LONDON - A British artist has eaten chunks of a corgi dog, the breed favored by Queen Elizabeth II, live on radio to protest the royal family's treatment of animals.James: This is the ultimate in irony and flawed logic. The man protests the treatment of animals by the British royal family by eating a dog?? That's the kind of logic that says it's o.k. to kill an abortion doctor to keep him from "killing" babies.
It also reminds me of the argument that torturing people is o.k. if it means we will save another life-- It is a slippery slope indeed.
Protecting animals from poor treatment and lack of dignity is a very worthy and noble cause but just like anything that is good it can become corrupted if we allow ourselves to become too emotionally charged and blinded by said, "cause." Soon we are making all kinds of flimsy justifications to try and back up the end justifying the means.
This man let his emotions take over and not surprisingly his charged ego led him astray. His anger clouded his judgment to the point where he no longer cared about the treatment of animals but was instead driven to hurt others including this poor dog to try and make his point that was long forgotten. His act ended up being a very selfish act rather then a peaceful, inclusive one. His actions in the end did the opposite--they alienated and horrified people and that is what is so sad about this situation. He could have held a peaceful march that would have united people in an uplifting, educational and positive way which would have had a much greater impact.
I am reminded of so called "revenge killings" by this story. Killing another being for having killed a loved one. In the end only more suffering is inflicted upon the people involved thus creating more problems then before. It is very easy to simply react through emotion rather than act out of mindfulness and that is what is so important about practice through meditation. So that road will be well worn and clear to find in such situations.
Mindfulness allows us to constantly be aware of our actions and emotions checking to see if they are rational, balanced and beneficial to ourselves and other sentient and non-sentient beings. We have to constantly remind ourselves that we are not the center of anything--we are another cog in the wheel. A very worthy and noble cog but nothing special or not special from anything or anyone else.
I have found that when we make decisions out of selfishness we are led astray and eventually find ourselves walking down dark and twisted alleyways that we would not have gone down otherwise. It turns out that this man is known for his shocking "protests" which shows to me even more that this has turned into being "all about him" rather then the animals which have ironically and tragically become props to his selfish game.
Social activism is a wonderful and important activity but we must be very careful as emotions can run high and in the heat of the moment we can easily cascade into making some very damaging decisions.
All that being said--sometimes I much prefer the company of animals then human beings.
---End of Transmission---
