By the way, that none so blind phrase is not biblical, as so many believe.
The phrase seemed the best way to describe this writing from a book I've been reading. The book is titled: "The Healing Wound" by Gitta Sereny and it is a series of articles and essays she's written over the years. She writes:
For me, being with this man showed me as no other could have done the very essence of the process of corruption. It was an experience I might not have given myself had I know what it would do to me......I think my reason for doing the things I do, is and always has been quite simply - or perhaps not so simply - a need, a drive to know. The price one pays (and selfishly, expects the people one loves to pay) for giving in to this inner need, in shock, in tension and in a particular kind of fatigue, can be high.
Perhaps something that happened when I was about half-way through the conversations with Stangl, can illustrate these tensions. It happened on an evening after I had stayed late talking to the prison director and the Dusseldorf station platform was virtually empty as I waited for my train. I heard the sound of crying - of many children crying, it seemed to me - for a long time before a freight train, slowing down during its passage through the station, went past us, And as it rolled through - the cries by now, I thought, desperate - I saw parts of pale small faces pressing against the narrow openings of each car. I'm not given to fainting, but I blacked out. The railway worked who helped mu up told me the freight trained carried cattle. It was calves, calves crying just like children. I can still hear them now, as I write.
The Healing Wound, Gitta Sereny. Essay titled "Colloquy With A Conscience" p 92-93.
She is writing about interviewing Franz Stangl who was the commandant of the Sobibor extermination camp during the holocaust. She wrote a book about him based on her interviews.
I reference blindness because she apparently was afflicted with it in depth and profundity...at least I presume she was. Nowhere could I find any mention that she was vegan or went vegan or supported veganism after her experience on the train platform. She certainly did not mention such in the essay and that would have been the logical place for it. I hope I'm wrong but I don't think so.
She writes about her need to know...yet she is unable to see what is right in front of her...that our behavior toward our fellow animals is that which we condemn as horrible and monstrous and "corrupt".
And the calves weren't crying "just like children", calves are children.
For those who are vegan...thank you. Going vegan is required for those seeing clearly. Not being vegan means blindly (or maybe not so blindly) supporting and participating in the horrid, the monstrous and the corrupt...so stop...please.
6 comments:
What an amazing life this woman had. And it is curious how she along with most others could be so focused on the subject but still so limited in their view.
This perplexing truth that some can't see the (evil) forest for the trees reminds me of an illustration I once saw. It had an individual facing a row of tall pines and thick oaks... In front of their nose was a tiny twig obscuring all of that reality. Isn't this the way that ethical blindness goes? A person has to willfully cast aside the lies that cause a reductionist, narrow view so they can see the bigger picture.
The good news is I think evil as with the twig, is insignificant in comparison to what's good. It shatters easily once it's identified. When the blinder is removed we can see a world of possibilities beyond the illusions we once settled for. Alas... Then we only have to tell the world one by one that such a truth exists. (sigh)
This is a very thought provoking post... And you've introduced me to yet another fascinating individual. I suppose that's one of the reasons you're one of the most interesting people I know! Thank you - again!
Thank you for commenting Bea. You point out some great truths. I'm glad you enjoyed the post. I'm waiting to get the book she wrote on Stangl and on Speer too...she apparently was an excellent interviewer...but somehow she managed to avoid the obvious.
I am becoming more and more perplexed by our blindness the more I try to understand it. I'm starting to think this power thing has something to do with it and that it is much more insidious and pervasively destructive and confusion making than that we apprehend.
Seeing all of the troll posts on Facebook by people who supported the rex rabbit breeder in Indiana makes me absolutely sick. These people believed that living in a 2x2 cage piled on top of a dozen others in a lean-to shed is preferable to running happily in people's homes and in rescues. Have they tried it? Let's see how long they last! I just want to run and hide behind a bunch of other level-headed vegans and animal-rights activists (the only people in the world that I think should have the option to reproduce)because while idiots are ranting on the internet about things they can't change, people working for rescues are healing the traumatized souls and prepping them for fantastic futures. I saw pictures from that investigation and it looks like those poor bunnies got little to no hay! Why would anyone put quantity over quality? Not quality of the breed or quality of the meat, but QUALITY OF LIFE. It doesn't just apply to humans. All animals in life need to feel safe and loved, especially prey animals like rabbits who are easily stressed and very prone to illness. So many of those trolls think that breeding is acceptable, but they don't realize that until we are done picking up and rehoming the unwanted rabbits, it's ridiculous for breeders to add to the problem! I promise, so few people care if their pet bunny is a purebred and pedigreed breed or just a mix. I think rabbit shows should require that all rabbits be fixed instead of requiring that they not be fixed. So many people disgust me. Sorry for ranting.
Thank you for commenting Anonymous. Until more of us realize that the living beings we share the planet with are not here for us, that we have no right to exploit them in any shape, form or fashion..."breeders" will continue to try to make money by manipulating our fellow Earthlings. Their behavior confirms a deep and abiding callousness and unconcern with the well-being of others.
Unable to see what was right in front of her. It's perplexing, isn't it, veganelder, this willful blindness.
Unable to hear her heart trying to speak to her, telling her that "the calves weren't crying 'just like children,'" -- rather, that the forlorn "calves are children." She would have called the police or run onto the train and rescued the children herself, one gets the impression, were they human children, not "mere" (my quote marks) bovine children.
Now I see, Bea, where you got the idea and the subtitle for your most recent PROVOKED post: http://beaelliott.blogspot.com/2013/07/taking-lives-and-stealing-milk-from.html
Thank you for commenting Olivia. When I came across the passage in her work, I wanted to call her up and ask her what was going on in her mind. Sad stuff indeed. Children are children are children. Period.
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