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Society + Culture,  Of Sheep and Other Sacrificial Animals
by James L. Secor
 A very long time ago, even before recorded history (which recorded, at it’s beginning, history before recorded history), people were sacrificed to the gods for expiation of some kind of sinning that caused catastrophes in the society. Later, when humanism seemed to take over, animals were used instead of people.
What a sigh of relief must have gone up from mothers and virgins! However, then came witch hunts, though this sacrifice of people was political in origin and in the interests of consolidation of power, regardless of the religious rhetoric rationalizing the practice. So prevalent was this sacrifice for the betterment of society that witches suddenly appeared in The Bible (King James Version) where they’d never been before. With the spread of Jews across Europe, there were several more human sacrificial episodes, ending with Hitler’s 6,000,000. Since then, the US has engaged in human sacrifice for rhetorical rationalizations solely for politics and power: Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Korea, Vietnam, Central and South America, East Timor, Iraq--the list is seemingly endless. One of the four legged animals most frequently used for sacrifices was the sheep. Sheep are docile. Sheep don’t panic and stampede like cows or ostriches or rabbits. People have been compared to sheep in this respect: they do what they’re told, they go where the shepherd leads, they don’t panic; that is, people are easily controlled. Usually, this epithet--sheep--has een applied to people in Communist or Socialist or Dictatorial countries, despite the fact that Jacques Ellul showed how this actually applied to any people subjected to propaganda--and propaganda was apparently the going thing in his not-too-pleasant view of the world post WWII (Cf. Propaganda). But people-as-sheep don’t always need to be literally sacrificed. They can be simply manipulated, shunted from one pasture to another—or, as in this case, from one crisis to another. For political/power reasons, despite the rhetorical rationalizations to the contrary. And. . .people-as-sheep don’t need to reside in Commnist, Socialist or Dictatorial States. Indeed, they reside quite comfortably in the United States of America, a supposed democracy (though this is only on paper). I do not mean this to apply to any particular section of the populace, such as The Left--whoever they are--but generally, to the population at large. As Stanley Milgram showed, it only takes 70% of the populace bowing to authority to create people-as-sheep conditions for an entire nation (Cf. Obedience to Authority). With reference to bird or avian flu (A/H5N1), this 70% is far closer to 100%. For the powers that be to remain in power, the populace needs to be kept in a state of fear and terror, regardless of the perpetrator: Saddam, Islam, Communism or chickens. The media--and even some independent reporters--are the great disseminators of this fear and terror. Everywhere in the press, in magazines, on the Internet, on TV and radio we hear how we are going to suffer, no doubt about it, a pandemic of avian flu. Worse than that of 1918, which killed 40 million people (roughly 2% of the world population then). Then it was called “Spanish flu.” Regardless, there are some China bashers who maintan that it is all China’s fault and, further, that all new flu strains have come from Guangdong, China. This is, of course, untrue but why bother with the truth when urban legernds are far more interesting? The 1918 flu epidemic began in Topeka, Kansas on a US military establishment--in the kitchen. Where did the chicken come from? Let us define a pandemic. Generally, it is defined as a global disease that kills an inordinately large proportion of the population. So, 2% of the population (as in 1918) is considered a large proportion. At today’s world population, 2% would be, roughly, 133+ million people. Now. . .there is also this thing called a mild pandemic, defined as a global disease that kills around 100,000 people. According to scientists and dictionary compilers, pandemics don’t start slowly; pandemics are swifly spreading diseases, spreading from person to person. Since 2003, approximately 105 people have died from avian flu (out of a reported 186 cases). But there have been only two cases, as of this writing, of people-to-people transfer of the disease. So, that’s two people out of around 7 billion. Quite a swift spread, I’d say. Even the upscale intellectual Znet sports a fear and terror scenario, especially that of Stephen Soldz (13 March 2006). Although a rebuttal of a prior article by Lucinda Marshall debunking the bird flu pandemic fear and terror (Cf. “The Ultimate Chicken Joke”), Mr. Soldz does so by citing government authorities--the people responsible for the spread of the fear and terror--and sophomoric yes-but arguments. Indeed, he calls America a “safe haven” (Cf. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle/cfm?ItemID=9904). Listen to this contradiction: America is a safe haven, American should worry and fear. PBS gets into the fray by calling bird flu dangerous--and we, of course, should be afeared. Aiya!--I’m gonna die! I’m gonna die! Yet America is a safe haven. Life is so paradoxical! But it is not only the US press. BBC spreads the fear and terror: “This could mean that many illnesses, and even deaths, thought to have been something else, may have been due to” the avian flu. WHO--the World Health Organization--predicts doom: all of its rhetoric is filled with the word “will.” No doubt about it. But the US shouldn’t fear too much, according to The Economist of 13 February 2006: the most affected places will be China and India. This, despite the concentration of bird flu being in Southeast Asia and Africa, according to a Nature online map. Yet the rest of the wrold does not seem to be in the chiliastic panic America is, though Vietnam killsits infected chickens in order to abort human contamination possibilities, as the US did not do with its mad cows. There have been approximately 220 end-of-the-world scenarios down through time. The world is still here. In reporting the pandemic scare, the media has not asked questions, has refused to confront contradictions, has no actual statistics and can quote no research. The bird flu just is, presumably like a Buddhist monk just is (is just being). Okay. So, in three years there have been 105 deaths from handling infected chickens. And there’s been only two reported person-to-person deaths. In three years the 1918 pandemic had abated. What are Americans doing to waylay this swiftly spreading disease they are so primed for? As with sheep, they are relying on their shepherd(s) to guide them: the government and the pharmaceutical companies. America will wait until the bird flu gets into the country before doing anything about it, before innoculating--even though the stock-piled vaccine to date has been shown to be ineffective. Big PHRMA is forever saying how expensive vaccines are to make: this is true. But no one, not one damned person, questions why only 500,000 doses have or can be developed for a nation of 260 million people. Why? You can be sure the government officials and the military are covered. How many everyday, average Americans will be safe in this safe haven? Why are the possible deaths of a large percentage of 259,500,000 people acceptable? Two percent would be five million. I think this is a “Duh!” question. But no one is asking. No one is asking why America is just waiting for catastrophe. Like people with no mind. Like sheep waiting for the shepherd to herd them along. There are some communities in China that are actually doing something to protect themselves. Americans, though, cannot take heed because China is the bad guy in innumerable ways. What these Chinese communities are doing—entire cities—is not eating chicken. Not selling chicken. It is extremely difficult to find a restaurant, of any size, selling cooked chicken (because kitchen staff and buyers must handle the raw meat or, more likely, the live animal). There re no stret markets selling chickens or chicken parts. This seems to me to be an effective way of limiting, if not halting, the spread of the insidious, swifly spreading bird flu that really isn’t here if we consider it’s taken three years to kill 105 people. Of course, to take such preventive steps in America would damage the fowl market--especially that of Frank Perdue. Business first. So, some of the people in the world aren’t sheep. With the barrage of misinformation in the US press, perhaps most of America is sheep. Especially in that we are waiting for our shepherd to tell us what to do. This is, of course, a further foolishness, a further instance of mindlessness, thoughtlessness. What did the government, our shepherd, do before and in response to Katrina? Nothing, is the answer. Our shepherd was quite simply not around. The latest true pandemic has been AIDS. It took a long time for the US to acknowledge this--and then it demonized (and still demonizes) a particular section of the populace. It then developed extremely expensive drugs. What has our shepherd, our government been doing to contain or eliminate this pandemic virus? Nothing. Indeed, it is hindering the process worldwide in the name of intellectual property rights; read “money, money, money.” Greed. I think this is called globalization. Killing us gently with their love. Good old Anglo-Saxon has a better word choice: Fuck you. America’s sheep are waiting for the slaughter--and the blame. The cause of their fear and trembling, the cause of their deaths is someone else’s responsibility. Certainly not their own. . .and certainly not the government’s, for the government has the people’s welfare at heart. Right?
Of course, no one is questioning the reality of a pandemic; everyone is supporting, even rooting for the pandemic, the deaths of millions. Why? And. . .why no questioning (except for Lucinda Marshall)? Why is no one quesioning why this fear and terror is being pandered in the first place? Not even Greg Palast or John Pilger or Derrick Jensen or George Monbiot or Bill Moyers are asking this question. Why? Remember, a pandemic is a swiftly spreading infection that reaches gobal populations AND bird flu has killed 105 people in three years. “Hello? Hello? Is anyone home? This is your government speaking. Are you there?--I’m not here right now but if you leave a message. . . ” ====================== Jimsecor is a freelance writer who has travelled extensively overseas, especially Japan and China. He has published in all genre and produced several plays over the years and has taught theatre, writing and literature. Recommend this article...
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