Best and Phelps: Until There Are No "Others"

An intriguing exchange was posted at Thomas Paine's Corner, of Cyrano's Journal, yesterday that I just read this morning (I knew when I saw it last night that taking it in was going to require more functioning brain cells than I had at the time). This published exchange of e-mails between animal rights advocates, philosophers, and authors Steve Best and Norm Phelps began when Phelps wrote to Best following Best's review of Phelps's most recent book, The Longest Struggle. The resulting conversation and respectful debate about tactics, strategy, and alliances in the animal rights movement, among other topics, is fascinating. But it's not light, quick reading, so grab a cup of coffee or a mug of tea and set aside some quiet time before you start reading, but do read it:

"Until there are no beings whom we still define as 'other'"

This series of correspondence contains far more insightful thoughts than I can highlight here, but I will at least share one brief extract from Phelps's initial e-mail (which caught Mary Martin's attention too; she posted on this published exchange at Animal Person this morning as well):

To put it bluntly, we enslave and murder animals because it is in our self-interest to do so and we have the power to get away with it, not because of capitalism, liberal democracy, the Judeo-Christian dominionist tradition, or any of the other reasons so commonly given. These are merely after-the-fact justifications. We enslave and murder animals because we can and we enjoy the results. Change the political or economic system, and that fundamental fact will still be operative, and the enslavement and murder of animals will continue unaffected except that it will now be justified by a different set of theories, one that is compatible with the new system. During the 20th century, animals, like people, suffered even more in the Communist East than they did in the capitalist West.

That being the case, changing the social or economic system without first changing the moral standing of animals in the public consciousness would make no difference in the lives of animals. Once the animals have caught up with humans in this regard, then changes in the social, political, or economic system could have beneficial effects for them—depending, of course, on the nature of those changes.