Sentientism 163: "It was a huge wake-up call... I felt like I'd been living a lie" - Lawyer Delci Winders - Sentientism
Delci is an animal protection lawyer, scholar, teacher and programme builder. She is an associate professor of law and Director & Founder of the Animal Law and Policy Institute at Vermont Law and Graduate School. The Institute is committed to training animal advocacy leaders (e.g. masters degrees and programmes, Farmed Animal Advocacy Clinic) and serving as a resource hub.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?”
Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
We discuss:
00:00 Welcome
02:30 Delci's Intro
- A non-traditional path, straddling academic & activism
- Pragmatic idealism "I was there to help animals"
05:38 What's Real?
- "My mom grew up in a fundamentalist, fear-based #cult"
- "She really didn't want us to experience that - so we didn't go to church at all"
- Mom still had strong religious beliefs "but she didn't force them on us", #agnostic dad
- "I grew up... naturalistic and being critically minded and making decisions based on what I observed in the world"
- "I probably have disappointed my mum in that I'm an #atheist"
- "I was just born argumentative... always pushing back and asking questions"
- Hearing about the trauma of family because of the cult "it gave me a critical lens on religion... what is the agenda here? Who is this serving?"
- "I've always had a really strong moral compass... why would someone in a position of authority create terror and suffering in children?... an early anti-authoritarian"
- "I do have a tremendous respect for evolution... for systems that have evolved over millennia"
- #meditation & secular #buddhism "There is a whole lot we don't know"
12:19 What Matters?
- "For as long as I can remember have had a very strong moral compass that is not based on any external... religious document... fear of punishment..."
- "Just a deep sense of #justice in my core... and as sense of needing to speak up about that"
- Shyness, social anxiety "but there are times when something just bubbles up in me and I need to speak out... do something about it"
- Featuring in #OphrahWinfrey 's "O" magazine as "The Crusader"
- "I have this very strong conviction of what's right and wrong"
- "Fairness... not causing unnecessary suffering"
- Being pragmatic, so considering specific situations but "informed by an overlay"
- Authoritarianism, harming others for profit, lacking transparency
16:29 Who Matters?
- A traumatic experience at 14 yrs. Raising two pigs from birth as companions then "they were unexpectedly slaughtered"
- "I loved animals before then... but that really set me on a journey... I just started reading about factory farming, animal rights... Peter Singer's Animal Liberation"
- "It resonated with me very much that sentience mattered... that has been a fundamental touch-point for me... I've added complications to it over the years"
- Precautionary principle re: assessing sentience
- "My focus tends to be on individuals & sentience... overlaid with a respect for systems... and interconnectedness"
- "I loved eating meat and didn't really think about the connections to animals"
- "It was a huge wake-up call for me... I felt like I had been living a lie... I had been betrayed... there was all of this awfulness & corruption in the world that I had been totally unaware of"
A Better Future?
...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info.
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