Posted by
Thrasymachus on Wednesday, June 25, 2008 9:50:08 PM
So some of you knuckle heads didn't believe me
when I introduced philosophy and philosophic questions in my government
class, right?
You cringed a bit when I mentioned the
influential if not inconsistent Peter Singer and his stances on
subjects such as abortion (killing babies even a month after they've
been born and calling it abortion) and granting animals "human" rights
(protecting animal lives even if the owners do not care for those
animals - unlike the baby human animals), but you didn't think it
important. You thought he was a joke, but not a powerhouse as I had
mentioned.
Further, many of you and your parents dismissed the
power of philosophy especially as it shapes, from afar at times, policy
and everyday life through the goverment institutions we all know and
love. "What does Plato, Hegel, and Singer have to do with our
government," some of you would ask.
You would then notice me
biting my lips bloody as I covered my eyes with both of my hands as I
tried to pretend that I hadn't JUST answered your question in either my
lecture or notes or both.
Notice the name at the bottom.
Now read this:
Spanish parliament to extend rights to apes
By Martin Roberts
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's
parliament voiced its support on Wednesday for the rights of great apes
to life and freedom in what will apparently be the first time any
national legislature has called for such rights for non-humans.
Parliament's environmental committee approved resolutions urging Spain
to comply with the Great Apes Project, devised by scientists and
philosophers who say our closest genetic relatives deserve rights
hitherto limited to humans.
"This
is a historic day in the struggle for animal rights and in defense of
our evolutionary comrades, which will doubtless go down in the history
of humanity," said Pedro Pozas, Spanish director of the Great Apes
Project.
Spain
may be better known abroad for bull-fighting than animal rights but the
new measures are the latest move turning once-conservative Spain into a liberal trailblazer.
Spain
did not legalize divorce until the 1980s, but Prime Minister Jose Luis
Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government has legalized gay marriage,
reduced the influence of the Catholic Church in education and set up an
Equality Ministry.
The
new resolutions have cross-party or majority support and are expected
to become law and the government is now committed to update the statute
book within a year to outlaw harmful experiments on apes in Spain.
"We have no knowledge of great apes being used in experiments in Spain, but there is currently no law preventing that from happening," Pozas said.
Keeping
apes for circuses, television commercials or filming will also be
forbidden and breaking the new laws will become an offence under Spain's penal code.
Keeping
an estimated 315 apes in Spanish zoos will not be illegal, but
supporters of the bill say conditions will need to improve drastically
in 70 percent of establishments to comply with the new law.
Philosophers Peter Singer
and Paola Cavalieri founded the Great Ape Project in 1993, arguing that
"non-human hominids" like chimpanzees, gorillas, orang-utans and
bonobos should enjoy the right to life, freedom and not to be tortured.
(Reporting by Martin Roberts; Editing by Richard Williams)
Remember
how I mentioned that you either believe that humans are special or you
do not? We are either large bags of chemicals or we are something
special and possibly Divine? We are either the most complex animals
that have evolved to date and, therefore, very similar to all of the
other animals on this planet or we are made in the image of God or gods
and are on a completely different level than the rest of the universe?
There are ways to protect animals without putting them on the same level as humans, but, my gosh, what a statement by Spain!
Just like every other political movement in history, this is only the
beginning. Liberalism has spread like wildfire and continues to do so.
We conservatives should know that we are on the losing side of this
struggle just like (pardon my romanticism) Leonidus, David Bowie, or
(dare I say it) Socrates.