The Original Omelas: The Case of the Animals vs. Man

And when the child cannot speak for itself? Humanity’s first global lawsuit! In this 10th-century Islamic fable, animals put mankind on trial for the crimes of the extraction economy. We unsettle the habitus of human exceptionalism to ask: would we change the story’s ending because we couldn’t handle our own complicity? Discover the original Omelas in “The Case of the Animals versus Man.” It’s early Iraq and modern ethics, Peter Singer’s speciesism, Haraway’s companion species, and the colonizing “thingification” of nature. Was Le Guin’s story about animal rights? Or, are animal rights linked to our ideological privileging and moral shame? Episode 6.32 – The Original Omelas: The Case of the Animals vs. Man Readings & Resources: Ikhwān al-Safā’ – “The Case of the Animals Versus Man Before the King of the Jinn” (Classical Astrologer pdf) (10th century) Le Guin, Ursula K. – The Word for World Is Forest (1972) Le Guin, Ursula K. – The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” The Wind’s Twelve Quarters (1975) Le Guin, Ursula K. – “Vaster Than Empires and More Slow,” The Wind’s Twelve Quarters (1975) Achebe, Chinua – Hopes and Impediments (1989) Aristotle – Politics, Book 1 (~330 BCE) Bacon, Francis – The New Organon (1620) Cavarero, Adriana – Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence (2009) Césaire, Aimé – Discourse on Colonialism (1950) Derrida, Jacques – The Animal That Therefore I Am (2008) Fanon, Frantz – The Wretched of the Earth (1961) Haraway, Donna – The Companion Species Manifesto (2003) Singer, Peter – Practical Ethics (1979) Some Key Terms from this episode: Speciesism: Systematic discrimination against an “other” based solely on the generic characteristic of their species. Follow-up Reading: Peter Singer, Practical Ethics. Thingification: The psychological and economic process of conditioning an oppressor to see a living, feeling being as a mere inanimate object that exists solely for utility. Follow-up Reading: Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism. L’inerme (The Defenseless): The completely unarmed, helpless being attacked with deliberate violence. Follow-up Reading: Adriana Cavarero, Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence. Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions The Evidence of Excellence: The humans in the trial list their architecture, sciences, and religions as proof that they “own” the world. If you were the judge, would you see these accomplishments as evidence of human greatness, or simply as a list of things we’ve built using stolen materials? The Purpose of Pain: We often tell ourselves that animals (or even other people) don’t really “feel” their suffering because they aren’t smart enough to understand it. When we tell ourselves that someone is “too ignorant to know real joy,” are we describing their reality, or are we just making ourselves feel better about the bargain we’ve