Well… it’s been a short semester, to say the least.

My last classes are next week, and the fall semester starts at the end of August, giving me some time to wind down and shift gears. Overall, this semester was great, and I really enjoyed these faster-paced, yet more mature and relaxed college courses. Philosophy in particular, while it’s flung me right back into the pit of my existential crisis, has been quite the class. 

We dove, head-first into the content at the start of the semester, starting off with free will vs determinism (which I’m still not quite sure what to think about). From there, we discussed the existence of God, the existence and study of knowledge, and finally, ethics, which leads me to my final paper of the semester wherein I’m asked to critique a vegan philosopher known as Peter Singer. 

Oh boy… the ethics of meat-eating is the one topic in life I have a very firm and solid stance on. After all, I’m still rather agnostic about God, I don’t really care about free will vs determinism, and reading philosophers like David Hume and Rene Descartes about the nature of knowledge just made my brain hurt. 

But, when the ethics of meat-eating came up, I quickly discovered that I was (and am) the only hunter in my class (in which there are several staunch vegans), as well as the only student who has close family members who farm for a living. 

Naturally, during most of the three hour class, my Philosophy professor called on me a lot to give the “ethical meat-eater” stance on things, while I had about three or four students actively defending their stance on veganism (which I enjoyed listening to and engaging with). 

For the record, I have nothing against vegans or veganism, vegetarians or vegetarianism. I have good friends and family who were/are vegan/vegetarian, and I strongly respect and understand why they eat the way that they do. Interestingly, however, none of my vegan/vegetarian friends and family have spent much time out in nature or on the farm, which is a point my professor seemed to zero-in on roughly halfway through the class. 

“I’m gonna show all you a video. It’s one of my favorite videos on this subject.” my philosophy professor said as he projected a youtube video titled, “Peter Singer abortion and animal rights.”

Right away, I noticed two famous, pointy-headed professors: Peter Singer and Richard Dawkins, standing near a highrise window overlooking a concrete jungle. For the whole ten minutes, we watched those two old professors talk about the ethics of eating meat, the ethics of abortion, and other related issues, with a barren, grey city in the background well below them. 

Again, for the record, I don’t have much against Singer and/or Dawkins (even though I think they can be very annoying and insufferable at times). They’re both brilliant professors who have actually helped me explore and challenge my own biases over the years through their books and lectures on Youtube. But, they’re also two old dudes dressed in business formal clothes, standing in a highrise in the middle of a city, talking about shit they really have no real-world experience with (and no, taking a tour of a factory farm ten years ago does not count as “real-world experience” in my book). They are the epitome of the pointy-headed, high-and-mighty professor caricature… if that makes sense. And that’s precisely what my not-so-pointy-headed professor was trying to get at that day. 

“Philosophy is an inherently idealistic discipline,” my professor began after the interview ended, “I’m sure you’ve spent most of this class wondering why we are learning about all of these people and their crackpot ideas. After all, the free will vs determinism debate seems futile because there’s no way to prove or disprove it. The study of knowledge is also very out-there for many people. The existence of God is also a hard subject to digest because… well… for many, the existence of God seems just as consequential as the free will debate… Ethics, at least to me, seems to be where modern philosophy currently is. Especially environmental and animal-related ethics, given the state of our economy, of our environment, of social and political stuff around the world, so on… That is why philosophy is important... That said, let’s go back to this video I just showed you. What did you notice?”

Several hands, including my own, shot up. 

“Yes!” the prof called on a student on the opposite side of the classroom. 

“They’re both famous?” he squeaked. 

“Sure.” my prof shrugged, “What else?”

“They both seem to agree that factory farming is bad, but never really go for Singer’s conclusion that we should all be vegetarian as a result?”

“Again, sure. But, I’m trying to get at what one would immediately notice about the video, assuming they had no other context aside from the video itself.”

When the prof said that, the last couple of hands went down, except mine. 

“What do you think?” Professor Tom finally called on me. 

“Well… I don’t want to be too snarky…” I mused. 

“It’s fine if you are. This is philosophy, spit it out!”

“Well…” I smirked, “I think they’re completely disconnected from the issues they’re discussing. I mean… they’re in a city highrise, and neither of them strike me as outdoorsy types.”

“There we go!” my prof clapped his hands, “Keep going.”

I felt a little too in the spotlight and I was beginning to get a little trembly from anxiety, but I continued, “I don’t want to be too accusatory or anything, but I personally can’t see either of those guys spending a day in the woods or on the farm, getting their hands dirty. I think if you’re gonna go so far as to write books about nature and animal liberation and all that stuff, you ought to have experience in what you’re talking about. At the very least, I think this conversation would’ve been received much better by someone like me, had these two had it at an actual farm, or in a National Park. But… that’s not what’s going on here. Somethin’ tells me neither Singer or Dawkins have ever plowed a field or cleaned a fish, nor would they ever stoop down to that level if given the chance. Those dudes are pretty privileged and frankly disconnected from reality, if you ask me. I think Dawkins even admitted that he doesn’t know much about what farming’s really like, so why’s he talking about it? But, I digress…”

“Man, you went for the jugular there.” my prof laughed, “Which is great! I like it when students rip into these philosophers because… well… you’re right. There’s a very good reason why so many philosophers and professors and let’s face it: academia in general- all have a reputation of being pretentious, high-and-mighty, pointy-headed, know-it-alls, etc. And yet, society still values these people and their ideas to the point that our very laws are constructed around Philosophy. Now, why is that? Or- think of it this way. Maya, you said that you have family who hunt, fish, and farm. Do you have any vegan or vegetarian family members who’ve previously hunted, fished, and/or farmed?”

“No.” I answered. 

“Why not?” 

“Uhhhhmmmm… I don’t really know. My guess is that it’s just a way of life.” I mused.

“Do you know anyone who is a vegan/vegetarian, specifically in your family?” My professor fired back.

“Yes.”

“Who?”

“My aunt, and a handful of distant relatives.”

“And where do they come from?”

“The city.”

“Which city?”

“Denver and Seattle.”

“Why are they vegan or vegetarian?”

“Because they think its unhealthy and mean to eat meat.”

“Why?”

“Uhhhhmmm… animals are cute and sentient, and eating too much meat causes health issues, I guess?”

“Ok…” My professor nodded, noticing that I was really starting to question why he was interrogating me like I was in a court trial, “What about you? Do you eat meat?”

“Yes.” I replied, scowling suspiciously. 

“Why?”

“Lots of reasons.”

“Like?”

“Health reasons, ethical reasons, stuff like that.”

“Well… how can you justify eating meat, given that meat is unhealthy and cruel.”

“Because meat isn’t unhealthy if you eat the right stuff, and I think that meat can and should be ethically sourced.”

“How can meat be healthy and ethically sourced?”

“Hunting, fishing, pasture-raised livestock…”

“Ok…” my professor paused for a moment, “If your vegetarian family members- who you said aren’t very experienced in farming or hunting- actually had experience as farmers and hunters, would they be vegetarian today?”

“I’d say no.” I answered quickly. 

“Why?”

“Because, if they farmed and hunted, my vegetarian family members would realize that not all meat is unethically sourced, and not all crops are ethically sourced according to Singer’s standards.”

“How so? Elaborate.”

“Ever heard of a skunk in a combine?” I smiled, releasing some tension, “Also, pesticides and plants genetically modified to be toxic to bugs, have done a ton of damage to the world’s ecosystems. Even “organic” farms use pesticides to keep bugs from decimating the crops, and they definitely have to use a lot of “unethical” wildlife removal practices to keep things like voles and gophers out of the fields. And also, a lot of stuff gets imported from across the world via planes and trucks, which release a ton of fossil fuels. Oh, and much of our crops are harvested by severely underpaid, overworked people who don’t have any way of unionizing. The list is endless…”

“Right.” my professor nodded, “This whole conversation- which, by the way, thank you for being a good sport about it- highlights the numerous issues that come up from Singer’s view, and every other philosophical issue out there. Not only does he only go after factory farming, and leaves alone small, organic farms, and won’t even go near hunting and fishing- but he’s also discussing a lot of these issues from a very disconnected, outside perspective. And yet, people like Singer and Dawkins are often more valued by society than the ethical hunter or the small-time farmer, even though they should probably get off of their high horse. Why? Well… think about this, and we’ll talk more about it in a couple days. Class dismissed.”

"Goddamnit..." I thought to myself, "A real life cliffhanger..."