TRIBUNE — Sensitive souls, abstain! The forests are burning. The world is in crisis. The United States is imploding. In France, suspended caregivers are on the street… But a famous American newspaper wonders if this is not the time to think about cannibalism!
A time and a place for cannibalism
In an article titled “A taste for cannibalism?the New York Times saw fit to write that ” cannibalism has a time and a place. Some recent books, movies, and shows suggest that time has come. Can you bear it? » Does this famous American newspaper praise cannibalism? Not exactly, but they still devote a great article to a subject that has always been considered taboo.
In collective imagery, the word cannibalism is often associated with the painting “Le Raft de la Méduse”, produced between 1818 and 1819 by the French romantic painter and lithographer Théodore Géricault. Indeed, the painting depicts the survivors of a shipwreck who, dying of hunger or prey to alcoholic delirium, come to eat each other. We can also think of the well-known television series called “ Hannibal “, which features a fictional character: Hannibal Lecter, psychiatrist, being in reality a cannibal murderer. Here, anthropophagy therefore remains in the realm of fiction, of morbid fantasy.
However, some environmental scientists have floated the idea of moving from fiction to reality. The latter promote extreme veganism and consider that human meat would be a good alternative to animal meat in order to create “ a sustainable elemental future “. Magnus Soderlund, professor and researcher at the Stockholm School of Economics, said that we should “ getting used to eating unfamiliar foods, such as human flesh from corpses “. However, it has been proven that this practice, in addition to being abominable and morally despicable, has caused the death of 2,500 members of an aboriginal tribe who fed on the bodies of the deceased.
Going back to the New York Times article, it begins with these words: A string of recent stomach-churning books, TV shows and movies suggests we’ve never looked so delicious – to each other ». A very morbid humor on the part of the journalist, in short, but let’s move on… The article then cites a series of films dealing with cannibalism, and gives the floor to a certain Mrs. Summers. The latter recounts that when fact checkers criticized and discussed the intricacies of human butchery, and how the anti-heroine of her book’s book cooked her murdered lovers, the author was so disgusted that she went raw vegan for a while. two weeks. Her book had been refused more than twenty times before she received an offer from Audible and the publishing house. Unnamed Press ».
When the unthinkable becomes thinkable?
But, as Mrs. Summers learned writing, A Certain Hunger », « a fascination with cannibalism, as you might expect, perhaps a touchy subject ». Yes, you’re not dreaming, the writer says she is fascinated by cannibalism!
Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson are the creators of the “Yellowjackets” series. This series is about a team of young soccer players whose plane crashes in the middle of Canadian wildlife. It is strongly suggested in the first episode that they practiced cannibalism to survive. The directors say: I think we’re often drawn to what repels us the most. “. Mr Nickerson, 43, added: “ But I keep coming back to this idea of what part of our distaste for these things is the fear of ecstasy? Mrs. Lyle says: “ I think we’re obviously in a very strange time. She listed the pandemic, climate change, school shootings and years of political cacophony as possible factors.
« I have the impression that the unthinkable has become thinkable “, she says, ” and cannibalism is squarely in this category of the unthinkable ».
The problem in this article is not so much the fact that they talk about cannibalism, but above all that no criticism and no argument comes to contradict the declarations of these writers, who by their speech tend to normalize this practice in the imagination. collective through their works: If the unthinkable has become thinkable, then anything is possible “. When we read this declaration, we think of this sentence pronounced by Ivan Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky: If God does not exist, everything is permitted “. It is not a question here of God as an omnipotent being and savior of humanity, but God as a moral and ethical authority who prevents men from giving in to their bad inclinations, even their worst faults! Some will object that there is an atheistic morality that could replace divine morality, and quite simply laws that prevent such acts. On the other hand, from the moment when we know that we will not be sanctioned by the law and that no one will judge us for our actions after our death, then we can indulge in all possible crimes and imaginable. However, the current crisis affecting the Western world is in some way the indicator of a societal, civilizational, but also moral crisis, since one of the largest American newspapers does not hesitate to promote cannibalism by devoting a long article.
The outraged reactions did not fail to appear on Twitter:
« I won’t eat insects and I certainly won’t eat my neighbors “, tweets an American rapper and writer in response to this article:
I will not eat the bugs and I certainly will not eat my neighbours.
— ZUBY: (@ZubyMusic) July 23, 2022
Other reactions follow:
« The New York Times, which has just promoted cannibalism in its pages, publishes an essay urging Hollywood to promote a pro-abortion agenda in movies and TV shows. – Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) July 25, 2022.
« The New York Times relies on that already well-deserved “enemy of the people” moniker far too much and far too literally. – Mollie (@MZHemingway) July 23, 2022.
« These people tell us it’s wrong to eat meat and it’s the end of the world, but they totally approve of cannibalism. — Gabriella Hoffman (@Gabby_Hoffman) July 23, 2022.
« We had a decent race, but it’s over for humanity. Bring the comet. »- David Giglio (@DavidGiglioCA) at 23 July 2022.
Some think on the contrary that it is a subject like any other treated by the newspaper:
The editors of @nytimes are not idiots. Are there to normalize the unacceptable.
And the narrative of the unacceptable always passes through corporate culture and media.
Why do you think the CIA writes Hollywood movies glorifying war?
For artistic ambitions? ???? https://t.co/fdJC0hUFYo
— The free minute (@MinuteLibre) July 24, 2022
To another extent, that scientists and governments continue to promote gene therapies, of which we now know the many side effects that tip the scales much more in favor of risk than benefit, also demonstrates a collapse of ethics in politics and medicine.
A coming food crisis
However, rest assured, we are not yet at the point where you will have to eat your neighbor to survive. Even if recently, a Swedish company offered a plant-based human meat-flavored vegan burger.
Currently, several celebrities on the big screen are promoting vegan food, which would represent a good alternative to traditional food and which would obviously be better for the planet. Kim Kardashian, for example, promotes a company called Beyond Meat that breeds meat from plants. However, in an article in the New York Times, critics claim that neither Beyond Meat nor Impossible Foods (another vegan chain) disclose the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions for their entire operations. , supply chains or consumer waste. They also do not disclose the effects of all of their activities on forests or the amount of water they use. We would therefore have yet another example of “Greenwashing”. In the same style, Nicole Kidman and Angelina Joli can be seen eating live worms and insects which they seem to relish.
???? “We will eat ze BUGS and YOU will be happy”
Hollywood stars one by one begin to advertise the food that #Schwab imposes on all of humanity. Then Kidman with worms, then Jolie with grasshoppers & now Kim Kardashian praises artificial meat. And again we see how another
— Angel of Heaven (@AngelofHeaven) July 18, 2022
It may seem trivial to you, but these famous Hollywood actresses are world famous and therefore influence people’s opinions enormously. In the future, and faced with the food crisis which is gradually arriving, we may therefore be led to consume live insects. Who knows ?
Read also: Vegetable alternatives: it will soon be forbidden to call them “steak”, “sausages”, “milk”…