How We Grow Up as Animal Loving Animal Users by Dr. Roger Yates.

1. Dr. Roger Yates
Dublin VegFest
World Vegan Day 2015
*“How we grow
up to be animal
loving animal
users”

2. *“Roger Yates social construction”
http://roger.rbgi.net
The Species Barrier - ‘Maintenance’
power point
roger.yates@ucd.ie
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NORMS & VALUES CULTURE

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please draw a farm

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NO SLAUGHTERHOUSE TRUCKS

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*
*Professor of psycholinguistics
*interested in the cultural transmission of social
values in general and, in particular, what humans
tell each other and their children about the moral
status of the nonhuman animals.
*North America: children are taught - in the home, in
school, and from the pulpit –
*to be kind to one another,
*to be kind to animals,
*to abhor cruelty of any sort,
*that violence is not the way to resolve
conflicts, and
*that taking of life is wrong.

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• a neatly packaged
syllabus of general
norms and values
destined to “be passed
on to the next
generation”
• the psychological consequences for people whose
eventual empirical reality bears little resemblance
to what we are taught

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Sapon discovered social behaviour that denies,
contradicts and “mindlessly violates” the claimed
ethical principles
Indeed, Sapon argues that it the violations of
the syllabus that are frequently relished and
admired
This “profound discordance” cannot be psychologically
beneficial
How potentially confusing, Sapon
asks, is such a “two-tier value
system”?

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Sapon argues that dealing with these contradictions requires living in
an “atmosphere of scrupulously maintained denial and deception,” in
which adults deceive themselves, each other,
and their children
Turning to how humans and other animals
are presented to the young, Sapon says that
adults, “typically raise children from birth to
five or six years in a kind of fantasy-land of
ideal behaviour on the part of the world’s
inhabitants.” In this “land of goodness and
mercy,” other animals are humanity’s friends
– we are theirs too

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In…early publications,
nonhuman animals are never
seen being slaughtered for
food, hanging upside down on
“kill lines,” nor often shown in
pieces on the dinner plate

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What happens when we get older?
Sapon argues that many older
children are subjected to ‘a
behavioural re-conditioning
programme’ in order that their
perceptions move toward the reality of
participation in the ‘denials’ and
‘delusions’ of the adult world (Sapon
1998).

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“The Manual for Desensitising Children to Cruelty and Adapting
Them to Live in the Real World”
Other animals must be transformed from
fantasy figures and playmates into ‘objects of
utility’
Sapon argues that adults are consciously aware – “awfully aware”
- of the requirement to “reshape children’s perspectives’ in order
that they can become “guilt-free carnivores”
In the end, humans, as a general matter, deliberately mislead
each other about “how meat, fish, poultry, eggs and milk are
actually produced for the market”

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From a psychoanalytical standpoint,
lying to oneself is as understandable as
it is common.
Knowledge represents power, certainly,
but also pain

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Carol Adams frequently
states: who wants to
really know that what
they are eating is a
dead body?
SO, WHAT IS IT “BETTER”
FOR US TO “KNOW”?

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Farmer Rafferty:
“usually a kind
man with smiling
eyes”
Penelope the hen
“You look after me, and I’ll look after you”

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The cosy consensus is maintained as
the entirely free-range hens agree to
lay eggs for the farmer, while the ever-
smiling cows “let down their milk for
him”
However, if readers were in any doubt, a few pages on they
learn that the human animal is actually a little more equal
than the others when Farmer Rafferty loses his temper after
finding mice on the farm
He asks after the whereabouts of the cat in “a nasty raspy
voice” he kept for “special occasions”

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What better way to perpetuate the
myth of the “happy farm” but with a
“happy meal”?

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“How we grow
up to be animal
loving animal
users”
Thank you