A Mother's Love in times of cognitive dissonance

Tiago Miranda

Tiago Miranda is a photographer. His journalism work, celebrated internationally, focuses on the art of visual storytelling.

A MOTHER’S LOVE IN TIMES OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

MEDIA: Photography print
SIZE: 210x140cm
YEAR: 2021

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A MOTHER’S LOVE IN TIMES OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE | Tiago Miranda

“In the midst of a technological and urban revolution, animalism took over our cities. First discreetly, then guerrilla-style, and now as a declared open war. This animalism took over the political discourse and specifically the space of civil laws, reaching its apex when animals started to be considered “…living beings endowed with sensitivity and legal protections by virtue of their nature”.

Despite the animal world’s apparent victory, this victory is not for all. Equality granted by the republic still only applies to humans. The new law is clearly aimed at pets. The others will have to keep surviving as they can, in this way of being so “homo sapiens” that is hypocrisy. There are more subtle ways to name the issue. Some call it “the paradox of the flesh”, others explain the phenomenon with the concept of cognitive dissonance.

Coming to Christmas 2021, after countless victories for millions of dogs and cats around the world and in our country, the truth is that about 400 million turkeys are produced for consumption worldwide each year.

This animal was brought from Mexico to Europe and made to be a fashionable feature of our tables in the 16th century. Were it not for this annual Christmas sacrifice, turkeys could live up to ten years in age. Nowadays, the vast majority of these birds are killed at the age of just two months, accumulating so much weight in such a short period of time that they often cannot even walk and develop many other physical malformations.

Christmas is by far the time of year when more turkeys are killed than any other for human consumption. The numbers are impressive. During the holiday, the turkeys consumed are: 4.5 million in Australia; 8 million in Brazil; 19 million in the United States; 10 million in England.

The death of a turkey, as a commercial object, is often very similar to the one of a chicken. It is hung upside down on a rail, paralyzed by passing through electrified water and then mechanically beheaded.

Despite this, through the act of cognitive dissonance, the human being always finds a way to morally justify himself for his contradictory actions. Perhaps that’s why in the United States there is a tradition, on Thanksgiving Day, for which 46 million turkeys are killed: the President of that country grants clemency to two turkeys which are spared death.

*The author of this project is no saint. At home he eats chicken, fish and at least one vegetarian meal a week. In the case of going out to eat at a restaurant, there are no limits, or at least there weren’t. Lately he’s been trying to contain himself a little more. This is not to say that he is not self-critical. Our existence is neither simple nor clear. What we eat, and the reason why we eat it, isn’t either. All animals have a mother, they all suffer, and none of them should exist just to be killed by us.