Saving the World
It is an old story. A suburban Californian, experimenting with urban chicken-raising, has to kill the hen that turned out to be a rooster. Roosters being illegal in her neighborhood, you understand.
I doubt that butchering livestock creates “a kind of ethic” that will save the world. I rely not just on my own paltry experience for this insight, but on the gory whole of human history. I know this sounds heartless, but it’s the truth: Killing Arlene was messy and mundane, like cleaning the gutters.
Whenever someone tells me that something “isn’t going to save the world” I always wonder. Who said it would, indeed, save the world? And from what? And on what scale?
There is only one act that is truly messianic, one act performed once for all history and people. It must go without saying that the act of killing a particular chicken does not provide universal, transcendent redemption. I believe the implication is that, even if everybody killed their own chickens, that still wouldn’t save the world. That addresses the question of scale.
What is it that we are saving the world from, exactly? If everyone cleaned their gutters, it would indeed save the world. Not from sin, not from poverty or injustice. It would save the world from messy gutters.
The fact that you are not the messiah should not excuse you from doing your part. There are a lot of things the world needs saving from.
gauche
25 Sep 09
