I wrote a short paper, unpublished, about this a couple of years ago. Many
of the Animal Rights people liken themselves to the abolitionist/civil
rights movement. The progression is from non-violence in the sense used by
Ghandi and Thoreau to that modified by John Brown and others into justified
violence. The ALF people are kidding themselves when they say they are
commited to non-violence and then burn buildings down. Arson is an act of
violence regardless of whether a human gets hurt or not. The literature on
non-violence is pretty clear that the concept includes attacks on property
as well. What the ALF is doing is more directly connected to the anarchist
movement and the concept of "direct action." Even there they have their
logic on wrong as the concept means taking action against a specific target
to prevent some injustice, and, importantly, being willing to face the
consequences of the action. Burning and robbing a hunting clubs building is
basically an act of vandalism.

I could respect an open commitment to the use of violence, although in the
case of animal rights it is a big stretch, but this hypocritical stance that
"we're non-violent, but we'll burn your house down," sticks in my throat.

Once again I think that the animal rights movement has shown that it is not
concerned with environmental issues, it is a political and social reform
program. I know that those on the list who sympathize with animal rights are
going to blast me again, but if they want to do so, please show me how this
action in Maine is environmental.
sb

http://www.du.edu/~sbissell
 What we lost with that wild, primal existence
was a way of being for which the era of
agriculture and civilization lacks counterpoise.
Human life is the poorer for it.
                             Paul Shepard

-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Jim Tantillo
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 1999 8:37 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: followup on the Maine incidents


Here's a column by Bill Nemitz in this morning's (October 6) Portland Press
Herald about the recent ALF activities in Maine:

http://www.portland.com/news/story13.shtml

Jim Tantillo



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