should we even care?

[Al the DLOE]

i question the value of apathy with response to social issues like food preparation, traffic going too fast, and feelings of humaity in general. for the most part other than as a social tool for media manipulation your opinions and feelings are worthless but on a personal level. so my question is should i really apply any effort to a socially appealing "feeling"?


btw i do have many things i care about but in general i feel mostissues in the personal sphere of the majorityis just that, a personal problem for me to stayout of. just a small aside to not invalidate the above opinon.

[Ming]

I think you need to be more specific. Personally, I pick and choose what I am apathetic about. Admittedly I'm apathetic about a lot of things, but there are some issues that push my buttons.

[Nacht]

do you realize this: the more control we let "them" have over us, the worse things they can DO TO US.
if we choose to "not think about" what happens to our food, or "not care" about what happens to our products before they reach us, there is NO accountability. if no one is watching because no one "cares", there is no limit to what they will do to answer our demand for said products. where does it end? maybe we are setting precedence for them to vaildate worse testing in the future. with this new leeway, they will start testing on us maybe. prisoners on death row, mental patients. they don't feel pain, they're not even coherent. who cares about that man on death row. he's gonna die anyway. that is their argument to the treatment of food animals. "they are going to die anyway". we are empowering these people whether we want to admit it or not.
right now we "don't care" that animals are treated horribly in factory farms. we just want our burger king, and we want it now. we "don't care" that our make-up, soap, toothpaste, razors, lotions, pet food, etc is tested on animals before it gets to us. some of us even think :they don't do that any more". it is a bigger problem than ever before.
so what are we "not caring" about? they are taking a mile for every inch we give them and there is no governing there. they can fill our food full of hormones and pesticides. they can milk cows until they are infected, and don't have to do anything about it when that ends up in our milk. ever hear the saying "got pus"?
we are burning forests all over the world. not HARVESTING the trees at least to build something out of them, just burning them. and why? because our demand is for more and more factory farms.
but that's ok with us because we "don't care". most grain and wheat crops are grown to feed cattle, not us.
well the joke is on us for "not caring". most of america is obese and will die of strokes, heart disease, etc by the time they are 60.
so go on "not caring". give control of your life to someone else and do everything they tell you to do. eat their food, use their products. just don't be mad in 40 years when you realize you could have done something about it all along. you chose to "not care".

[FawkesFyre]

Nacht, though I respect your current soapbox, I believe you have already made your point on several occasions.

I tend to fall ino the same line as Ming int hat I am apathetic about certain things, yet still have my buttons that get pushed.

I do care about what goes on around me, I just don't allow it to control my life. I don't have the time or the money to boycott every product that participates in something that is questionable. I have my own way of contributing to society through my own life and occupation. Other people are paid as a living to keep these various companies in line and to abide by all regulations. If things do not change, or companies say they don't care, it is the responsibility of the regulatory group(s) to do something about it...and to shut them down if need be. If mistreatment of animals or anything else persist, then it the the fault of those said regulatory agencies for not doing their jobs.

I try to make informed decisions about what products I buy, and what food I do eat. But I go more by the overall quality of the product and often brand recognition.

[Ming]

[Akanari]

I'm sure some of you are familiar with Social Darwinism. I personally rather enjoy the philosophy. But, I'll move on.

I don't really do what I do for the animals and the environment. That's certainly a wonderful outcome, but I think it's just better for me. I read my nutrition labels before I buy foods, and I almost always go organic. I am also a vegetarian and try to stay away from products that are tested on animals. I import olive oil bar soap from Italy because it was the only one I could find that wasn't tested on animals, contained no animal fats, and was organic (and credible). And I love olive oil bar soap.

But I wouldn't force anyone else to do such a thing. I personally don't really care if anyone else does such a thing. I mean, high five if you do, but high five too if you like the color red or used to love Steve Irwin, right?

Personally caring isn't useless, it's for yourself, because when it comes down to it, you really are the only person you can change. I won't be angry at another human being just because they eat a prime rib or use Pantene Pro-V. I have no reason to be angry, because they didn't do it against me, I wasn't even in their minds when they were slicing off a piece of rare, hormone-powered meat. I just wouldn't like any. It would be silly of me to think I could convince them to really change what they do. No one changed me, I changed myself. If a company wants to stop testing on animals, it will stop testing on animals. I mean, it's wonderful that the information is out there, just I'd rather nothing be pushed into the limelight, because nothing is that important to everyone.

...And there is a difference in between intention and accusation. You can't tell someone that by not investigating where their food came from they are justifying the process of making it. The butcher at the shop doesn't cut off the cow's head because he wants to hurt it, he's just putting food on the table. The single mother of four at Walmart doesn't think about how the giant shampoo she's buying burns rabbit's skins off at the lab where it was made, she just wants to keep her kids clean and pay the next electric bill.

Yes, there is corruption. Yes, there is ignorance. Let them die from heart attacks and suffer from infertility if they don't care.

I'm much more interested in the situations humanity does -not- make for itself, but ends up in anyways. Life goes on. Here we are, and there we go.

[Shurikane]

Akanari just basically summed up the huge long-ass winded post I wanted to make but ended up not making because I couldn't find le mot juste.

Ditto++

[Doot]

I don't think it's been put any better than Nari's post.