Giving Pigs a Bad Name

Imagine you were a pig.

As a pig, you would care about nothing besides getting fat.

If you could get fat by eating the food shares of other animals, you would readily do so.

If you could get fat by eating up your own little piglet children’s future, you would do so.

If you could get fat by eating your whole farm into ruin, you’d munch right through it without another thought.

Indeed, if you could get fat by scarfing up so much food that you literally imperiled the entire planet, you would not only do so, but you would criticize and mock those who had the temerity merely to point out the consequences of your actions and thereby interfere with the conquering of your global comestible empire.

For those of you, like me, who too often find themselves aghast at the state of our nation, jaws dropped to the floor in wonder at the astonishing capacity for American self-destruction, befuddled by the acquiescence of the victims of this pillaging, there’s your answer: If you can imagine what it would be like to be an amoral, sociopathic, singularly focused, devoted consumption machine – that is, to be a pig – then you get it. And then you get our America, too.

I can’t tell you how it pains me to write these words.

It pains me in two senses, in fact. First, as a matter of personal character and conduct. I think it’s fair to say that the people who know me would report that I am a fairly gentle soul. I don’t prefer conflict, I almost never seek it out, and I will even sometimes avoid it when it’s stuck in my face – at least under certain conditions and in the short term. I’m not, that is, the kind of person who feels at all comfortable referring to other people as pigs.

But I do so because I believe emphatically that it needs to be done. I do so because of the second sense of how I am pained – for my country and for the world. I do so, with regret for having to, and yet with even more regret that we all aren’t doing the same thing, and doing it with a fierce urgency. For, is there any question of what has become of us? Is there any question that the pigs now rule?
~ from When Pigs Rule by David Michael Green ~

I will probably catch some flak from a few you because Green's essay may appear a bit uncivil. Some may argue that we shouldn't call people names just because we might disagree with them. Well, I say that, if the barnyard animal fits, you got to wear it!

If you look at how some members of the world community treat the planet and the people who live on it -- like we're all sitting at the bottom of the pit under an outhouse -- I see nothing wrong with pointing out this observation in graphical language. Pussyfooting around the key issues in this life won't get us anyplace. Playing nice so as not to hurt delicate feelings is another way of avoiding the confrontation that is needed.

If a person cares solely for the fortune and power they can amass and they don't give much of a damn about anyone else, that's behaving like a pig! If the oligarchs and power brokers don't want to be labeled pigs, then they should stop behaving like them!