Resist, Defy, Disrupt

July 21, 2010 — Negotiation Is Over

by Camille Marino

A chicken would open its cage if it could. A dairy cow does not willingly surrender her babies. Laboratory prisoners do not choose restraints and torture. It’s our job to demand their rights — to resist
oppression, defy authority, and disrupt the system that enslaves them.
Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. endured jail, job loss, and,
ultimately, death, to fight segregation and instititional racism. Animal
activists must demonstrate comparable dedication to our rights-based
movement.

Are we willing to risk jail?

Are we willing to risk our jobs, professions, or careers?

Are we willing to incur society’s laughter or wrath?

Some vegans would not hesitate to answer “yes” on all counts. But, if we’re going to be honest, most animal rights activists would utter an almost-inaudable “no” three consecutive times. While inaction guarantees
torment and death for the animal, the activist remains safe and
unscathed. The greater potential an action has to liberate a victim, the
far greater peril the activist must face. We all need to acknowledge
this diametrically-opposed dynamic that is unique to the animal-activist
relationship and adopt it as a personal barometer. We can then know
with utter certainty that when we obey authority, acquiesce to our own
fear, and take no risk that we facilitate the holocaust. There is a
fixed cost of industrial abuse for the victims: terror. Either the
animals absorb 100% of the consequences for being born into our
society, or we assume some of their liability at our own expense.

The individual line that each of us navigates between self-preservation and activism is subject to no external critique… only our own conscience.

But if an activist never has a sinking feeling in the pit of their stomach, never questions their own actions or weighs potential results, or is unfamiliar with nagging doubts, this is highly problematic for the
animals. It means that we are disengaged, probably spend an inordinate
amount of time signing petitions, offer no resistance, and we function
as ornaments, not activists. Continue to sign petitions, debate on
forums, or enjoy any number of safe activities, but do more. Unless we
advance a resistance on behalf of all nonhuman animals, then we are
complicit in their exploitation.

Whether we are educators or liberators, we share this responsibility equally.

RESIST, DEFY, DISRUPT – IT’S IN OUR JOB DESCRIPTION!