What has America become? We are a nation that tells our children mediocrity is ok. No one should be singled out for excellence: everyone wins just for trying. My son came home from school yesterday and I asked him about his day. After a few minutes of general banter he relates his experiences in gym class. Apparently the school system has a problem with athletics and therefore has “progressed” to promote pussification. He will be spending his year playing with ribbons, going for walks, and bouncing a ball to himself.
Right now you must be asking yourself “What does this have to do with hippies?” The correlation is hippies are even becoming weaker. Instead of having marches many hippie organizations are utilizing Virtual Marches. It may be that their legs have become so brittle that a mile march would leave them crippled. God forbid they actually have to get off their smelly couch, put down the bong, and go out.
The hippies are even celebrating their pansification. The Human Society is fighting the good fight against cruelty to hens. They have decided to target Wendy’s. No don’t bother trying to stop the millions of cows that meet their delicious end at the hands of the fast-food giant. They even go on to congratulate Burger King in the article. Talk about a complete waste of time and energy. Maybe the hens enjoy the cramped living space or even the closeness of the walls aids in depositing the eggs.
So to summarize the hippies are becoming a group that not worth fighting only pity. Instead of ranting about their hypocrisies and expanding the cracks in their logic we should pat them on the head tell them “everyone is a winner,” and move toward something relevant in the world.
September 4, 2007 at 10:54 pm
Well, I read the article that you were referring to, and I have some issues with your issues.
1) I couldn’t find in the article where the congratulate Burger King for anything. My impression of the article was that they were using Burger King as a comparison of industry equivalent, specifically to contrast Wendy’s’ statements that they could not do anything to effect the current situation, because Burger King had already committed to a change. Whether Burger King has made progress or not would be something to analyze, but not their inclusion in the article as a comparison.
2) The article is specifically about inhumane practices regarding hens. There is no reason they should need to mention beef in a chicken story, as far as I can tell. That would be the same as criticizing someone from the ACLU for not mentioning racial discrimination in regards to a gay bashing incident.
Had Upton Sinclair not written “The Jungle” in 1920 exposing the horrible conditions of the meat packing industry, a lot of the quality standards and safety practices that we have today may not exist, or may have taken a much longer time to come about.
People trying to expose practices that they think are harmful to us or animals or the world are vital to the evolution of our society toward something better. Sometimes they may be wrong, and I can accept that not every cry of outrage is valid or useful. But without an interest in the basic quality of life for the world, I think we’d be worse off on the whole.
September 5, 2007 at 5:57 am
The point I was trying to make is that the HSUS is so inconsequential that they attack a very minor issue and hope to succeed. Wendy’s as a whole does not sell many egg products. To attack them is like attacking long john silver for abuse to pigs. There is also no evidence of any health issues with regards to the tight quarters. The chickens just can’t scratch their ass without being a contortionist.
September 6, 2007 at 2:26 am
I would venture a guess that there are differences (in this case, stark differences) betweeen Health Risks and horrible quality of life standards. If i were a member of the Humane Society, I would imagine that a low quality of chicken-life is a little more of a pressing issue to them than whether the hen gets a head cold.
but hey, that’s just me.
September 6, 2007 at 3:07 am
To the HUMANE society quality of life is a huge deal. They have the audacity to say they understand what an animal is feeling and can recognize their emotional patterns.
September 20, 2007 at 3:30 am
It took me a while to get around to this, but here goes:
I agree with you on this one actually. I don’t believe we have the means to really understand what an animal is feeling. you’re totally right about that.
However, and i will qualify this by saying that i haven’t seen many chickens in the wild, It would be a titanic leap of the imagination to think that, if left to their own means, that chickens would choose – of their own free poultry will – to cram themselves into very tight spaces and cut their own beaks off.
Just a thought.