Chicken Contact Lenses
Jane Galt makes a case against industrial animal husbandry, a position which she argues is not inconsistent with being a libertarian or classical liberal. While I don't get as worked up about such practices as cruel, I don't think it is inconsistent for a libertarian to be so concerned. And I don't rule out that I would be just as worked up if I were more informed about what was going on.
However, what really caught me eye was this:
This is an approximate description of what happens to industrially
farmed chickens . . . lifted, mind you, from a business school case
aimed at helping industrial farms be more efficient, by using rose
coloured chicken contact lenses to cut down on the need for debeaking
'em.
I can attest that this was indeed a real case that we studied at Harvard Business School*. In fact, it so freaked me out at the time as a concept that I included it in my most recent novel. From BMOC [warning, profanity lurks ahead]:
Poor, boring, earnest Julian
was always prepared, because he was always terrified, scared to death
that one night slacking off might somehow destroy his future Career
(always with a capital-C), and therefore future Life, much like the
fear of catching AIDS from a one night stand. Julian participated
(unfortunately) all too much in class, droning on in that irritating
voice of his, advocating positions as spectacularly expected as
Susan's were non-conformist.Julian,
therefore, was not really a candidate to get cold-called to open the
class discussion, particularly this late in the year. However, it
was clear to everyone in the room, particularly the professor, that
Julian longed to open a case. Every day Julian would look at
the professor with this hopelessly wistful expression, only to be
followed by a look of desolation when someone else was chosen.So
today, letting Julian open was in the same spirit as the homecoming
queen giving a pity-fuck on the last day of high school to the geek
who has been mooning and sighing over her for four years. And right
at this
moment, Julian had the same surprised and ecstatic look on his face
that the geek would have.But it was not just the site of
Julian creaming all over himself at his chance to open that had Susan
longing for the piranha button. Some satanic twist of fate had
Julian Rogers earnestly and painstakingly laying out a strategy and
plan for the new product roll out of ... contact lenses for chickens.
Contact fucking lenses for Christ-sake chickens. Right this very
second he was outlining his sales pitch to chicken farmers,
explaining how putting contacts in chicken's eyes will somehow
reduce the number of chickens that have to have their beak cut off.
Did she hear that right? This had to be a joke "“ but no,
everyone seemed to be taking it seriously, and certainly Julian was
taking it deadly seriously.
* I know those anti-capitalists out there will be using this as evidence that business school is crafted to keep us cold and heartless. HBS consisted of studying 2-3 cases per day for about 200 days a year, which means that over two years one might read a thousand business cases. This case was more in the spirit of breaking the monotony of yet another case on brass vs. plastic water meters rather than part of a consistent attempt to make us cold and heartless.
