meant going against critics, doubters and opponents.

And the same exacting and analytical vision that allowed me to approach an easel for the first time, or that made me think I could complete prize winning quilts, or thought that I could run a business, was the same mind that came to know:

THE TRUTH ABOUT HUMANE SLAUGHTER

Nothing "humane" happens in the bowels of a kill floor.

"Humane" means to be concerned with the alleviation of suffering. These beings are not ill, maimed or otherwise "unhealthy". They are not in an aging pain. They are delivered "fit for living", so there is no "suffering to alleviate". Nor do they go willfully to be extinguished. They are physically forced to their early, unhappy and unjust end. They are being slashed from this earth by a perpetual machine that must be fed... This machine is run by a conning, yet intellectually lazy culture that says to so is "necessary". And to do so for profit is even better...

From the time we're born we're taught that animals are our irreplaceable "food". This false and archaic idea of "necessity", along with dogmatic social habits and demands, is what is required to believe the myth of "humane slaughter". Indeed the wrongness of animal use, is an idea that must be rationally inspected and rightfully discarded for the bung that it is!

My own body, and millions of others show, and experts say, there is no "need" to eat animals. So with no justification, and only the violence caused in wasting life, how can there be "humane" slaughter at all?

Yet... Here is T Grandin, "gifted" to know what animals want... And smart enough to know what the meat industry needs... They need a public who is content to not question presupposed, erroneous ideology. They need consumers who do not inspect ancient indoctrinations. They need complicity and consensus within a society that doesn't not hunger for truth; But is gorged with flesh instead.

They need followers, not audacious individuals...

It takes unique, self-reliant and passionate truth seekers to really look inside a slaughterhouse. And when one does they will see it for the cruel, gluttonous, and macabre hell pit that it is... As I did, they too will see it in pictures:

And the inescapable imperative is obvious: Go Vegan