Give Me Liberty, Part Deux: Be the Pundit

What I failed to mention yesterday is that Naomi Wolf's Give Me Liberty is structured in three parts:

• Part I: What is "America"? Not a Country, a State of Mind (which includes that "Freedom is Intended as a Challenge," and that we currently have "Fake Patriotism" and "Fake Democracy")

• Part II: Core Values (/Principles)

1. We are required to speak freely
2. We have a duty to rebel continually against injustice and oppression
3. Ordinary people are supposed to run things
4. Americans cherish the Rule of Law
5. America establishes no god
6. Americans deliberate with their neighbors; we disagree without violence
7. Liberty is universal: America cannot maintain an oppressive empire

• Part III: America: The User's Guide
  • including how individuals can drive change:
    • through their speech
    • through protest
    • by community organizing
    • by creating or changing laws
    • by promoting democracy overseas

Throughout the book there are anecdotes, some of which I found very disturbing, such as the extent to which the US military persecutes non-evangelicals ("Religious loyalty is more important than the Constitution now" [166]).

I appreciated the section entitled, "The Rise of Pundit Culture" because it reminds me of the microcosm that is the animal rights movement, and how PeTA has become the go-to-organization, as if it represents all of us.

"So to protect media profits, citizens must become acclimated to the notion that their ideas aren't good enough, aren't interesting enough, that they are not 'experts' and that only 'experts' can appropriately drive national debate" (181).

I substitute national organizations for "media," and I realize that the average vegan/animal rights activist has become acclimated to the notion that they're not the expert. If there's an issue involving animals, HSUS or PeTA is contacted.

"The media [/national animal rights organizations] has no incentive to listen to you or reflect your real concerns. So stop paying so much attention to the puppet show that now passes for debate. You need to be the pundit" (182).

Finally, I read the following passage for what it was, in context, but then I applied it to our view and treatment of sentient nonhumans:

"[Abraham Lincoln] said that to support slavery as a true American, you had to 'crucify' your feelings. I believe he meant this to be true psychologically, not only tactically. . . . We too are crucifying our feelings . . . . We too require a change in consciousness to be whole again today–this time in relation to our nation's perverted addiction to our empire. To reclaim ourselves, and essentially our reason for living, we have to be willing to look directly at it and be sickened by what we have become" (199).

I think of how our feelings must be crucified to continue to do what we do to animals, and I think of how the solution is to look directly at we do to animals, and be sickened by it and by what we have become. This is what we in our small community have done, and it's what we have to continue to help others do.