Vegetarianism as Utopian Figuration

• In Event: Utopias, Radical Politics, and the Political Imaginary

Abstract

The utopian idealization of vegetarianism is not a new concept. We can look to Plato’s Republic, specifically his discussion of the transition from primitive state to the luxurious state in Chapter VII, for one of the earliest examples of vegetarian utopianism. The vegetarian state that Plato describes in The Republic is representative of the peaceful “orphic state” of the Golden Age of Greece—absent of property, war, or social conflict—while the luxurious state is its worldly manifestation. For Plato, vegetarianism represents the virtuous and pure soul, albeit one that is unattainable in the earthly realm of politics. Thus, he introduces meat—the metaphorical fusion of the higher and lower forms, the divine and the animal—into the political economy of his ideal polis to feed the plebian class of producers who are incapable of consuming anything more than a sign of virtue. Vegetarianism remains unattainable, except for the (philosophically) select few.

Fast forward to today, and we can see the full manifestation of vegetarian utopianism under neoliberal capitalism. Within the context of the jargon of gastronomic authenticity, “vegetarianism” circulates as part of the jargon—an empty term that offers the illusion self-possession and an escape from the violence of capitalist production with no political or even dietary commitment (one can be pescatarian, flexitarian, climatarian, or simply just declare oneself vegetarian because one eats meat only on occasion). Vegetarianism is a recombinant cultural form of the virtue signaling that Plato introduced at the inception of western political thought, and a highly profitable one at that. In this essay, I will examine the ideology of vegetarianism as utopian figuration under neoliberal capitalism, looking specifically at the jargon of gastronomic authenticity as it relates to vegetarian ideologies and related commodity forms. “Meat is murder,” to quote The Smiths, and of particular concern in my analysis will be recentering animal death in the discussion of vegetarianism in order to militate against the political economy of meat and the related ideology of vegetarianism that supports it. This, I will argue, must be the basis of a radical vegetarianism that refigures vegetarian utopianism as anti-capitalist politics that supports the liberation of all animals, nonhuman and human alike.

Author

• Katherine Young, University of Hawaii at Hilo