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having grown up around farm animals I never really felt either dissonance or the need to compartmentalize. You can have a relationship with animals and raise t
by Barrin92 4y ago
having grown up around farm animals I never really felt either dissonance or the need to compartmentalize.
You can have a relationship with animals and raise them but they are also food. You can ride horses and eat them, to me that isn't contradictory because killing for sustenance isn't an evil act, and if the animals are raised well and kept in good conditions and live happy lives there's no issue.
I think the psychological issues are mostly about anthropomorphizing animals and not having personal experience with the food chain, killing animals for sustenance or quite frankly death which most people now have a completely pathological relationship to.
- Sharlin 4y agoYes, I realize that historically in agrarian societies, common folk in particular have had a very different relationship with animals than most modern Westerners, and some people still do. I did not mean to imply that compartmentalization is something inherent or unavoidable, just that clearly in the modern Western society this sort of mental model is more or less prevalent. You’re probably right that it’s connected with our relationship with death.