Got Democracy?
By Lynn Petrovich
“In the future:
A utopian society ruled by women will emerge,
and there will be peace and plenty for all.”
George Carlin
Late last year, while cleaning out my desk in preparation for tax season, I found one of my father-in-law’s “business” cards:
Got Democracy?
Democracy means Power to the People.
What Happened?
Walter Petrovich died just before midnight on April 15th 2009. In the weeks and months after his death, we packed up his files, books, and personal belongings, including his extensive library of personal essays, and placed them in storage. Most of his documents and writings were on the subject of capitalism, which he believed adversely affects the majority of Americans.
Wally was an untiring advocate for an Economic Democracy which would “codify the rights of all people to have a direct vote in all matters which affect our lives.” He fought for truth, justice, and the (non-corporate) American way of life:
Until we begin to appreciate and respect the devastating impact the economic system of capitalism makes upon our society, how its ‘profit or perish’ dictum compels corporate policy makers to employ the politicians-in-power to produce and execute policies which extend and protect capital investment throughout our world, we will erroneously continue to single our ‘individual’ politicians and ‘presidents’ as being solely responsible for our societal travails, while the faceless, underlying causes continue to generate all the societal abuses [war, poverty, hunger, racism, unemployment, pollution, inequality]
Interestingly enough, the 2008 movie, Wall-E, pays enormous tribute what Wall-Y was talking about: Wall-E is the sole survivor of an Earth that has decayed into a grossly uninhabitable planet, the result of centuries of insatiable appetites, corporate mergers, and capitalist exploitation.
Wherever Wall-Y went, so did his cards, which he handed out in conjunction with sincere conversation about our economic system. Some people got it. Others didn’t. And it wasn’t until I read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, that I discovered a venue to articulate Wall-Y’s position. Eating Animals explosively details how the capitalists’ pursuit of profit in our animal factory farming system institutionalizes pain and torture in the daily production of 99% of the meat we consume:
“Undercover investigations by dedicated nonprofit organizations are one of the only meaningful windows the public has into the imperfect day-to-day running of factory farms and industrial slaughterhouses.”
p. 181
On chickens:
“What the [food] industry figured out – and this was the real revolution – is that you don’t need healthy animals to make a profit. Sick animals are more profitable.”
p. 111
“Jamming deformed, drugged, overstressed birds together in a filthy, waste-coated room is not very healthy. Beyond slipped vertebrae, paralysis, internal bleeding, anemia, slipped tendons, twisted lower legs and necks, respiratory diseases, and weakened immune systems are frequent and long-standing problems on factory farms. E. coli is common between 39 to 75 percent of chickens [that are purchased at the supermarket].”
p. 131
“[This] is the rule. More than 99 percent of all chickens sold for meat in America live and die like this.”
p. 136
On Sows in confinement crates:
“National Hog Farmer reported that 7% of breeding sows typically die prematurely from the stress of confinement and intensive breeding – in some operations the mortality rate exceeds 15%. Many pigs go insane…or obsessively chew on their cage bars, incessantly press their water bottles, or drink urine. Many piglets are born with deformities…including cleft palate, hermaphroditism, inverted nipples, no anus, splayed legs, tremors, and hernias”
p. 186
“For corporations like Smithfield (sales $12 billion 2007], it is a cost-benefit analysis: paying fines for polluting [from pig excrement that has already polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states] is cheaper than giving up the entire factory farm system, which is what it would take to finally end the devastation.”
p. 178
On Cows:
“Virtually all cows come to the same end: the final trip to the kill floor. Cattle raised for beef are still adolescents when they meet their end. While early American ranchers kept cattle on the range for 4 or 5 years, today they are slaughtered at 12 to 14 months.”
p. 226
“The combination of line speeds that have increased as much as 800% in the past 100 years and poorly trained workers laboring under nightmarish conditions guarantees mistakes. (Slaughterhouse workers have the highest injury rate of any job – 27% annually – and receive low pay to kill as many as 2,050 cattle a shift.) According to the Washington Post, ‘more than 20 workers signed affidavits alleging the violations shown on the tape [live animals going down the line]. I’ve seen thousands and thousands of cows go through slaughter process alive…workers who complain are often fired.”
p. 231
How can America be a democracy when the weakest and most vulnerable are exploited?
This information is shocking, and I believe, if aware of it, most Americans would not advocate such a horrific food production system. But remember, the corporations who operate these factory farms are powerful and proficient at keeping this information from us. So next time you eat that drive-through $1 meal, think about what Wall-Y said:
Got Democracy?
Democracy means Power to the People.
What Happened?
Lynn Petrovich
Copyright 2010
