Wow. I forgot how powerful this movie is. I watched the first half a couple months ago, but couldn’t finish it. SO upsetting. I re-watched most of it today.
“Earthlings” is a documentary narrated by Joaquin Phoenix. In an unnervingly calm voice, Phoenix describes the many ways humans exploit and inflict suffering on other animals, addressing animals used as pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and science. Although none of the information was a complete surprise to me, the images are so incredibly disturbing that I felt newly awakened to all these horrors. Watching the movie, it just seemed so obvious to me that what we are doing is completely wrong…and incredibly unnecessary. How can we raise these animals, force them to live in the worst possible conditions, and then kill them in terrible ways as soon as we can…it’s just unforgivable. Our system would make more sense to me if it wasn’t so obvious that most people love animals. People have pets, they go to zoos, they like seeing pictures and movies about animals. Everyone loves animals! So how can we be so hypocritical? I I really don’t understand…even though I know that I was, and in many ways still am, part of this terrible system. I’m sure that if more people actually thought about what is going on, they would be just has horrified and just as willing to make the small changes in our lives to put an end to this madness. But it’s so easy to ignore these problems, to write them off as “necessary evils”, or to use comforting illusions of happy, complicit animals who want to serve us. It’s all really incredible. I’ve heard many people say that in the future, we are going to look back on animal exploitation the same way we look at slavery today…and I really, really hope that is true.
Earthlings is a fantastic way to learn about these issues, but also (equally important, I think) to remember the issues, and why it is you do what you do. So watch Earthlings!
I saw your blog on the Compassionate Cooks DC forum and saw you were moving to DC. I thought I’d stop by to say hi. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I’ve lived in DC for more than 8 years now. Take care, Suzanne
I still haven’t watched “Earthlings.” I am really afraid to… I know I will someday, but I have to psych myself up for it. I do think it’s important to see, though, in order to be totally informed & aware of what goes on. Perhaps it would motivate me to actually get involved more instead of just cooking (and eating) vegan… Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I *know* there’s more I can do!
We’ll see… Someday when I have a long weekend from work so I have time to recover.
Hi, I found your blog through the message board on Compassionate Cooks. I haven’t watched Earthlings yet…images alone are enough to make me cry! I know that just pictures probably upset you too, how did you get to the point where you could watch Earthlings?
Hi Candice! You are right, “Earthlings” is definitely a difficult thing to watch. Actually, my advice would be NOT to watch it if you don’t want to–definitely don’t feel like you “should” watch it. It’s a really powerful movie, but if you already know a lot about animal rights, you probably won’t learn that much–I think it’s really great for people who don’t know anything about the subject.
I watched half of it a few months ago and was so upset I couldn’t finish it. I put off watching the rest until I knew I was in a good state of mind to see those images. Both times, I was feeling very frustrated with people and/or society that just doesn’t seem to see or understand animal suffering, and I felt like I needed a reminder about what is really happening.
So don’t push yourself! Just wait until you feel like you are ready. If it helps, I recorded the times that the different sections start–so you can skip the ones that might be more upsetting:
at 10 min.–Animals as Pets
at 17 min.–Animals as Food
at 46 min.–Animals as Clothes
at 56 min.–Animals as Entertainment
at 1hr. 13 min.–Animals for Science
Hope that helps!
Carynne