“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas … The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production.” -Karl Marx
On Friday, I had my students categorize 19 picture word walls. Most kids put all the nonhuman animal cards into an animal group. I approached a pair of kids and asked how they were grouping the cards. Two eight year olds looked at me and said, “This is a group of things people sell“. These were the cards in their group:
Lost for words I walked away to process what they had said. A few seconds later I walked back to their table to ask how these are sold. They said people sell and buy ocean animals at the store to eat them and animals are sold at pet shops.
Their ideas confirm how the ruling class – the 1% – normalizes the eating of animals. After all, on November 2012, the sales of meat for 2012 exceeded 33 billion dollars. Indoctrination of children equates with more consumers, more profit, and upholding the status quo as the rich get richer and the poor are exploited in slaughterhouses and unconsciously eat meat at the expense of more than 11,047,490,732 pounds of tortured, murdered, dead animals.
As an individual I am creating a very tiny, barely noticeable dent in the loss of profits by boycotting factory farming. Collectively we can do a lot more and put an end to the exploitation of lives for profits.
Boycott Factory Farming! Go Vegan!
You, my friend, are fabulous!
I love that Marx quote. I am a big fan of KM
I’m glad those kids have you as their teacher.
Thank you, Ally! I am learning about KM and this is one quote that stuck with me. It’s interesting exposing kids to veganism. Hopefully they’ll carry some aspect of compassionate living with them.
I am sure you are having a positive influence
My dad is a big fan of KM. He’ll be happy to hear that my friend in NYC is quoting Marx on her blog. You don’t see Marx quoted so often these days.
I hope to share more quotes in future posts as I learn more about his work
. P.s. your dad sounds like a cool man
Hi I wished I read more of these posts on blogs. I think you have open their eyes and possibly planted a seed which may one day grow into connecting all the dots to become vegan. I mean it amazes me how much society lies to children in a sense of on one hand portraying animals as beautiful animals and then the other eating them. It is so weird. The fact that you are vegan is a huge step because you affect others and veganism is becoming more widely spread. Thanks for sharing
Thank you thombeed. It is really weird how there is a disconnect between “loving” animals and eating them. We were talking about burgers one day and I casually mentioned it’s made from cow meat. One of my kids put his hands over his mouth in shock. I don’t know what he thought they were made of…
thats very sad but not unbelievable for me anymore. The amount of lies we tell our children with meat and dairy is so bad. Planting the seed may help them later. You are doing work and it seems like from what you tell me you are vegan for the same reasons that I am vegan.. ie not for health. environment etc purely ethical reasons its nice to meet another person who is on the same wavelength as me
Likewise, Thombeed. It’s been surprisingly challenging meeting vegans committed to reasons beyond animal rights and health in my area.its really good to know there are like minded vegans in other places of the world
Hi sadly I have only met a few. Some vegans I have met celebrate because battery chicken have a increase area to stand in, in their cages. For me there is nothing to celebrate there. We should educate and put a stop to the demand of animal consumption and not concentrate on the supply. Nice to meet up in this virtual world. I actually think Ally from the blog http://madeofstars1.com/ thinks the same too !! Enjoy your week
Hi I think there are a few of us…. I think that Ally from http://madeofstars1.com/ is the same…ethical vegan and also her husband may be too
so there is 4 haha