Where do I even begin?! Chapters 8 and 9 have caused more inner turmoil to my life than I know what to do with. The points made in these chapters all bring up good points that I believe many of us ignore to protect ourselves. I know for me personally that the less I know the easier it is to pretend like nothing is going wrong in the animal research world; however, Herzog places the truth right in front of you with no where to turn. As awful as it was to visualize some of his points, specifically the section about testing on impaired humans. I would have never in a million years thought about using humans for experiments, but Herzog wants even playing grounds so he presents all sides of the argument. Based off of Herzog's points as to why impaired humans should be eligible for research they all make perfect sense, but because of how we were raised society has placed a mental block in our brains telling all of us that this concept is pure evil. I don't see it right to use humans instead of animals; however, I do believe Herzog has a valid point.
Moving on into chapter 9. This chapter was a little calmer than the one before but none the less caused me to question the way in which I live my life. I would defiantly say that I am experiencing cognitive dissonance because my behaviors do not agree with some of my attitudes. For example, I don't understand why so many mice must be killed each year just because they are extras, but I think that testing should be done so that we can help better humans. Another example is Pikes fish market, I do not see anything wrong with them throwing fish because the fish are already dead and they are going to be used for food later, so it is not like they are throwing fish just for enjoyment. In the other hand if people decided to throw kittens or puppies around I would not see it in the same light as I do with the fish. When it comes down to making a clear cut decision on what I believe in and want to stand for I can not chose a direct position due to all of the varying counter arguments. This sounds awful because I need to stand up for what I believe in but after reading this book I don't even know know what to think. One day I shall figure it out(=
-Kelsey Spaulding
In my blog post about chapter 10 I mentioned something about cognitive dissonance also! I found it extremely interesting how animal rights can be applied to social psychology in the way that it can make us feel guilty and uncomfortable about our decisions. PETA is extremely good at making us aware of these decisions and even better at making us feel bad about them. I remember once I saw a PETA demonstration out on a street where two naked people were covered in ketchup and plastic wrapped tostyrofoam as if they were packaged meat. It was gross and made me think about how gross it is to be eating meat. They are extreme, but they do make you think.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link explaining animal rights cognitive dissonance better :
http://www.examiner.com/article/applying-social-psychology-to-vegan-outreach-cognitive-dissonance
-Kelly Ejnes