Human(e) Meat (The Flensing Of Sandor Katz)

Sandor Katz quote:

"I’ve had some inquiries lately regarding a song being released by a Canadian punk band, Propaghandi, called “Human(e) Meat: The Flensing of Sandor Katz.” The song describes slaughtering and preparing me as food. It does so using images I take to be references to and interpretations of the chapter “Vegetarian Ethics and Humane Meat” in my book The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved. I find it ironic that group named for Ghandi, someone so insistent upon practicing resistance in nonviolent ways, would express their ideological disagreements with me through violent imagery describing my death, as well as a threat on my life. That is not funny to me.

I am always open to dialogue. I am not without ethical questions about meat. I identify with many of the ideals that motivate people to vegetarianism. But I also love meat and other animal-source foods, and I feel deeply nourished by them. After a relatively brief period of vegetarianism in my own life, I followed my body’s cravings back to meat. And I am not alone; I also observe as a cultural phenomenon that many one-time vegetarians return to meat, frequently spurred by pregnancy or health crisis, following their bodies’ calls.

We do have choices other than renouncing meat altogether or resigning ourselves to mass-produced meat, raised in cruel confinement and made toxic by a diet of industrial by-products and synthetic chemicals. Animals, even those destined for slaughter, can be fed well, given space to graze and roam, and treated with consideration. Meat does require death, but not cruelty. We can and must reclaim meat, as we must reclaim our food in every aspect and re-integrate its production into the fabric of our lives. This means cultivating relationships with plants, animals, microbes, and fungi, the other creatures that sustain us. And an important aspect of those relationships, if we are to feed ourselves, involves ending their lives. I do not take animal slaughter lightly. But I do believe that if the slaughter of animals were visible in peoples’ lives, we’d eat considerably less meat, and have a culture less prone to glorifying violence (as in this song)."

So you can probably see why Prop would choose him as their preferred human(e) dish : )

The first half of the song is in quotation, i.e.: from someone's perspective (someone with similar beliefs to Sandor Katz), or just Chris' sarcasm. Then (mostly) the second half (from "a rationale so moronic it defies belief" is basically his opinion.

Sorry for pointing out the obvious, effing radd song though.

Alright, so GreenCorn41's line of the first line is good. Thinking about this song, the end is really funny to me.

First lines are a butcher killing an animal.

I swear I did my best to ensure that His final moments were swift and free from fear

Last Lines are propagandhi (figuratively) killing Sandor Katz.

I swear I'll do my best to ensure that Your final moments are swift and free from fear

AND THEN

They kill him with a guitar solo !! Ahh a good way to die...

This is a great song, and the point is obviously that its not ok to be "post-vegetarian" and go back to eating meat after being a vegetarian, as Katz says in a book. Katz wishes people would just go back to eating meat, so Prop says be careful what you wish for...

It may come knocking on your door. And then the song has some door knocks where they enter his house and kill him (with the gnarly shred) Great album.

The lyrics posted above are incorrect. It should read, "I trust the reader will."

"First lines are a butcher killing an animal.

I swear I did my best to ensure that His final moments were swift and free from fear"

That first verse specifically says 'Sandor Katz' therefore it is not an animal, but Sandor Katz!!

A lot of you are taking this song the wrong way. As Jord said, it is a satirical look at eating meat in a 'humane' way. As many hold the killing of animals up there with homophobia, racism and sexism etcetera which I won't go into, it is essentially saying well what is the difference between me 'humanely' killing and animal and you, Sandor Katz.

The beginning kinda makes you cringe a bit.
I think the song's self explanatory...

There must be some better inplicit meaning I'm not getting, and ideas?

Fuckin Great song. The opening reminds me a lot of Purina Hall Of Fame, just with a human instead of a pig. And that's what this song is about, it's about instead of animals getting slaughtered humans do. The opening line "I swear I did my best to ensure that his final moments were swift and free from fear" is what all the butchers say about the pigs they slaughter but in reality they don't mean what they say.

They seem to be increasing (if it's possible) their focus on animal rights on this album. I get the basic thrust of the song which is to turn around the arguments used to justify eating meat by taking it to its logical limit and applying it to cannibalism.

Can anyone shed light on the Sandor Katz (aka Sandorkraut) reference? a brief search of wikipedia reveals he is a food writer and 'fermentation fetishist', but why him in particular and not any of the other authors?

They seem to be increasing (if it's possible) their focus on animal rights on this album. I get the basic thrust of the song which is to turn around the arguments used to justify eating meat by taking it to its logical limit and applying it to cannibalism.

Can anyone shed light on the Sandor Katz (aka Sandorkraut) reference? a brief search of wikipedia reveals he is a food writer and 'fermentation fetishist', but why him in particular and not any of the other authors?

http://vegetarianstar.com/2009/03/18/propagandhi-band-cooks-up-sandor-katz-for-humane-meat/

“That’s someone cutting bread and some fake screaming over it, for a laugh,” says Kowalski [in regards to "Humane (e) Meat."]. “[Sandor Katz] wrote a book and [Propagandhi co-founder Chris Hannah] read it. It makes light of the idea of humanely killing animals, and so we kind of just removed the animal, put him in place for satirical reasons, just to show that clearly this isn’t humane.”