.jpg)
Features
With Liberty and Justice for All Species
by Elyssa Paige
The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man. – Charles Darwin
Thou shalt not kill. – Exodus 20:13
Take a look at the conveniences you enjoy. How many of them required animals to make them possible?
Maybe it’s the food you eat, the clothes you wear, or the medicine you take. The fact is that our culture places a heavy reliance upon animals to give us our ways of life.
Have you ever seen footage from the food or leather industries? How about animal testing or the circus? I can tell you—it’s not pretty.
Shaun Monson set out to expose the realities of animal industries, namely food, clothing, medicines, entertainment and even our pets. In his powerful film, Earthlings, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, he challenges us to take responsibility for our choices, and perhaps recognize our own speciesism, or our preference for one type of animal over another. Case in point: Would you eat your beloved dog or cat?
When I saw this film, it hit me like a mack truck. And this comes from someone who already doesn’t eat meat or dairy, nor do I wear animal skin or fur. As I watched these animals suffering, I knew the easy way out would be to turn away and ignore it. But this is the problem with our society—we either don’t know or we don’t want to know.
How can we be spiritual beings when we support the suffering of others—even a species not our own? Doesn’t spirituality include a respect for all life? Where is the justice if one species is free while another remains in captivity? Nobel prize winner Albert Schweitzer said, “Until he extends the circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.”
It’s time to take responsibility for our choices. Watch Earthlings on DVD or online for a mere $2.99 and then see if the truth changes your outlook.
After the completion and eventual popularity of Earthlings, Monson knew that his work didn’t end there. He set out to create a new film, Unity, which is scheduled for release in winter 2009/2010. Unity explores the possibility of bringing harmony to our dualistic society and is currently available as an audio book. Recently Monson took some time out to discuss his perspective on our society and the hope he has for the future.
Vision Magazine: What was the inspiration for creating Earthlings?
Shaun Monson: It didn’t start as a whole film. It just began with some public service announcements because I was concerned about spaying and neutering. I went to some animal shelters in South Central LA and it was awful. We euthanize around 30,000 dogs and cats a day in this country. If you were to put 30,000 dogs and cats in a pile, it would go up almost three stories. That number is daily. It was seeing all these dogs and cats in a refrigerated room. There were other sorts of roadkill in there, but none of them were food animals. Animals in the fridge made me think of food; my mind just shot to cows right away. And that was the moment—it was like a strike of lightning. I lay in bed at night and I thought that this is bigger than spaying and neutering. That is how it became food and then clothing; the more I unpeeled it, the more I felt totally unequipped but I knew I had to do it—there was no way around it.
VM: What do you think it will take for humankind to recognize animals as sentient beings rather than objects to exploit?
SM: It’s individual recognition. External information can help but ultimately it has to come from within or it won’t stick. Everyone goes at their own pace, so it will happen in stages.
There was a time when slavery was the number one economic basis of this country. When the abolitionists were trying to put an end to slavery, they were told that they would destroy the economy of America. Every major civilization has been built on the backs of slaves. The abolitionists still sat there and said I don’t think this is right. We didn’t abolish slavery because it didn’t work—I don’t mean that to sound controversial—but as wrong as it was, it worked fine. We abolished it because it was totally unethical. And mankind finally succeeded in realizing that. So this small group of abolitionists ultimately paved the economy of the entire country. And they didn’t fail; in fact, we look back on slavery as one of the darkest periods of our history. It’s the same with the suffragettes getting the right to vote. And now it’s with animal welfare.
Here is an amazing quote from Leonardo Da Vinci: “The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.” That is a bold statement from 500 years ago. There were no [brands such as] Morningstar or Silk, there were no vegan joints around—nothing.
Now we’re beginning to see more concern for something that is not our own species. It’s a beautiful awakening of consciousness. On the news awhile back, a dog got hit on the freeway and another dog actually pulled him away and saved him. People see that and they identify—even though it’s a dog, they identify with the dog. Why? Because the dog is an animal, like we are animals. There are fundamental similarities: It breathes, it eats, it sleeps, it wants to reproduce, and it has a zeal for life.
Now when will it happen for everybody? I can’t say but the great Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The arc of human history is long, but it bends toward justice.” And if it happens in our lifetimes, it would be heaven on earth.
VM: Sometimes animal activists are accused of not caring enough about humans. How do you respond to that?
SM: At the very end of the film, there is a line that says, “It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.” There is this notion that if you help an animal, you are not helping people. It is such a limited dualistic way of seeing the world to say that there is only x amount of help and it can’t go to anything but people. How much help can we distribute? Where do you draw these lines on how much good will you can give? This duality is an old paradigm and it’s time to get past it.
VM: What sort of public response have you experienced to a film so shocking and impactful?
SM: Initially none; it really just died. We tried to have a traditional distributor release it. We had a screening in Los Angeles. The distributors, Joaquin [Phoenix], and a bunch of us came to try to sell the film and get it out there. We didn’t know how to market this movie, no audience wanted to see it, and we just couldn’t imagine how it would ever see the light of day. We submitted to 25 film festivals and maybe three would show it. One of them called me and said, “Oh, your film’s incredible but I’m sorry, we’re afraid to show it.” And there it is.
But then about two years later, it started to pick up through word of mouth on the Internet. Now it’s in almost 20 languages online. People are literally translating it on their own. That’s beautiful. All these strangers around the planet are contributing because they want the message to be heard. It’s pretty exciting to see people get involved more and more.
VM: What is the most powerful discovery you have made as a conscious filmmaker?
SM: I am amazed at how violent we are as a species. We destroy, we compete, and we murder. I mean we’re not all murderers, but there’s this apathy. It’s like we’re generally empathetic as humans—we love our families, our friends, brothers, sisters, kids, pets, neighbors and so on—but there seems to be a border around our empathy.
When you look at all the great thinkers that ever walked the Earth, to remove any sort of religious connotation, they’re all talking about that classic golden rule: to do unto others as you would have others do unto you. If you don’t care about animals or trees, the next thing you might not care about is people of a different color or race. It’s that apathy. So [we’re getting] back to where everything is considered important because it exists—because it’s here too, in our atmosphere. That’s why I called the movie Earthlings. It’s a title that has no -ism to it: no racism, no sexism, no speciesism. It’s a word that encompasses everybody.
The Bhagavad Gita says, “When you see the suffering of every living creature in your own heart—that’s consciousness.” I love that idea of becoming more aware of the subtleties because if we’re not aware of them, then we don’t care about them—we’re too preoccupied. In Unity, which picks up where Earthlings left off, we have a trailer and the concept of it asks, What is the ultimate goal of your life? Someone did a poll which determined that only one in ten million people would answer that question with enlightenment. And what is the ultimate goal of the rest? Money, power, success—everything is material. Now there’s nothing wrong with this; it’s a good life. I’m not saying that getting a new Lamborghini isn’t fun and exciting, but to make that the ultimate goal of your life is material.
Our destinies are not physical. Death makes this perfectly clear. People spend their whole lives toiling and striving for that which they can’t keep. Consciousness is the only thing you take with you. So now we begin to grasp this idea to stop trying to gain something all the time—over your fellow man and over animals.
VM: How about a little more of a sneak peek into your upcoming film, Unity?
SM: It’s all about how we live in an age of comparisons and opposites. Every system in the world is dualistic; we destroy each other in politics, business, religion, and economics. We’re constantly battling. It’s in all of our mythology, all of our films and our video games. This idea nagged at me from the universe as strongly as did the idea for Earthlings. And I am listening to it and following that inspiration.
VM: What will bring us into unity?
SM: I think a shift in perception will help. That’s the idea of the film and hopefully it casts some light on these contrasts. I know Earthlings worked. I didn’t know for awhile. No one wanted it and then I thought in the end, if this changes one person, it will have been worth it.
VM: What is the most important thing we can all do to alleviate the widespread suffering of animals?
SM: In Earthlings, food is 30 minutes of a 90-minute movie in five parts, so you do the math. We eat three times a day, so I thought, let’s talk about food.
You know what’s amazing to me? I’ve come to the conclusion that when it comes to food, our taste buds may as well need heroin. We will forfeit all logic, all reason to eat a Twinkie, or whatever it is, because our taste buds have to be satisfied. We know it makes us fat, we know it goes to our midsections, our thighs, under the chin, the back of the arms—and we don’t care. We’ve got to have that Twinkie! We’re addicted to food. And so we can begin to transcend that; instead of pleasing the taste buds in the moment, we can see overall health as the goal and not just our own, but that of the animals and the earth.
And let’s talk about the environmental impact [of meat production]—it’s enormous! We’re hearing more and more about it but the environmentalists still don’t want to talk about it. It wasn’t Al Gore personally, but one of his spokespeople was asked why The Inconvenient Truth didn’t touch on [the topic of] meat. It’s the number one cause of pollution—not number five or seven, but number one! How do you skip number one and go right to SUVs and light bulbs? Finally, they answered: They’re not ready to talk about it. And there it is. There’s the answer. It’s inconvenient.
So I’ll even go moderate on this question. My animal activist friends will give me crap for it, but I would say go vegetarian. And then go vegan, but this is too big of a leap sometimes, so go vegetarian—not only for animals but for ourselves, because we are sicker than ever. 2500 heart disease deaths per day? That’s death by food. We have a war on drugs, a war on terror, a war on poverty—why don’t we have a war on food? It kills more people than tobacco, alcohol, guns, crimes, AIDS—and people are fine with that. We should live 104 years, but we live 70 and that’s because of food. So one thing we could do for the animals, the planet, and each other is go vegetarian. It’s the best thing you could do for all parties involved—all earthlings.
Check out www.earthlings.com to see Earthlings online for $2.99 or to order it on DVD or audio book. Shaun Monson’s upcoming film, Unity, is also available now on audio book at www.unitythemovie.com.