animal rights

Before I became an animal rights activist, I was an armchair feminist. I believed in women’s rights, signed petitions for gender equality, and got dutifully mad at reports of sexual harassment and other acts of violence against women. I’d like to believe I’d support women’s rights no matter what time period I was born in and that I wasn’t just evolving with the times and the current social climate.

Do you suppose Hitler had a bad conscience? Or did he have bad consciousness? If you answered no to the former and yes to the latter than you already get the gist of this post.

I doubt many people, if any, have a bad conscience. Sure, they may have pangs of feelings of guilt but that are able to put those aside to carry on with their daily lives.

I don’t think any conservative, or liberal politician, and for that matter, oil executive, hedge fund manager, etc. wakes up in the morning and thinks to themselves, “How can I make this world worse off today than it was yesterday?” They all think they are doing the right thing according to their obligations to their constituents, shareholders, companies and their own selves and their families. It would be hard for one to live with oneself otherwise.

Let me start with something completely unrelated and see if I can tie it into the title in a meaningful way. A couple of years ago I went skydiving. I always kept telling my wife how much I would love to go skydiving except I never did anything about it since I am scared, I mean, crazy scared of heights. Being the wonderful wife she is, she decides to get me a skydiving gift certificate... one with an expiration date. One thing I dislike more than heights is wasting money. I am, after all, Indian.