{"id":939,"date":"2019-01-02T22:53:29","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T22:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/?p=939"},"modified":"2019-01-02T22:53:29","modified_gmt":"2019-01-02T22:53:29","slug":"unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/2019\/01\/02\/unity\/","title":{"rendered":"Unity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Immense disappointment — for me, but I left Unity<\/i><\/a> (the successor of Earthlings<\/i><\/a> after a decade) after 20 minutes when I couldn’t take anymore. Horror upon horror, accompanied by exalted banalities solemnly voiced in sound clips by assorted celebrities.<\/p>\n

Earthlings<\/i> had been – and still is – immensely powerful and effective in awakening the world to the otherwise unimaginable agony inflicted on (other) animals by humans, the agony that ag-gag laws<\/a> strive to hide from us. I hadn’t been able to bear watching Earthlings<\/i> either, but I recognize that its graphic evidence is essential for sensitizing that vast majority of humankind who are ignorant of and insulated from the fact that such horrors are being committed, being committed everywhere, and being committed in our name, so as to feed those who crave meat and to clothe those who crave leather and fur. Earthlings<\/i> was not a movie for vegans. It was a movie for creating vegans.<\/p>\n

In the twenty minutes that I could bear of Unity<\/i>, the horrors were mostly inflicted by humans on humans, in the context of war, but there were also Earthlings<\/i> moments in Unity<\/i>, where the human aggression was on animalls – and we could already sense that there would be more later in the film.<\/p>\n

I left before they came. There will probably still be extracts from Unity<\/i> that activists can use to inspire people to become vegan. But skip the human\/human aggression. There is no horror we have inflicted on animals that we have not inflicted on humans too. The \u201crules\u201d of war allow it all. But in peacetime, it is illegal to do that to people.<\/p>\n

For animals, it’s always wartime, and they are always the helpless victims. They are all in the state of terror and despair of that indelibly soul-tormenting first scene of the calf facing and frantically, hopelessly, struggling to escape that all too narrow passageway to merciless slaughter.<\/p>\n

The film brings us no new solution for ending human\/human war, just the banal cliches we already know.<\/p>\n

And for animals, apart from the new supply of episodes to add to the heart-convulsing Earthlings excerpts of ten years ago, this new film adds only a miscegenation of wickedness and words that form no unity: a congeries of horrors and homilies.<\/p>\n

For me what was missing in this call for ecumenical unity among molecules, organisms, earth, planets, galaxies, and universe was the one property that distinguishes the trivial from the tragic \u2014 the property that unifies humans with the (other) animals and distinguishes both from molecules, earth, planets, galaxies – and even trees: That property is sentience, the susceptibility to suffering.<\/p>\n

Towards other humans, we violate this property in times of war (and crime). But towards other animals we violate it at all times.<\/p>\n

Maybe a miracle awaited those who stayed until the end. If so, maybe someone can tell me about it…<\/p>\n

[Afterword: Friends later told me that the punchline turned out to be “Homo spiritus.” But (apart from the pedantic fact that it should have been “Homo spirans<\/i>,” since the notion of “spirit” is inspired by divine incoming breath, and Homo is not the only breathing organism) even the more relevant taxonomic tag — Homo sensibilis<\/i> — would have been a misnomer, because all other organisms with nervous systems are sentient, not just us. And our potential for sensitivity to their sensitivity is useless if we don’t use it.)]<\/p>\n

Immense d\u00e9ception \u2014 pour moi, mais je me suis sauv\u00e9 apr\u00e8s 20 minutes lorsque je n\u2019en pouvais plus. Horreurs suivies d\u2019horreurs, accompagn\u00e9es de banalit\u00e9s exalt\u00e9es et insipides prononc\u00e9es solennellement par des vedettes en clip sonore. <\/p>\n

Earthlings avait \u00e9t\u00e9 \u2014 et est toujours \u2014 d\u2019une immense importance et utilit\u00e9 pour r\u00e9veiller le monde \u00e0 l\u2019agonie indicible inflig\u00e9e aux animaux par les humains. Je n\u2019ai pas \u00e9t\u00e9 capable de regarder Earthlings non plus, mais je reconnais que ces t\u00e9moignages sont indispensables pour sensibiliser cette vaste majorit\u00e9 d\u2019humains qui est ignorante du fait que les telles horreurs se font, se font partout, et se font pour alimenter ceux qui mangent la viande et pour v\u00eatir ceux qui portent le cuire et la fourrure. Earthlings n\u2019\u00e9tait pas un film pour les v\u00e9ganes. C\u2019\u00e9tait un film pour cr\u00e9er les v\u00e9ganes.<\/p>\n

Earthlings had been — and still is — immensely important and useful for awakening people to the unspeakable agony inflicted on (other) animals by humans,<\/p>\n

Dans les vingt minutes que j\u2019ai pu supporter de Unity, les horreurs \u00e9taient majoritairement inflig\u00e9es par les humains aux humains, dans le contexte belliqueux, mais il y avait aussi des moments Earthlings ou c\u2019\u00e9tait les animaux qu\u2019agressaient les humains \u2014 et on devinait d\u00e9j\u00e0 qu\u2019il y en aurait davantage plus tard dans le film.<\/p>\n

J\u2019ai quitt\u00e9 avant. Il y aura sans doute encore des extraits de Unity que les activistes pourront utiliser pour inspirer les gens \u00e0 devenir v\u00e9ganes. Mais sauter les aggressions humaines\/humaines. Il n\u2019y a aucune horreur qu\u2019on inflige aux animaux qu\u2019on n\u2019inflige pas aux humains. Les \u00ab r\u00e8gles \u00bb martiales permettent tous. Mais en temps de paix, c\u2019est interdit de faire \u00e7a aux humains.<\/p>\n

Pour les animaux, c\u2019est toujours la guerre, et ils sont toujours les victimes impuissantes. <\/p>\n

Le film ne donne aucune nouvelle soution pour mettre fin aux guerres humaine\/humaines, juste les clich\u00e9s banals qu\u2019on connais d\u00e9ja. <\/p>\n

Et pour les animaux, \u00e0 part des suppl\u00e9ments aux extraits d\u00e9chirrants genre Earthlings, il n\u2019y a qu\u2019un m\u00e9tissage d\u2019exemples et de mots qui ne font aucune unit\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Pour moi ce qui manquait dans cet appel \u00e0 l\u2019unit\u00e9 \u0153cum\u00e9nique des mol\u00e9cules, des organismes, de la terre, des plan\u00e8tes, des galaxies, de l\u2019univers c\u2019\u00e9tait la seule chose qui distingue les cas banals des cas importants, voir tragiques. C\u2019est la propi\u00e9te qui unifie les humains avec les (autres) animaux, et qui les distingue des mol\u00e9cules, de la terre, des plan\u00e9tes et des galaxies \u2014 et m\u00eame des arbres: Cette propri\u00e9t\u00e9 est la sensibilit\u00e9, la susceptibilit\u00e9 \u00e0 la souffrance.<\/p>\n

Envers les autres humains, nous trahissons cette propri\u00e9t\u00e9 en temps de guerre (et de crime). Mais envers les autres animaux nous la trahissons en tout temps.<\/p>\n

Peut-\u00eatre qu\u2019un miracle attendait ceux qui sont rest\u00e9s jusqu\u2019\u00e0 la fin. Si oui, quelqu\u2019un pourra peut-\u00eatre me le raconter\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Immense disappointment — for me, but I left Unity (the successor of Earthlings after a decade) after 20 minutes when I couldn’t take anymore. Horror upon horror, accompanied by exalted banalities solemnly voiced in sound clips by assorted celebrities. Earthlings had been – and still is – immensely powerful and effective in awakening the world … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Unity”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3074,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3074"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":940,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions\/940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}