TEDx Talk on Ditching Meat One of The Most Watched

Like us on Facebook:

The current article you are reading does not reflect the views of the current editors and contributors of the new Ecorazzi

A TEDx talk that discusses the absurdities of eating meat and encourages people to go vegan has made it to the one percent most watched.

In her talk ‘Beyond Carnism and Toward Rational, Authentic Food Choices,’ Dr. Melanie Joy, a Harvard-educated psychologist, professor of psychology and sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, explores why we eat meat when we care for other animals.

“There is an invisible belief system or ideology that conditions us to eat certain animals,” Joy explains of the belief she calls ‘carnism.’ “We tend to assume that only vegans and vegetarians follow a belief system but when eating animals is not a necessity, which is the case in most of the world today, then it is a choice and choices always stem from beliefs.”

Joy, who’s been a vegan since 1989 after getting food poisoning from a burger, goes on to explain how that choice goes against core human values like compassion and is a widespread and violent ideology since “meat cannot be procured without violence and the egg and dairy production cause extensive harm to animals.”

According to the TEDx talk, the ways in which carnism remains a dominant ideology is through people’s denial (if they don’t see those suffering animals, they’re not really suffering), believing myths like meat is “normal natural and necessary” (which was once the idea about slavery and male dominance) and ignoring the atrocities and failing to see just how similar they are to violent acts of war (which she illustrates by showing pictures of slaughterhouses next to nearly identical ones of historical battles and war sites).

Joy finishes the TEDx talk on a good note, however, saying the key to a paradigm shift is in simply sharing the talk and information with others.

“Awareness has always been the antidote to violent ideologies. Virtually every atrocity was made possible because the populace turned away from a reality they felt was too painful to face. And virtually every revolution, every social transformation, was made possible because of those that chose awareness and who acted on what they have learned,” she explains.

Considering that among all TEDx talks, hers has been one of the one percent most watched of all time, it seems people are really taking the call to action to heart. Here’s to hoping the revolution begins any day now.