19 Jan 2024
I have been thinking about filters, lately.
In Dr Who, there is technology that keeps people from seeing things - be it the TARDIS, other alien tech, or something else that humans shouldn’t (or don’t want to) see. I was watching another sci-fi, an episode of the Netflix series Electric Dreams the other night, where people were programmed with a filter which didn’t let them realise that they were android copies of humans, even when they pulled their skin off (they saw blood and bone, rather than circuitry).
I have been thinking about the filters we have, which don’t let us see other beings as our brothers and sisters. When I see “meat” in a shop or online, I see a suffering and dead being who didn’t want to die. My mouth does not water. I don’t get hungry, any more than I would at human suffering.
I saw an image on social media drawn by a child (and posted by a relative), which showed a chicken behind bars and sad. I was touched by the sensitivity of the child, but most of the comments were of the sort which suggested that the child needed mental health care (I didn’t see one compassionate response). Our blindness isn’t kept to ourselves, but projected out to any others who might begin to see through the filters.
When the filters fall away, you see so much suffering that it is hard to process. I don’t watch zombie movies - all I have to do is go to a restaurant where carnivores are tearing flesh open with their teeth.
The last week plus, I have been reading about Simone Weil. She had so much interest in the exploitation of workers and others, that she willingly went through their experiences - working in an auto factory, as a farm worker, etc. She built a spiritual system around what she saw and processed. What about the suffering of other beings? Tolstoy died before she was born and had become a vegetarian for spiritual reasons. Why could Simone not remove her own blindfold?
Simone talked about god being across a huge void or chasm. She said that we couldn’t get to god, but only god could make the journey across the void to us. It must have been difficult to imagine the divine so far away, when it was both in herself and on her plate.
Removing the filters is painful, but necessary, to evolve.
Aroha nui,
Lee Sturgis
leesturgis.eth
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