(😂😂😂😂)

The Animal Manifesto

NO. 1

Aristotle wrote, ‘’Nature proceeds little by little from things lifeless to animal life in such a way that it is impossible to determine the exact line of deformation, nor on which side thereof an intermediate form should lie.’’ (Book VIII, pg.6) to compare this to his hierarchy the ‘’The Great Chain of Being’’ in his book, ‘’The History of Animals, where humans are at the top, and slaves and non-human animals are at the bottom, justifying the subjugation and oppression of these beings. But that isn’t fact, it’s just a theory to support this type of biased reasoning at the time. In this essay, or manifesto, I will explore my four main steps that I believe will benefit all animals, humans, and the environment.

 NO.2

    The discussion about the cruel treatment of animals, particularly agricultural animals like cows, chickens and pigs, and the harmful effects it has on our society and on the environment is still talked about now. In her paper called In Defense of Slavery, sociologist, Marjorie Spiegel compares the suffering of animals and humans. For example, chickens cramped in cages, stacked on top of each other, to the slaves in the south. The comparison of non-human animals to humans isn’t the right way to make the point across that we need to liberate all animals that we use for food from these machine-type farms, because comparing animals to captive human beings is wrong.

      The difference between non-human animals and humans, are what early scientists has described as, ‘’The argument to prove that the reason why animals do not speak as we do is not that they lack the organs but that they have no thoughts; (Humans) We all have moral status because we *think*. If animals think, they must use language. Humans who do not speak use symbolic language to express original thought.’ (Descartes, 1646). This type of thinking is why for centuries the abuse of animals has gone on for so long, and it has only caught attention during the last two decades. 1) My point is, all animals, including humans, share the Earth and we must co-exist to help protect it. Since we can speak, we believe we are the superior species, and even then, we feel that way and dominate other races of humans, anyone or anything we feel that is ‘other’.

   NO.3

  All animals have a right to life, even the right to bodily integrity, Regan, (pg.25) ‘’If animals have rights, and if rights are the trump card in the moral game, their rights override any benefits, real or imagined, we have gained, or stand to gain, from using them in biomedical research.’’ And this is something I agree to. Utilitarianism, the practice of maximizing the good stuff and minimizing the harm, and is connected to animal welfare, is the complete opposite. (Bentham, pg.9) The liberation of all animals, from zoos, farms, circuses, labs, etc. is, in my opinion, the moral way. I understand the reasoning behind using animals as test subjects for research and medical cures, but I know there are other ways to cure diseases. All animals deserve to be in there, natural habitat, and it is not fair for us to be keeping them in tanks and simple four inch. rooms with the door locked. The only animals that should be involved with humans are domestic dogs, cats and birds, etc. Simply because they wouldn’t survive in the wild, since they are descended from actual wild animals.

       In Marc Beckoff’s, The Animal Manifesto, one of the reasons he uses to envision the world a better place is, ‘’Connection breeds caring; alienation breeds disrespect,’’ is one very important step we humans must learn if we want instill peace, for all living beings. For example, humans express lighter emotions, especially to dogs and cats, animals we normalize and see as pets, whereas we express extreme dislike and contempt to many animals, like rats, pigeons, reptiles, bugs and even some dogs, like the pit bull. For example, during the late 1800’s, the English Sparrow was one of the most documented problem animals of that time. ‘’The English Sparrow is a curse of such virulence that it ought to be *systematically attacked and destroyed’’,  (U.S Department of Agriculture, 1889). The hatred of this particular bird stem from moral attributes, rather than scientific ones. They are foreigners, they attack American birds, there character is disreputable, and they need to be controlled as foreigners.  Humans also show contempt to other humans, those of a different race and different culture. We still don’t understand one another, and so we make up stereotypes from one person we’ve met, and suddenly that stereotype is placed on the whole race of people, alienating and disrespecting a whole people. It leads to social problems, fear, and occasionally, death, toward the oppressed.

  NO. 4

  The environment is the most important place we all have to take care of, and it fits into my thinking of the human-animal relationship because we are the cause for its downfall. The Rain forest in South America is nicknamed, ‘The lungs of the Earth’’ for a reason, and every day it is getting destroyed, or cut down to make room for more land, which is damaging to animals’ habitats and the ecosystems, and to ourselves. We dominated and distanced ourselves from nature.  The only reason why it is affected is because humans are destroying the natural order. The Meat and Dairy industry is giving land animals’ products displaying scientific substances inside it to speed up the process of killing for consumption. The animals, on the one hand, excrement is filled with nitrogen, and when that piles up all together, the air is affected.

The main reason, alongside the obvious reasons, for global warming is because of how much meat and dairy, we are consuming. As long as there is a want and need for meat, global warming will always be a problem. Wanting to eat meat is not a horrendous thing, seeing that humans are omnivores. But there is simply no reason to speed up the natural process for killing these animals by mixing drugs with their food. Most humans know about the daily abuses these animals go through, but we ignore the social world, so we don’t see it, and we sanitize everything, and it lets us off the hook. This is called the toilet assumption, (Spiegel, 1988). In my opinion, we can improve the way we treat animals, even land animals. We can do better, the way we treat others, we can show more compassion and love to everyone and everything. And my final point is again from (Beckoff, 2010) and that is acting compassionately helps all beings and our world. Showing compassion to animals and to non-human animals can definitely affect our day-to-day understanding of the world. We all have our own personal beliefs, and it’s okay to disagree, but respectfully.

Oh my gosh. ARE YOU SERIOUS?! REALLY?! 😂😂😂😤😤😤

Proelium

“Jason.” Nico appears suddenly beside him. “Come spar with me.”

“Um, okay? But don’t you always practice with Will-”

“”We’re not currently talking,” Nico says shortly.

“Oh, I-” Jason flounders for a minute. Nico and Will bicker all the time but they have never had a fight fight (as far as he knows but he keeps very close tabs).

“Are you coming or not?” Nico growls impatiently, tapping his foot impatiently against the floor of the pavilion.

“Uh, yes?” Jason responds.

Nico turns around and stalks off and he hurries to follow him. He resolves not to think about Will and Nico’s fight. It’s probably their first big one, they’ll be alright in a day. ♦ 

They are not alright in a day.

The next day Jason happens to be talking to Percy nearby when Will storms past Nico, shoulder checking him on the way, without even a backward glance. Nico scowls at his back.

Jason and Percy exchange nervous glances. ♦ 

Two days later, Percy happens to be in the infirmary when Nico limps in with a gash on this right calf.

Will drags him to a bed, shoves everyone out of his way while getting supplies, and sets to work on Nico, his mouth shaped into a thin line.

Nico’s eyes are soft but he doesn’t say anything either.

Percy has never seen anyone being able to stitch someone up so aggressively but perfectly. ♦ 

Piper walks up to Nico four days later and says firmly, “You need to do something about Will.”

Nico scowls at her. “No.”

“He almost shot one of the Demeter kids today! He excels at archery. This is getting out of hand, Nico. You’re angry and moody all the time. Even the Hecate kids are afraid of breathing too loud when they walk past you. The Apollo cabin lost two points in the last cabin inspection because Will has been sulking and didn’t bother to clean, and everybody’s afraid of being the target of his surliness.”

“No.”

   Piper tries Will next.

“He’s so sad, Will. He keeps walking around like a dejected puppy.”

Will glowers at her. “Go away.”

Piper throws her hands up in the air exasperatedly. “What even happened between you two?”

“You can ask him.” He juts his chin towards their right, and she turns to see Nico walking in their direction.

“Come on-” She whirls around back to Will, but he’s gone. ♦ 

Annabeth walks up to him the next day and states, “Fix it.”

Nico glares at her.

Annabeth stares back, unimpressed.

“I want it done by tomorrow.” She walks away.

Nico escapes to Camp Jupiter that evening.     Reyna spots him almost as soon as he arrives.

“No,” she says shortly. “Go back home, Nico.”

Nico glares at her.

She shrugs. “Annabeth iris-mesaaged me and told me you were running from your problems.”

“I don’t want to go back,” he mutters petulantly.

“You’re going to have to, eventually. You look awful and he, he makes you happy, you know he does.”

He sighs unhappily. If Reyna’s saying something, he must look as pathetic as he feels.

Reyna’s eyes soften. “Stay for today, go back tomorrow. Let’s go join Hazel.”

She ruffles his hair and he swats her hand away, scowling. She laughs. ♦

“Fuck you,” is the first thing Will has to say to Nico when he comes back. 

He towers over him, glowering. “Seriously? You can’t deal with this so you run away? You complete and utter ass.”

“Well, you could have said something! Don’t act like you didn’t sulk like a kid too,” Nico yells.

“Yes, I did! Because you were wrong and were being unreasonable but you didn’t have to run away, you prick. I don’t love your opinions but I do love you!” Will shouts.

Nico stills.

“You do?” he asks, voice small.

“Hera knows why, but yes, yes I do.” Will’s voice has gone down, and his shoulders slump.

Nico grins at him, before reaching forward and grabbing a handful of Will’s shirt to pull him closer.

“I do too, you know,” he says softly.

“Duh,” Will says. Nico can see the beginning of a smile at the corners of his mouth so he leans forward to kiss it.

Will responds eagerly, and Nico can’t believe he went a week without this, without running his hand through Will’s hair, without feeling his hands all over him, without feeling like every part of his body is on fire, but so relaxed that he basically feel himself melting.

They have to break apart because they’re both smiling too much.

“I guess I can live with the fact that you like Hawkeye more than the Hulk,” Nico says, smiling.

Will grins at him.

“That’s what you were fighting about? I can’t believe you!” a voice shouts from behind him and they both turn to look at Jason, Piper and Percy standing.

“Uh, yeah. What did you think?” Will says, voice confused.

Piper and Percy continue to look at them with something akin to horror on their faces.

Jason glares at them, hissing, “I am a 100% done with this shit.” He stomps off.

This could seriously be a whole video essay series cause many folks raised in the Global North (Western-oriented countries and communities) will frame all history as a matter of black/white events when, in actuality, history is informed by our indigenous, immigrant, and diaspora pasts and their present day afterlives.

I'll keep my thoughts about executive director Pinkett's spiritual bypassing on private for now, BUT I will say this: Egypt is a part of Africa and Africa belongs in our garden of history cause there are enough miracles, memories, and magic across our African histories and their cultures that we don't have to produce miseducated docuseries that try to pass as Pan-African history pieces or afrofuturist reimagings (when in actuality they are just reinventing bougie versions of well-worn imperial histories).

Egypt is a part of Africa and Africa belongs in our garden of history.

Yep

Unmute !

Happy Chinese New Year! The year of the tiger~

Sing-Off Percy Jackson Style!

Okay, I have this thought that there would be a sing off in CHB, of course when Leo comes back with Calypso and stuff, and that after a few weeks, the Apollo cabin comes up with an idea that the heroes of the prophecy should have an ultimate competition called Battle of the Voices! (Because they were bored)

The only problem : They pick who's gonna be the ones to sing off. And the first are Leo vs. Nico. But Leo and Nico get to pick which songs, of course after Nico gets over how ridiculous this is. Based off their own personality, Leo picks Centuries by Fall Out Boy, and dresses up in complete black. With his voice, it sounded like a dead donkey, but he thinks it's good. But then Nico comes in, dressed up in red collar jacket, jeans and sneakers, and black hat that says, Foxy. Almost everyone is in shock when he comes up on stage and starts singing and dancing to Uptown Funk, and he completely kills it with his vocals. Even makes his own killer moves once the song is done. Then he drops the microphone in front of Leo, Jason, Percy and Will, and says, "Nailed it," before walking off the stage to his cabin