Modern-Day Nazis

Here’s a short video (less than 4 minutes) showing some daily practices that people who eat eggs are supporting:

Realize that if you eat eggs, you’re actively and directly supporting practices like this. This video is actually pretty mild compared to what happens to the hens.

What’s the difference between being the guy who tosses the live baby chicks into the grinder vs. paying someone else to do it for you? Of course there’s no meaningful difference other than how much you distance yourself from the truth.

There’s really no difference between this level of conscience and Hitler’s treatment of the Jews. If people can justify treating animals like this for the mere taste and satiety of an unnecessary digestible, what’s to stop them from relating to other human beings the same way? The law? If you’re willing to kill and torture defenseless animals simply to satisfy a craving that you could easily do without, what more are you capable of when the stakes are higher?

Animal torture and human torture both occur at the same level of consciousness — the level of separation at which inflicting harm on another being is seen as justifiable. Distinctions between the two are made at the level of rationalization and assigned meaning, but harming animals doesn’t occur at a higher level of consciousness than harming humans. If you do either, you’re certainly capable of both, given the right conditions. Look within yourself and observe that the same consciousness that says, “I don’t care what happens to this baby chick” is the same level of consciousness that says, “I don’t care what happens to that guy overseas.”

All it takes is for you to say, “That person/animal is unimportant to me,” or “If it gives me a little more pleasure, then torturing and killing is fine,” and you can justify any behaviors you like. And as history shows us, quite often people do exactly that. Is this how you truly want to live, or do you think you’re capable of better?

Now you might think that if you eat free range eggs, then your conscience is clear. Nice try, but not even in the ballpark. Free range is no better because the hens still originate from the same factories that grind up the male chicks alive, so you’re still supporting the same practices. “Free range” is only a marketing term anyway and has no legal meaning. It’s largely a gimmick for branding purposes.

What about the excuse, “Everyone else is doing it, so it must be okay”? Hey, that line worked pretty well for the Nazis. Maybe it pisses you off to have me compare you to the Nazis. The Nazis were pretty pissed off too, so there’s another match. Perhaps you aren’t so dissimilar after all.

Obviously it’s a different story if you get your eggs from a local chicken-loving farm where the animals are well-treated, but do you get all of your eggs from such sources and never stray? This would mean never consuming any products that include eggs, such as baked goods or pasta or processed foods or restaurant foods with eggs, where the source is almost certain to be a factory like the above. If you’re lazy about it, you might as well buy a meat grinder and lend the guy in the video a helping hand.

If you give it a little thought, does it really make sense to eat the reproductive material from another species’ ovaries? I know it tastes good with certain preparation methods, but I’m sure your own reproductive organs would taste good with the right sauce. When you eat eggs, you do realize that you’re eating something that comes out of a bird’s vagina, don’t you? You might as well turn a woman’s period into pasta sauce.

Dropping eggs from your diet is actually quite easy. It’s a nasty habit that arises from social conditioning, but it isn’t hard to dump. I stopped eating eggs many years ago and never went back. Before that I often had eggs for breakfast. I especially loved omelettes. In January 1997 I did a 30-day trial with no eggs (I also dropped dairy at the same time), and I never had any desire for eggs after that. I lost 7 pounds the first week and felt a lot more energetic afterwards. You can just as easily use the same 30-day trial method to see what egg-free life is like for you.

If you like scrambled eggs, a good transition food is scrambled tofu. Google the phrase, and you’re sure to find plenty of recipes online. Scrambled tofu (or tofu scramble) is very easy to make. Tofu is a very bland food by itself, but it easily picks up the flavor of anything you mix into it such as various spices. No doubt some people would rather avoid soy, but it’s a big step up from any meal that comes from a menstruating bird.

Then again, maybe you’re one of those Nazis who really enjoys their work. Maybe you’re the kind of person who watches the video and thinks about applying for a job at a chicken processing plant. Well, at least you’re congruent.

Ultimately you have four basic options:

(1) Eat eggs and feel good about the whole process, including how the baby chicks and the adult hens are treated. This means you experience no guilt or regret about it. You’re totally fine with slaughtering baby birds on a daily basis. If baby chicks must die, so be it. Your taste buds are worth it. Heinrich Himmler would be proud.

(2) Eat eggs and turn your back on truth. It makes you feel sad, guilty, etc. to retain awareness of the reality behind your food choices, so you do your best to tune all of that out. Listen to the marketing messages, and try not to think about what goes on behind the scenes. Become dumber and more ignorant in order to create faux happiness. Distance yourself from your true feelings, and become increasingly disconnected from yourself and more of a social drone. Don’t rock the boat. Live as a typical Nazi.

(3) Keep eating eggs, but get them only from compassionate sources that fits your values. You’re willing to go out of your way to satisfy your craving, but you want to do as little harm as possible.

(4) Stop eating eggs and stop supporting a process that doesn’t feel good to you. Listen to your conscience ahead of your cravings and addictions. This is a more difficult path to be sure, but it also promises tremendous growth. On this path you may get egged by others from time to time because your actions will expose their incongruencies, but you’ll know you’ve made the right decision for you, and any resistance will simply make you stronger. The more you can summon the courage and fortitude to make such decisions, the stronger and more congruent you become as a compassionate human being.

Technically there are other levels beyond this, but at that point the solutions became less about personal growth and more about contribution.

If this post/video pushes some emotional buttons in you, rest assured it’s intentional. To whom do those buttons belong anyway, and why do they keep flashing “push me” in bright neon letters?