Chickens on a conveyor Belt? - Michael Evans

As we were watching a movie in class the other day, one scene really intrigued me. I watched as on the screen several thousands of little chickens slid by on a conveyor belt being handled less than kindly by workers who were inspecting them and separating them by gender. This image was juxtaposed several times against an image of people crowding in the subways underground, going through the turnstiles and packing into the cars. I thought it was a very unique and accurate illustration of how we treat nature and even each other. We don’t really think about nature as a living thing, sometimes, just merely a possession that we can use as a means to our own ends. Other people are included in that. We run around all day displaying meaningless gestures out of a sense of duty rather than a desire to be kind to another individual. We inspect other individuals, we study them, we categorize them, and then we label them with various tags that are often generalizations. This seems to parallel the way the little chickens are inspected and categorized. The chickens are, to the workers, either eggs or potpies. We, to the subway station attendants, are just numbers and tickets hopping the train like everyone else. We have really taken the life out of nature and out of living and replaced it with needs and desires for goods and services instead.