“What is the difference really?” I asked myself after crying over the murder of a beloved one. One of the most beautiful creatures I had the chance to wonder around the forests of Istanbul, on sunny and rainy days of the spring and fall for the last two years. I do remember seeing him for the first time. I do remember riding him and the way we guided each other through the forest, and in a short while how fast he started to track the directions much better than myself. I remember a rainy day in which he fancied a gallop and forcing me to stick to him and another day in which he rejected coming with me although I asked him to, and also that he later apologised. I remember much more but will not bore you with all that. Those of you who know the wonders of a world with horses already know what I mean anyway...
But I feel so angry that I have to write these...
First things first: I am no animal rights (or animal liberation) activist. I have quitted vegetarianism almost 4 years ago (after 8 years of a veggie diet) and I think I have a rather good idea regarding where I stand on this matter. I am no animal rights activist.
Still I find it utterly cruel to race horses.
Whoever thinks it is a sport must be sick in the head, as an athlete being forced to run through whipping is simply viciousness. And this beloved one was whipped to run to the point that he broke a leg (and horses don’t break their legs easily, they don’t even break your bones easily).
I understand that it is almost impossible to heal a broken equine leg. I understand the requirement of euthanasia. I don’t and can’t understand, however, why they should be raced!
And this is the point where I asked the question above: “What is the difference really?” Is it not the same thing that our (?post-?)modern societies do to us: whip us till we run fast enough to make the wheel turn. Until we break a leg (or lose our hopes for a different way of being, life, society, etc.), of course, and then we should be put to sleep (or in front of the TV for that matter). Are we not subject to similar kind of cruelty?
On second thought, being a subject to a lot of cruelty is shared among animals and humans… I feel that whenever I find tiny (literally 3pts) “genetically modified” labels on my food, whenever a doctor prescribes me the “newest” medicine or suggests birth control pills, whenever I am offered cosmetics that will make me “look better”. Don’t you love the way the industry pollutes the language like this?
In one of his shows George Carlin said:
Government wants to tell you that you can’t say something because it is against the law, or the regulation, or “here is something you can’t say because it is a secret: you can’t tell him that because he is not clear to know that.” Government wants to control information and control language because that’s the way you control thought. And basically that’s the game they’re in.
Same with religion: Religion is nothing but mind control. Religion just tries to control your mind, so they’re gonna tell you somethings you shouldn’t say because they are SINS, and beside all those things you shouldn’t say, religion is going to suggest to you certain things you ought to be saying:
“Here is something you ought to say first thing you wake up in the morning.”
“Here is something you ought to say just before you go to sleep at night.”
“Here is something we always say on the third Wednesday on April after the first full moon when it is 4 o’clock after the bells ring.”
Despite the joke, I have to suggest the same with regards to industry. Industrialisation, mechanisation, atomisation, speed and more speed and light speed... Who needs variety, slowness, uniqueness, or diversity anyway? Running is all we are trained for and that's what we do... Therefore, I suggest the same with regards to all fully- or semi-industrialised societies that "train" or "educate" us. See even the word education comes from educere: to lead forth. They forgot about the whip part...
And today I feel much like a racehorse with a broken leg, waiting to be shot in the head. Some days are better, in which I notice that I have still not broken a leg... Still running in maddening speed although I want to slow down, I worry about when THAT will happen… Regardless of how good the day is, when I look at the lives of people around me and my own I can’t stop asking “what is the difference really?”
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