We added a new introduction to the original blog you’ll find below, in order to make more sense if you got here from our latest newsletter.
We chose the wrong role model in building the world. The “king of beasts”, lions, was a bad idea. So the colorful, charismatic, wealthy, high earning, loudest, biggest, fastest, alpha male who leads by force.
It has not only made the world sick, it’s made the men and women in it, sick, even if we haven’t consciously sought to become any of the adjectives we often use for this person, such as macho. Inside us deeply is this sense this is who we must be, and so we do, we compete, we struggle against the odds, we try to move too much mass, we do things we don’t want to do or feel right about doing. We convince ourselves, we live in denial, and finally, a good portion of the world’s young people are taking to the streets to clean up the mess this character has produced. What they haven’t thought of, however, because honestly by now they don’t care, is how so many of you are suffering, both men and women, from having tried to be this person, or live with them.
So, back to the original “Heal the Macho”
I am trying to understand our belief system that keeps us identifying with predators, and for example calls one of the most violent animals known “the King of the Savannah.” Is that really a viable role model today? Why not call lions the “Brutal Killers of the Savannah”, when the first thing Alfa males do when taking over a new territory is kill cubs that are not their offspring? That, something akin to what we’d call rape, and many other behaviors of the lion and certain other predators, isn’t anything I want to identify with at all. That’s what some predators do, but we aren’t lions so why should we identify with them, why not with the dear?
The question is if we have a choice, and I believe we do. One term often used for lion-like behavior would be macho. The word macho comes from Spanish and means “a male”, or as an adjective “male-like.” In the way it’s mostly used where I’m from, macho is someone who aspires to be a muscle-strong, powerful, meat-eating and roaring killer, who takes what he wants (including others’ bodies) often uses his fist before his words, would show off in fights, and takes selfies while holding guns. At Olive we are extremely suspicious of this prototype and have had to invent new words to describe this behavior, as even macho doesn’t adequately describe the machos in some areas.
The more sophisticated and well-behaved (i.e. emotionally intelligent) macho, we have begun calling dicktakers within the areas of power, authority and influence (for obvious reasons). It often refers to a male, but some women seem very eager to become dicktakers, too. The dicktaker is highly regarded in our society until s/he is caught, if ever. The dicktaker takes more, not because they need it but because nothing stops them, and more and bigger, as well acquisition are idealized in our society. In Ray’s most recent research he links dicktakers to omnipreneurs (literally “all takers”), those who apply entrepreneurial behavior in all areas of life as a preferred living standard, or should we call it a moral, or even religious standard? It’s someone who even if they were caught wouldn’t stop taking, but find new “smart” ways to trick (lobby) the system (regulatory) to legitimate their behavior, and take even more. They don’t take no for an answer, even if it’s in respect to rivers, air, animals and the bodies, lives and lands of poor peoples. Usually no one will stops them.
Machos attract machos, like violence attracts violence. Think of machos in different groups, such as hunters, football fans, business leaders in suits, gangs, and military. They often use dress codes and other codes to belong, while keeping others out (i.e., exclusivity). Codes are important, as in any culture, but more so if they are based on fear, competitiveness, abuse and violence. I think you understand which type I mean. I mean a BIG part of our society, our economy, our rules feed on the predatorial, “überculture” as I most recently heard it called by a dear friend, when referring to a culture now perceived as the normal. This overall culture of ours, handles violence with more violence, or neglects it, like abuse at home or at work.
The omnipreneurs (omnis for short), dicktakers and machos are rapidly losing their glory, but we only have to examine 30 to 40 year old ads to understand where we came from. S/He is still the aspiration amongst many men, and women, and they probably won’t read this blog or show much interest in us vegans and hippiprenuers yet. But it’s changing fast, and recently when Go Vegan World organization had a publicity campaign that has shaken things up in Ireland and the UK, just as Trump and his trumpets are waking us all up from the sleep of denial.
In the long run it looks like the carnivore macho culture will take care of itself. Statistically they die earlier and have more disease, less sperm count and dysfunction. Not only for being carnivores, but for being immune to the health and feelings of others (and themselves). Today we can more easily choose with whom we want to identify as never before, the predator or the prey, although we still belong to an überculture of the predator, as explained in my previous blog.
Today we can chose who we want to identify with as never before, the predator or the prey, although we still belong to an überculture of the predator, as explained in my previous two blogs of four,
Eating habits are not only about biology or needs. It’s a moral question. It’s a deeply rooted belief system and as such goes far beyond what we chose for dinner. Next time predators argue that it’s just about feeding ourselves, ask why they don’t salivate when they smell and see pigs stacked up in trucks, and why they don’t eat dogs, cats, rats, horses, donkeys, peacocks, etc, but a certain handful of culturally and historically prescribed animals. It’s culture not biology.
I wonder what else a person that identify with a violent behavior like a predator, consciously or not, allow oneself to do. My last blog in this series of four blogs, will come home to put the light on and see what the Predator Culture does behind the walls.
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