All Earth is Alive and Akin

[G_j]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/09-2

Published on Sunday, May 9, 2010 by CommonDreams.org

All Earth is Alive and Akin
by Ed Kinane

"We have been socialized to treat as objects for our use rather than beings with intrinsic value and rights. It is easier to exploit when we depersonalize. Objectification and exploitation of animals parallels the objectification of women and cultural minorities...."

--Linda Destefano

To "objectify" is to turn creatures into things... objects without thought, without right, without need, without feeling. Objectification is a major obstacle to peace and justice on this bleeding planet.

Turning the living into things is precisely what the U.S. war machine did to the people and land of Southeast Asia. It is what that machine is doing to the people and land of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Such lethal objectifying can only occur insofar as military personnel are themselves objectified, i.e. desensitized and robotized. How and why does our culture foster such barbarity?

We need to resist objectification wherever and whenever we can. There are several fronts where the struggle must be waged. They connect and overlap. Struggle on one fortifies each of the others. When any one front is neglected, justice for all suffers.

Take sexism. Sexism entails objectifying women, often as sex objects, usually as work objects. To objectify half of the human species -- especially that half doing the least to destroy and the most to nourish -- is to deny and degrade all life. As long as there is sexism, violence will thrive. Eliminating sexism is crucial to eliminating war.

<snip>


Ed Kinane works to end state terrorism. He was with Voices in the Wilderness in Baghdad in 2003. Reach him at [e-mail].


edit: please feel free to read the whole piece, it's worth it.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/09-2

[AnnieBW]

1. Nice to know that people are finally getting

what the Pagans have been talking about since at least the '60's.

[Odin2005]

2. "Always tream people as ends unto themselves, not merely as means to YOUR end." -Kant

The notion of people being called "resources", "investments", and other dehumanizing terms sickens me. Capitalism is evil because it dehumanizes labor into "an asset".

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Well said...

K&R

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. And then there are things, messing with which is harmful, even though they're not alive.

The Earth's crust comes to mind.

I liked the final sentence of the article.

[Xipe Totec]

5. Alive, Akin, and oh so Afucked nt

As are we all.

[LiberalLoner]

6. LOL good one! n/t