Is there knowledge here, or heavy-handed emotional manipulation?
I'd attack a water buffalo with a fork and eat his brains out raw if I were starving enough, but I don't know if I'd want to keep videos of it around on YouTube.
Thanks for the heads-up. I love emotionally-powerful messages, just not simple-minded manipulative ones. Sounds like it might be a good flick.
I've seen it some months ago and I would lean to the manipulation side.
There are a lot of heavy-handed comparisons (e.g. to the holocaust) and things like that just to get their point across.
I agree that the imagery is powerful and will most likely haunt a lot of people for days or weeks, but the narration bothered me at a number of points during the documentary
Is there knowledge here, or heavy-handed emotional manipulation?
Elements of both, sure. There's a lot of truth in there, but there's also a number of events that occur in the minority but presented as common. (Not to say it's not uncommon, but not necessarily common either). As in: I'm Australian, but the movie is very US American-centric. Not all of it applies 1:1 to my life, but there's a lot that comes close and hits far too close to home. So even with that, I had a lot of hard questions to ask myself after seeing it. (Spoiler: I've been vegan pretty much since then.)
I'd say for all of the movies out there in this niche, it's probably the best of them, but ymmv.
My personal feelings are that mankind needs to evolve a new common morality of how to deal with animals.
But -- and this is a big caveat -- that might take 20-80 years. We'll at least need to be able to generate laboratory animal protein first, and many questions involving animals will only have compromises for answers. Unfortunately for many who remain upset about animal welfare, humans are an intricate part of the ecosystem of Earth. As much as we would like to live in a vacuum, we're at the top of the food chain and the rest of the planet exists to feed and sustain us (at least in a functional sense)
There's also a tendency with artists to confuse "things I can get really upset about" with art. So, frankly, we have a lot of stupid and shallow-minded folks who self-stimulate by getting upset over all kinds of stuff. There are a lot of people making a really good living staying in a state of outrage -- and they tend to want to bring the rest of us along with them. Not healthy for a media consumer.
By no means am I implying that this film or these film-makers fit that pattern. I haven't watched it. I'm simply stating the nature of modern art as I currently understand it. Ranting, emotional manipulation, and groupthink wins out over thoughtful reflection every time.
And, also frankly, as much as we like to be self-centered about these things, there's really nothing much to say that man is all that special in the big scheme of things. Having us treat the rest of the animal kingdom poorly, burn lots of fossil fuels, change the acidity of the ocean, and pollute the air? It may be no more unnatural across the universe than a lion eating a gazelle. In fact, to a civilization advanced just a few thousand years ahead of us, none of this would even be a blip on the radar of things they'd be concerned about. It'd be like trying to lecture a cow not to eat grass. We tend to be very narrow-minded, even when we're trying explicitly not to be.
I don't think it takes a complex morality to figure out that animals shouldn't be subjected to concentration camp-like conditions. Eating meat is natural and will never stop, unless resources are so scarce that it has to, but that doesn't mean that meat has to be cultivated with careless cruelty, which is more or less what's currently going on. And yes, we are a cosmic blip destined to become extinct, but that doesn't morally absolve us from trying to minimize suffering through reasonable measures.
Comments
Just a heads up: there's a lot of confronting and graphic imagery in that movie. It's not something you can easily unsee.
I'd still recommend watching it. Knowledge is power, of course, but in a safe state before tuning into it.
Is there knowledge here, or heavy-handed emotional manipulation?
I'd attack a water buffalo with a fork and eat his brains out raw if I were starving enough, but I don't know if I'd want to keep videos of it around on YouTube.
Thanks for the heads-up. I love emotionally-powerful messages, just not simple-minded manipulative ones. Sounds like it might be a good flick.
I've seen it some months ago and I would lean to the manipulation side. There are a lot of heavy-handed comparisons (e.g. to the holocaust) and things like that just to get their point across.
I agree that the imagery is powerful and will most likely haunt a lot of people for days or weeks, but the narration bothered me at a number of points during the documentary
How are the comparisons to the Holocaust incorrect or unjustified?
Elements of both, sure. There's a lot of truth in there, but there's also a number of events that occur in the minority but presented as common. (Not to say it's not uncommon, but not necessarily common either). As in: I'm Australian, but the movie is very US American-centric. Not all of it applies 1:1 to my life, but there's a lot that comes close and hits far too close to home. So even with that, I had a lot of hard questions to ask myself after seeing it. (Spoiler: I've been vegan pretty much since then.)
I'd say for all of the movies out there in this niche, it's probably the best of them, but ymmv.
My personal feelings are that mankind needs to evolve a new common morality of how to deal with animals.
But -- and this is a big caveat -- that might take 20-80 years. We'll at least need to be able to generate laboratory animal protein first, and many questions involving animals will only have compromises for answers. Unfortunately for many who remain upset about animal welfare, humans are an intricate part of the ecosystem of Earth. As much as we would like to live in a vacuum, we're at the top of the food chain and the rest of the planet exists to feed and sustain us (at least in a functional sense)
There's also a tendency with artists to confuse "things I can get really upset about" with art. So, frankly, we have a lot of stupid and shallow-minded folks who self-stimulate by getting upset over all kinds of stuff. There are a lot of people making a really good living staying in a state of outrage -- and they tend to want to bring the rest of us along with them. Not healthy for a media consumer.
By no means am I implying that this film or these film-makers fit that pattern. I haven't watched it. I'm simply stating the nature of modern art as I currently understand it. Ranting, emotional manipulation, and groupthink wins out over thoughtful reflection every time.
And, also frankly, as much as we like to be self-centered about these things, there's really nothing much to say that man is all that special in the big scheme of things. Having us treat the rest of the animal kingdom poorly, burn lots of fossil fuels, change the acidity of the ocean, and pollute the air? It may be no more unnatural across the universe than a lion eating a gazelle. In fact, to a civilization advanced just a few thousand years ahead of us, none of this would even be a blip on the radar of things they'd be concerned about. It'd be like trying to lecture a cow not to eat grass. We tend to be very narrow-minded, even when we're trying explicitly not to be.
I don't think it takes a complex morality to figure out that animals shouldn't be subjected to concentration camp-like conditions. Eating meat is natural and will never stop, unless resources are so scarce that it has to, but that doesn't mean that meat has to be cultivated with careless cruelty, which is more or less what's currently going on. And yes, we are a cosmic blip destined to become extinct, but that doesn't morally absolve us from trying to minimize suffering through reasonable measures.
Try to kill a water buffalo with your bare hands, then lets discuss our omnivorous diet.
You're just joking, don't you?