Plant Rights Movement En Route to America

During the mid-’70s, I witnessed the animal rights movement as it emerged on the scene once dominated by common sense. Now, thanks to Wesley J. Smith and his fabulous piece in The Weekly Standard, I became aware of a new movement for something called “plant rights.”

Destined to become the focus of those writing the next chapter of left-wing lunacy, plant rights is the subject of the Arrogant Worms “Carrot Juice is Murder” video, but not everyone is laughing.

As Smith points out in his article, folks in Switzerland truly believe plant rights should be recognized and protected. Apparently, they do not understand what a right is.

Thankfully, there are people like Roger Scruton in this world. He understands what a right is and offers a satisfactory explanation in the fifth paragraph of a City Journal article, Animal Rights, he wrote almost eight years ago:

Properly understood, the concept of a right—and the attendant ideas of duty, responsibility, law, and obedience—enshrines what is distinctive in the human condition. To spread the concept beyond our species is to jeopardize our dignity as moral beings, who live in judgment of one another and of themselves.

Should the animal rights movement gain traction, I fear that, one day soon, I might be branded a mass murderer or a herbicidal maniac. After all, I mow grass. And I eat fruits and vegetables. And I…oh, the carnage!

-- Bob McCarty Writes