I have long ago resigned to the fact that people intentionally fool themselves to thinking their moral code holds water when exposed to completely objective and rational criticism. Maybe it's not animal cruelty because they're not the ones carrying it out. Maybe it's more justified than other forms of animal cruelty because the ultimate result of it is not wanton suffering but nourishment. I don't know and in any case am not here to debate omnivorous moral hypocrisy.
When I said the videos were all standard stuff, I mean that it's all been done before. There is plenty of footage from farms detailing animal abuse. The strike of genious from the part of Oikeutta Eläimille was to realize just that, and to understand that more than shooting a movie and putting it on Youtube needs to be done to really get a point across. They have made a damn good job of establishing a constant presence in the media and presenting themselves in a way which challenges the average persons view of animal activists.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Most people have a highly misconstrued view of the type of person who vocally campaigns for animal rights. They are seen as snotty upper middle-class kids raised in a little bubble who have nothing better to do than push their black & white world view on respectable citizens. The average persons view of an "animal activist" has pretty much ensured that their message would go unheeded, until now. The group has launched Sikatehtaat, a site with expert opinions from reporters, philosophers and doctors as well as your less credible musicians, artists and NGO hippies. Judging by the comments on the Helsingin Sanomat discussion board, (and if hs.fi isn't the true echo of the voice of the sheepish Finn, I don't know what is) public opinion has indeed shifted to a more favorable view of activism. Stunts such as interrupting a parliament session are another part of this cleverly woven web of pr, and one can only applaud the ability of a grassroots organization finally adopting t the same tactics of media manipulation that are standard practice in politics and business. But there is one more key ingredient to the success of Oikeutta Eläimille, one that which is both a blessing and a curse in mainstream Finnish media.
I hate to say this, especially since I am usually the first one to lament about the decline of journalistic objectivism, but one can't help but feel a tiny pang of glee when bias once for leans the towards a just cause, even if inadvertently. I've come to the conclusion that Hesari most definately carries a strong anti-Keskusta agenda. Our comedically corrupt Agrarian Party does seem to be more than others on the receiving end of political exposé's, a misplaced pile of planks and the media kerfuffle that ensued coming immediately to mind. The media's witchunt may be morally questionable, but not nearly as much as the bulvanic nature of the party's fund gathering techniques or the magnetically faulty moral compass which guides the opinions of among others, minister of agriculture Sirkka-Liisa Anttila. God I hate her.
So some good has been done, and we all should be glad for that. Even meat eaters seem to be waking up the fact that while there may be some cultural, if not logical justification to their lifestyle, the conditions where their food has been brought up contradicts every possible aspect of human decency. We can only hope that some permanent change has been instigated. It's utopistic to think that meat eating is going to disappear anytime soon (it will eventually, mark my words), but some moral soul searching seems to have taken place on a wider scale. Merry Christmas.
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