Imagine working hard your entire life to build a business, establish security for your family, and contribute to the community you live in. Now, imagine that one morning you wake up and it is all in shambles, destroyed because someone doesn't agree with what you do. What you do is perfectly legal, you're honest, customers patronize your business, you pay your taxes, provide jobs in your community, and you raise your family with sound educational and work ethics. But those who don't like what you do destroy it all. Even worse, not many people seem to notice much less care that it happened. Just imagine.
A car dealership that it has taken you years to build has 36 SUVs burned and over a million dollars in damages to the facilities. The warehouse on your family's egg farm is burned to the ground for a $1.5 million loss. Your sand and gravel business trucks are burned for a quarter million dollars in damages. And at your home you find your house spray painted, your car overturned, and your name, address, and phone numbers provided to a cadre of fanatical nut cases. All in a month's work for those charming social misfits who condemn their corporate foes with slogans such as "McMurder" and "Murder King" and "Shameway" while their shadow cohorts systematically destroy people's lives and livelihoods. ALF (Animal Liberation Front) actually brags that in 2001 they and their allies in the "we know what's best for you" underground accomplished the following: 43 major actions involving setting 20 fires (with some damages running over $5 million), damaging or destroying 19 buildings, damaging or destroying 128 vehicles, smashing or damaging over 200 windows, and with this chaos achieving over $17.3 million in damages to those they disagree with.
Let's break this down a little further: almost 1 action a week resulting in $47,400 per day in damages, not counting such "cute" tricks as gluing locks of cars and buildings, spray paintings, tree spikings, vehicle and machine monkey-wrenchings, and the chronic harassment of specific individuals, their spouses, and their children. ALF took special pride in a successful "action" by cousin in crime ELF (Earth Liberation Front) which succeeded in burning down the Center for Urban Horticulture at the University of Washington in Seattle, which expanded their damage estimate by $5.6 million. Oh, how proud to achieve such marvels. And what sin did a bunch of university types in horticulture do to deserve this fate? They were doing research on genetically modified crops, of course!
It has been written that the United States of America is a critical experiment to determine whether people are able to rule themselves through reasoned argument. The experiment seems to be in trouble! Some people reason: I don't like what you do, therefore I have the right to stop you from doing it. I do not care whether what you do is legal and whether the majority of people are your customers, or whether you have your own set of rights as an American. I do not like what you do! And I have the right no, I believe that I have the obligation if my ethics and morality are exact to stop you, by any means necessary.
Reasoned arguments? Sounds more like terrorism, at least terrorism as defined in dictionaries: "the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons." Hardly passes the test for reasoned arguments. But then, what are the alternatives if your arguments are in fact not reasoned?
So imagine that after years of hard work and study you've gotten your degree and certification as a medical or nutrition expert, you've invested your life savings to get your new offices ready, you've built your clientele through professionalism and dedication, and you are ready to offer your services for the health and improvement of the community. But you advise them to eat a diet with balance, variety, and moderation including animal products. You counsel that all foods provide essential nutrients, even meat, eggs, and fish. You do not demand that all your clients be vegetarians, that they raise their own organic crops, that they stop their obvious materialistic consumerism for the benefit of the planet. Now imagine that I don't like what you do and how you do it and the way you teach it. Furthermore, you own stocks in unapproved companies, you patronize restaurant chains living off of animals, you wear clothing made in sweat shops, you drive a polluting car, and your new house destroyed the environment. It is just and proper and appropriate that my friends and I burn down your new offices, intimidate and scare away your clientele, harass you at work, and at home, spray paint your car, tag your house, glue your locks, and generally make your life hell until you understand that you have no choice but to do it all my way. Just imagine.
McNamara is executive editor of Nutrition Close-Up, and this piece originally appeared in vol. 19(1):7, Spring 2002. Nutrition Close-Up is a quarterly publication of the American Egg Board, 1050 17th St., NW Suite 560, Washington, DC 20036. Email: enc[at]enc-online.org.
