Episode 162: Tender is the Flesh and Cannibalism!

- Why can't they get protein from other sources? Beans, Vegetables. Plenty of vegans survive without eating meat. They supplement with B-12, and other supplements derived from non-animal sources.

- Anything that affects all animals would affect people. We are animals. Viruses evolve in relation to specific biological hosts, not to generic hosts. If it affected all animal DNA types then why not humans. Makes no sense. (Biological Fantasy)

Cannibalism and Human Behavior

What does it say about our willingness to adapt and overcome?

One major barrier to the straightening of healthy humans is that violence has an emotional tole on those watching. Mirror neurons react to simulate the emotions of others in our bodies. When we see someone get hurt we emulate that feeling internally. This creates empathy, which is a social feature and necessary for cooperation. This is an evolved biological trait of humans and other animals. A lack of empathy is a sign of psychopathy and is antisocial. Hard to run a society based on a lack of empathy toward other humans.

What does it say about the subjective nature of ethics? That we do what we want and then use justifications and call them ethics. That ethics change, not depending on a better understanding of what is intrinsically right, but by what we actually do to survive.

Ethics stem from the presupposition that humans occupy a special place among creatures. Ethics starts with our consideration of the treatment of humans. It regards human experiences, emotions, communication, consciousness, and well-being as axiomatically prioritized.

One important ethical standard is the idea of treating people and ends in of themselves and not as means to an end. If people are used as a means to an end one can justify almost any treatment of them but if we treat people as if they have intrinsic personal value, they have value to themselves regardless of their use to others, then we are treating them ethically. This does not mean that people do not have effects on each other or manipulate each other or rely on each other. It means that while others have value to us, it is not the only consideration of their value in general.

One problem with the idea of farming humans is that babies need the touch of caregivers or they will die of neglect or be completely developmentally disabled. Human children do not survive without a certain amount of attention and attachment. They can also become antisocial and violent.

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/02/science/the-experience-of-touch-research-points-to-a-critical-role.html

Is it a metaphor for the institute of farming? The slaughtering of animals and how we have to reevaluate our notion of "humane" or ethical by applying the rules to humans. We can only see the horror of the animal-killing business by putting ourselves in that position. It humanizes the animals. This puts humans and all other animals as equals and forces us to accept our place in the animal kingdom or justify how we are different and that morality is species-dependent.

Is it ethical to eat animals? If so, then which ones and why? What makes one animal different from the next? Cultural momentum?

If we can’t eat animals then what can we eat? Only plants? But they are alive and have limited communication abilities.

What are the environmental impacts of factory farming? Especially large animals like cows? How do we weigh these impacts against the impact of ending animal farming and the starvation it would result in?

What alternatives exist? No more cows? Just chickens?

Synthetic meats? (New technology)

Why is cannibalism frowned upon? Taboo?

As a result of starvation or lack of nutrition?

Prion Disease? (Kuru) Like mad cow disease, it causes paralysis and then death. Mostly from eating brain cells but can happen from other parts of the body. The book gets around this by saying that the worry about eating humans was mostly a myth. With scientific study and rigorous controls, I can see that this hurdle could be overcome. But only with experimentation that would be unethical.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/prion-diseases

Why don't we eat each other or our dead now? What evolutionary pressures go against or lead toward cannibalism?

Cannibalism as a means of population reduction/control.

Cannibalism as a reproductive strategy. IE Lions eat non-kin young to induce estrus in female lions.

About the book and the story

The main character seems like a sympathetic narrator. Someone who shares my disgust for eating humans. Someone who remembers the time when it was outlawed and who misses the time when killing and eating humans was only done by the most obscure tribes hidden in the jungles.

His behavior does not reflect this revulsion as he continues to work to better the industry that farms humans. Internally he is distraught and full of dissonance but he justifies his behavior as a way to pay for his father, who is in a home after a mental breakdown. He also is distraught over the death of his son to sudden infant death syndrome, and the mental breakdown of his wife that resulted from the death. He lives alone until he is gifted a female “head”; as they call the humans bred for food. She is his property and has had her vocal cords ripped out.

Then he has sex with her and she becomes pregnant. It seems that this is a sign that he is going to give her a chance at a normal life. That he appreciates her. That he doesn’t see her as a product to be used. This is thrown on its head abruptly when she gives birth and the birth does not go well. We find out that he was using her the whole time. For his own loneliness, for his desire for connection. To replace his son. To get his wife back. She bonds with her captor and he betrays that trust with the smashing of her head with a hammer.

We find out that the true nature of humanity is one of selfishness. The true story here is that we will justify any action based on the positive outcome for ourselves. The main character’s selfish desires malign any guilt he has for his role in the farming of humans. He is no better than anyone and we, the readers, we duped into thinking he might be. He is just as bad as any of them.

Maybe the moral of the story is that in a cruel and unjust world we all become corrupted, just in different ways. One can only bend to the will of the masses and regardless of our internal agony, we find ourselves killing in the name of...

Some Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoxZfs_baNg