My Last Droog: Walking Dead For Vegans?

My Last Droog: Walking Dead For Vegans?

Walking Dead For Vegans?

Who would have guessed that the horrors, savagery, and brutality of eating flesh were on full display in the first two episodes of Walking Dead’s season five? Who would have thought that the show reveals just how mindless and vacuous we are when it comes to our own food choices? The show uncovers a seriously unfeeling and mindless hoi polli. 

Eating people is what ‘walkers’ do, though it makes little sense that they do. The ‘walkers’ shuffle about mindless in search of some flesh. They are hardly hunters in any sense—more like opportunists. Occasionally a horde overwhelms a hapless victim but out maneuvering the ‘walkers’ is not difficult in most situations. They can hardly seem capable of catching anything individually. When they do overwhelm a victim, they mindless eat until the next shinny object catches their attention. This seems very similar to our food selections. 

When is the last time you considered the plight of the food you were consuming in the car on the way to work? Or indeed the last time you ate meat? Chances are you were as mindless and vacuous as the ‘walkers.’ It was simply the next shiny objects that grabbed your attention. Little to no thought is given to the horrendous treatment of CAFO animals we eat just like the ‘walkers’ don’t consider their meal selections.  Mindless and vacuous best describes our food choices. 

However the show’s first two episodes of season five expose the sheer depravity involved in “harvesting” and eating meat.  How else can one interpret it? One might suggest that the it is different because the scenes involve cannibalism, but there is not really much of a difference.   

Our group of survivors has been captured by what has been called the “terminus” survivors at the end of last season. “No Sanctuary” starts as several of the show’s main characters—and some who are not—are being taken into a bloody butchering room and forced to kneel over a trough. Then a bat-wielding member of the terminus group viciously smashes one ‘victim’ in the back of the head rendering him unconscious. Another member then slices his throat. Blood spews into the trough. And then another victim and more blood. A brutal assembly or rather dis-assembly line.

 

This scene is unsettling and disconcerting just like it is for animals. The “kill” team goes about their business indifferent to the horrors they are inflecting. It is all too easy to become desensitized to depravity and violence. However as viewers we see just how horrible it is—we are not desensitized.  Of course, a dues ex machine or a sort saves our heroes before their bloodletting. But as they escape, they stumble through a meat locker.  Skinned human torsos and limbs are hung up to dry. The scene reminds us that we do much in the same thing to animals: we kill them in gruesome fashion; we dismember them; and we hang their discombobulated parts on hooks to dry. It is a revolting sight whether it is human or animal parts dangling from the hooks. 

Episode two, “No Strangers” continues with the gruesome and vile business of eating meat. While our group escapes the clutches of the meat-eaters of terminus, they do not kill them. As expected the remaining terminus group tracks down our group. Unlike the vacuous ‘walkers,’ they are cunning and careful hunters. As “No Strangers” ends one of our group’s members, Bob, is ambushed and knocked unconscious; he has been caught again. 

As he awakes in a haze, he is confronted by the leader of the meat-eater’s group—Gareth. Gareth lays out the gruesome plan for Bob’s group, but says it’s not personal. His group plans to eat our group. Disgusting, of course. Retching. It is not personal that he and his savage group plan to kill and eat our heroes? Not personal? We see the folly in that notion. How can it not be personal? If you take the life of someone, it is personal, about as personal as it gets, really. This is much the same way we see animals—it’s not personal that our food choices cause unimaginable suffering, terror, and horror for the billions of animals we mindless eat? It is very personal, and we simply don’t care. 

In a truly horrifying ending, Gareth describes his plan regarding the rest of the survivors as he mindless eats something—but what is it? Gareth tells Bob that he tastes good and the camera pans out to see that Bob has had his leg amputated and roasted on a fire. Gareth eats Bob in a most gruesome ending though he is not really as mindless as we are when it comes to our food choices. Gareth's group was very intention about eating meat. And he conveys as much to Bob. Gareth knows who he is. We are hardly as honest as Gareth. 

The horror of the ending underscores the barbarity of eating meat and aligns our sympathies sharply against the terminus group. We see the immorality of what the terminus group does, and it is not much of a stretch to extend those sympathies to animals treated far worse for our own food choices. Perhaps if we were reminded routinely of how CAFOs “process” their animals, we’d be more mindful instead mindless. Who knew that the “Walking Dead” was a show for vegans?