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Cognitive Dissonance is One Hell of a Thing
Hypocrisy is human
A powerful poem recently circulated illustrating empathy for small creatures killed by humans. Many felt moved reading it, expressing remorse over taking any life unjustly. Yet this poem also reveals a profound cognitive dissonance around our relationship with animals.
“if I am killed for simply living,
let death be kinder than man.
and god,
please let the deer on the highway get some kind of heaven
something with tall soft grass and sweet reunion
let the moths in the porch lights go some place with a thousand suns,
that taste like sugar and get swallowed whole.
may the mice in oil and glue
have forever dry, warm fur and full bellies.
I pray nobody kills me for the crime of being small.”
The verses highlight the innocence of tiny beings like moths, mice, and deer killed by human indifference on highways and in homes. Readers emotionally connect to the tragedy of their undeserved deaths.
However, many of these same readers likely ate bacon, steak, or chicken for their next meal without feeling that same sense of needless killing. This paradox fascinates me endlessly.
What makes the swatting of a fly or mouse reprehensible cruelty but the slaughter of a cow or pig acceptable necessity? The ends may differ, but the means of taking a life…
