‘Cause there could be a better political system that gives living beings rights
I’m back with another blog review of the second of Charlotte Laws‘s books published this year, Omniocracy: A Government that Represents All Living Beings. If you’re thinking this is a novel like Elevator People was, think again!
Also published by Stroud House, I consider this nonfiction book both an Animal Activism 101 course and a political thesis. It is written from the point of view of an animal activist, and if you don’t consider yourself one, a lot of concepts here might seem extreme. Laws writes in her introduction that it’s “a critique of traditional morality.”
For example, she says that democracy is totalitarian and that promoting myths may be a better form of animal activism than what we are doing, because let’s face it—there aren’t more people going vegan lately despite the amount of influential activists we have.
What is “omniocracy?” She defines the term as “a government with representation for all living beings.” Sounds reasonable, right? As you’ll discover if you choose to dive into this discourse is that this is the book most vegans are afraid to write. It’s borderline offensive, but it’s fair, and Laws tells it like it is.
(Fun fact: Laws served eight years on city council, started the Directors of Animal Welfare organization, and plans to run for office again.)
Highlights worth mentioning:
- Laws’s analogy reminded me of Jane Elliott’s Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes anti-racism exercise. Many people will say they are for certain social justice movements, but they are not when their values are truly tested.
- She argues that our current measure of intelligence is flawed as there is a lack of moral agency, consent, and sentience when we look at how we treat animals. Most people find the murder of animals acceptable, while it would not be acceptable to do the same to mentally ill people. She argues that all lower creatures have some sentience—even plants, some of which can rejuvenate themselves.
- She critiques animal rights authors and scholars like Peter Singer and Carol J. Adams because their arguments do not hold up. Likewise, she points out elements of our post-modern society (e.g. woke-ism and multiculturalism) don’t align with veganism. For example, both liberals and conservatives value tradition in how to deal with animals. So animals are in a lose-lose situation. If humans are the only free moral agents, we will always have power over animals (and I’d say even over ecosystems).
- Some of the book gets very scientific. Laws introduces quantum physics and proposes that none of us truly have free will because of determinism. We all act, react, and move according to universal laws.
- I learned that Jainism is a religion based on noninjury to living beings. It sounds great, but it’s impractical.
- Later in the book, Laws introduces potential theories of how an omniocratic “Good Model” would work and how we could take steps to consider the practicality of her proposed solutions and vote on a system such as this. Elections would need to be free of the influence of money (YEEES!).
- Both animal rights activists and environmentalists could work together under this model, and Laws introduces her Ecoland and Bioland concepts. Media would be obligated to report on animals and ecosystems.
- Laws concludes the book by talking about how we could start enacting omniocracy. There’s an appendix on determinism and crime that could further interest readers.
As mentioned, this book is very philosophical and scholarly. With lots of academic terms here that require definitions and examples, this is a college-level read. I thought a lot of this book’s content might have been better in a talk or course format, but if you’re a political nerd, this is a bold manifesto for a better political paradigm.
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