From: ra-AT-alor.univ-montp3.fr (Ronald Creagh, Moderator, Research on Anarchism List)
Date: 29 Jan 1997 10:21:58 UTC   (06:21:58 AM in author's locale)
To: RA-L-AT-bred.univ-montp3.fr

>From: Dave Coull <D.Y.COULL-AT-dundee.ac.uk>
Organization: Dundee University
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 13:31:59 GMT
On Sunday 26 Jan 1997 "Brent Peterson" wrote:
>if i have to choose between an inanimate object without a visible centrel
>nervous system and something that has to be imprisoned and tortured
Plants are not "inanimate". Inanimate means not alive. Plants are alive.
Being rooted to the spot, they can't run away of course, but there is
clear scientific evidence that they do everything short of this to avoid
being eaten. There is even some evidence that some plants "scream"
when uprooted. I accept, of course, that they are a lower order of life
than animals. But it is also true that, amongst animals, there are some
with very highly developed nervous systems, and some that are more
primitive. There are animals in the sea which will continue to eat even
while they themselves are being eaten, clear indication of undeveloped
nervous systems. On the other hand, there are some very highly developed
animals in the sea. It has been suggested that the nervous systems of
some species of whale are even more developed than our own, that is,
that they can feel pain even more than we can. I certainly wouldn't eat
whale, or chimpanzee, or other higher mammals. I am also opposed to
factory farming, McDonalds hamburgers, and the international capitalist
meat business generally. However, with the exception of those things
which can photosynthesise (and even most of _them_ lost the ability
to live on sunlight and water alone millions of years ago) every living thing
has to eat some other living thing. Brent draws the line lower down than I do,
but the plant/animal boundary isn't nearly so clear cut and obvious as he seems
to think.

Dave

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