Violence
Begins
Animal Industries and the Cult of Aggression
We often hear hunting described as a "manly" sport. Its
macho image accounts for most of its appeal. Why do
hunters see the killing or wounding of a defenseless
animal as a mark of manhood? Animals are unarmed and can't
compete effectively against human weapons. How could
participation in such an unequal contest be seen as an
affirmation of masculinity?
The answer is
surprisingly simple: it has to be viewed that way.
Otherwise it could not continue.
The roots of this
misunderstood phenomenon go back to prehistory. As Jim
Mason documents in his pioneering book, An Unnatural
Order, the rise of hunting and herding in prehistoric
societies triggered a quantum leap in tribal
aggressiveness. These societies tended to be far more
territorial, combative, and violent than their
predecessors. What accounts for this change? All evidence
suggests that earlier foraging cultures had a profound
respect for animals. To foragers, animals were spirits and
close relatives who evoked powerful bonds and complex
emotional responses in their human kin. Their routine
victimization would have been almost as repellent as
cannibalism is today. To develop an economy based on a
brutal act of violence, a radical cultural change was
necessary. What occurred might be described as the
invention of "manhood." In order to legitimize the taking
of animal life, hunters and herdsmen idealized aggression,
enveloping it in mysticism.
Psychologically, much
of this may be understood simply in terms of compensation.
The Dictionary of Behavioral Science defines compensation
as "the mechanism of covering up aspects of oneself that
are unacceptable and substituting more desired traits in
an exaggerated form." Hunters and herdsmen compensated for
the shame, horror, and cowardice of animal abuse by
idealizing aggression. The cult of aggression, which
replaced animals and nature as the focus of spirituality,
elevated cruelty to a rite of male power. These new
masculine ideals supported an unprecedented assault
against animals and nature. Highly effective in justifying
animal cruelty, such beliefs took root in many
animal-exploiting cultures.
The figure of the
cowboy epitomizes these ideals in contemporary society.
Unadorned, the "cowherdly" exploitation of harmless
herbivores would be too unpalatable to generate social
consent. It has to be reinterpreted. By enshrining the
cowboy as an exemplar of masculinity, celebrating his
deeds as epic achievements, and promoting his mythology of
wholesome brutality, industry and media succeed in
repackaging animal cruelty for public consumption.
The "sportsman"
renders a similar service. His occult faith that he can
prove his manhood by bullying a duck, a deer, or a rabbit
establishes aggression as a virtue.
Most people know
intuitively that manhood consists in protecting, loving,
and defending, not in victimizing. But the need to
idealize aggression in order to promote animal agriculture
produces a different concept of masculinity entirely. This
version values aggression per se. It confers acceptance
and prestige on those who dominate, and on the act of
domination itself. Through the magic of social ritual,
aggression against the weak achieves not only
respectability but honor.
In ancient times the
practice of animal sacrifice gave cruelty the implicit
blessing of the gods. (This barbaric ritual still persists
in some areas, where its essential purpose remains
unchanged.) Today, sport hunting, bullfights, rodeos,
dissections, dog shows, zoos, 4-H clubs and other
traditions serve to sanction and sanctify animal abuse.
The honor accorded to
aggression by animal-based economies has disfigured human
relations for millennia. Militarism, racism, genocide,
crime, child and spousal abuse, economic exploitation,
even sports and entertainment exhibit the malignant
effects of our "aggression obsession."
The primary model for
human aggression is animal abuse. "They treat us like
animals" we say to signify total disregard for the rights
of others. As children we learn that animals can be
exploited for human benefit. We quickly grasp the reason:
they can't defend themselves. Might makes right is the
foundation of our interspecies relations. Whether we see
animals as prey, prisoners, sacrificial offerings, slaves,
commodities, experimental subjects, toys, ornaments, or
educational tools, our relentless drive to profit from
animal suffering inspires the most debased human
behaviors. Psychologically, our persecution of
animals--the original scapegoats--sets the pattern for
discrimination against any population deemed inferior or
threatening. We always depict such groups as animal-like,
therefore expendable.
Margaret Mead
remarked that the worst thing that can happen to a child
is for him to harm an animal and get away with it. Animal
cruelty kills respect for life. When an entire society
exploits animals on a massive scale, violence becomes an
institution.
What has been called
"the banality of evil" springs from the same phenomena:
worship of aggression, scapegoating, the myth of
biological superiority, and habituation to violence. The
Nazis proved how easily mass murder crosses the species
barrier. Some of the bids submitted by the German
manufacturers who built Hitler's herding and killing
facilities have been preserved. These bland documents are
indistinguishable from contracts for livestock equipment.
Industrialized violence kills millions of animals every day. "Collateral damage" to our own species takes an additional toll. With a rapacity bordering on apocalyptic, we now spill more blood of man and beast than all other terrestrial species combined. The cult of aggression responsible for this war against life originated in the distant past as a cover-up for animal cruelty. It may be the most archaic superstition to survive antiquity. We are not carnivores by nature and there is nothing manly about abusing the defenseless. Those who prey on the vulnerable are cowards and cutthroats. Their pursuit of cruelty through the ages transformed violence into an institution and turned history into "a nightmare from which we are trying to awake."