Earthlings, what are to talking about?

Earthlings, what are to talking about?

By Jo Hyung Woo

      Earthlings, one of the most famous vegetarianism PR videos, persuades public to stop eating meats by revealing the violence of slaughterhouse. Such scenes like killing innocent animal by ripping off and cutting makes public strongly feel like being vegetarian. They try to reveal the violence of the slaughterhouse, to show how violently meats are produced. They argue that all human species would be vegetarian if the slaughterhouse was surrounded by transparent glasses. They mainly argue that humans are eating meats because they are unaware of what is going on in a slaughterhouse. They are also saying that animal’s right should be protected. It is an evident truth that the animal’s right should be guaranteed, and it is justice to argue for the animal’s right. Nevertheless, Earthling is conveying the importance of animal’s right in an inappropriate way. It is not the violence that we should be focusing on, but how human is abusing the hierarchy in our ecosystem.

    The dominant method of obstructing people from consuming meat is to show the violence of slaughtering. Furthermore, most of the vegetarians stop consuming meats because of this violence. However, violence should not be the main purpose for quitting carnivorous diet. If it is the violence that should be criticized, than another animals would also not be free from harsh criticism. For instance, hyena hunts more violently than we watch in Earthlings. Hyena munches brain of the prey even though it is alive. Sometimes, it starts munching the leg of the live prey which maximizes the violence and the pain that the prey would be suffering. Then, why is hyena free from criticism unlike human? There might be numerous reasons, but the main reason is that they are committing this violence for their survival. On the other hand, humans are being unnecessarily violent for their richness.

     Unlike other tribes, human species are in the top of the hierarchy. In the earth, humans have absolutely dominant over other species. To be specific, humans are free from the danger of being hunted by other species. Therefore, humans can hunt animals for their satisfaction even though they are full. This is why human’s violent act is being criticized. If human’s killed animals for their survival, who would be able to criticize this? Humans are violently killing innocent animals for delight not for their survival. This act should be criticized, and this is what Earthlings should have been focusing on. Showing violent scene may be effective way to persuade the public since all the scenes are sensational, but they are not conveying the essence of the phenomenon they are criticizing at.

     Moreover, the film is criticizing at the wrong subject. After watching the film, it is easy to recognize that the slaughterer is depicted as the most evil character that the video is criticizing at. On contrary, slaughterers are doing their job to maintain their basic standards of life, and the basis of the act of slaughtering is ultimately human’s infinite desire to full their stomach. So, the film should have focused on the other side. If Earthlings wanted to persuade people to become vegetarian, and save innocent animal, they should have analyzed the reason why humans are craving for excessive amount of meat. After analyzing the reason, they had to show that humans are unnecessarily being violent to innocent animal. If this has been successfully conveyed by people, people might have learned a lot more than an original film and it might have made people to think a lot about the animal’s right. Also, it could have suggested a solution for us. The original film, does not have an absolute solution instead of being a vegetarian. It is requiring too extreme solution. It might have improved the quality of film, if it suggested us to reduce our desire and the sacrifice that the innocent animals are making for our human species.

     Even though, the film is quite out of focus, still the film has its value since it made numerous people aware how violently meats are produced. This video has shown how human could be so violent, and by watching this video a lot of people became vegetarian which protected us from innocent animals suffering from extreme pain. Humans can consume meats since foods are necessary for survival, and not everyone can survive by consuming meats. However, reducing the  amount of meat consumed can be important for us to save the innocent lives of animal. If humans have not required enormous amount of meat, maybe a lot of animals might be able to be grown up in a fertile land, not in dirty slaughterhouse. Despite of the some problems in the film, it is still an excellent film that aware us from the inconvenient truth that we were ignoring.