

The debate teacher Mr. Horowitz sat down at the round table
and said, “I suppose this was inevitable. I assume everyone knows that Jesse is
a vegetarian. It’s time we test his debating skills against Maggie’s. I realize
our eating habits are profoundly personal and I hope we do our best to engage
in this debate on the intellectual plane.” He looked at Jesse and said, “Can
you do that?”
“I’ll do my best,
but I can’t promise.”
“You and Maggie
are friends. You can handle this, right?”
Jesse shrugged.
Horowitz turned to Maggie. She said, “Bring it on.”
“Very well,” the
teacher said. Now turning to Jesse, he said, “What are your arguments for being
a vegetarian?”
“People think
slaughtering animals is normal because they’re used to it. They’re numb to the
horror of it. No one wants to see what happens to chickens, pigs, and cows in
the slaughterhouses because it’s more than unpleasant. It’s a gruesome
nightmare watching animals being tortured, watching them scream, watching the
look of fear in their eyes. But package all those dead animals and put them for
sale at the supermarket and suddenly it’s okay. It’s normal. We’re fooling
ourselves if we think it’s ethical to inflict cruelty against animals that feel
pain just like we do. That’s not acceptable to me.”
“Anything else?”
Horowitz said.
“Of course there
are environmental and health concerns, but to be honest with you, they don’t
compare to the cruelty factor. For me, avoiding cruelty is the foundation of
being a vegetarian. Everything else is almost irrelevant.”
“Okay then.” He
turned to Maggie and said, “Any problem with his cruelty argument?”
“Let me first say
that I respect Jesse’s choice to be a vegetarian and I agree that a lot of the
treatment that animals suffer is unacceptable and that I would like more
regulations on how animals are killed for our benefit. There is an ethical
factor that has to be considered. But there are other factors that make the
issue far more complex. I’m talking about survival and the food chain and
digestible proteins. Our intestines seem to be designed to absorb nutrition
from meat. It appears we’ve evolved to be omnivores. Also, there are B vitamins
that we need that can only be received through meat. Then there is the problem
with iron and anemia. I doubt any pedestrians would recommend a vegetarian
diet, or worse, a vegan diet, to pregnant women or their babies. Do many of us
overeat meat? Yes. But is the other extreme, going off meat entirely, in our
best interests? I doubt that. Of course, Jesse doesn’t talk about the Eskimos
and other people who have no other eating choices than meat. We eat meat to
live. Some of us do more than others. Jesse doesn’t factor that into his
argument. Animals eat other animals. It’s not an ethical issue. It’s a survival
issue. He may feel better for being a vegetarian, but his argument doesn’t
stand up to the nutritional and survival issues I’ve just raised.”
Horowitz looked at
Jesse, a big kid, over six feet and over two hundred pounds, and said, “Jesse
sure doesn’t seem to suffer nutritionally for being a vegetarian. I’m a meat
eater myself, but just to play devil’s advocate, one could say it’s possible to
choose vegetarianism and still be healthy.”
Maggie said, “He
takes supplements, he knows how to combine plant proteins so that he can absorb
them. Yes, you can make vegetarianism work, you can be healthy on a vegetarian
diet, but that doesn’t mean it’s the optimum diet. Who knows? Maybe Jesse would
be three inches taller if he ate meat.”
“Or fifty pounds
heavier, like in fat heavier,” Horowitz said.
“The point is,”
Maggie said, “Jesse’s diet works for him, but that doesn’t make it the best
diet for most people. It’s fine to cut down on meat and eat a healthy diet. But
the more fanatical one tries to push a vegetarian diet, the less the diet
stands up to argument. And that’s the problem I have with most vegetarians.
They aren’t flexible. They act as if their diet is absolute truth. You’re
either with them or against them. And that is an oversimplification of a very
complex issue.”
Horowitz looked at
Jesse and said, “Maggie says your diet doesn’t stand up to the complex issues
of eating and nutrition. What do you say?”
“It’s very
complex, of course, but no matter how much you break it down, at the end of the
day millions of animals are slaughtered and tortured when most of us have the
option to not eat them. Either you have empathy for them or you don’t. I do and
most people don’t.”
Maggie said, “And
there’s the problem of being a vegetarian. You have empathy and meat eaters
don’t, so you’re morally superior. That’s the simplistic position that doesn’t
conform to the complex facts.”
Horowitz looked at
Jesse. “How about it? Do you think you’re morally superior to us meat eaters?”
“That’s a loaded
question. I don’t go around thinking I’m morally superior. I’m not arrogant
about being a vegetarian.”
“But you have to
be,” Maggie said. “If meat eating is such a moral failure, as you say it is,
and vegetarianism is the moral answer, then by definition you must feel morally
superior to us.”
“Maybe I do,”
Jesse said. “In fact, it pisses me off that so many people have to slaughter
animals for their own unnecessary eating pleasure. Yes, I’ll come right out and
say it. It disgusts me. In fact, I’m appalled that so many people lack the
imagination to comprehend the suffering animals go through. It sickens me all
the time.”
Maggie crossed her
arms in triumph and said, “I rest my case.”
“Who’s arrogant
now?” Jesse said standing up. “Who’s arrogant now?”
Recent Comments