The Rise of Serial Killers & Carnism In the Industrial Revolution

Oct 19, 2020

"As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other."
-Pythagoras

*There is some discussion of mental health in this post, so please be aware that the vast majority of people with mental health issues are not violent and pose no risk to others.

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a time period around the turn of the 19th century in which human societies became more developed and urbanized, creating a collective workforce and industrializing business operations. Through the innovation of factories and assembly lines, products could not only be produced faster, but there was also a standardization of what kinds of products people consumed.

Consumers began supporting large brands instead of creating homemade goods or buying local products, and corporations soon became powerful entities in society. With this, the average consumer became removed from the process of making products, and goods became commodities rather than necessities. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the burgeoning food system. The consumer became separated from the animals they used and killed to eat, and they no longer had to raise or hunt animals to survive.

First Serial Killers

In the late 19th century, the world was rocked to the core by the acts of the first serial killers, or the first classified as such by modern people. Though H. H. Holmes is considered the first serial killer and murdered far more people, Jack the Ripper is the most infamous early serial killer because of his showmanship, lack of conscience or respect to his victims, and how he taunted the flustered police force. Unlike H. H. Holmes, who killed many people for monetary benefits, Jack the Ripper's slayings were particularly sadistic and done purely for the pleasure of killing and/or out of anger towards women. This drive to kill out of a desire to commit violent acts against others is a hallmark of the modern serial killer.

Nature vs. Nurture

Many serial killers had trauma in their pasts -- whether it be from domestic abuse or the inability to connect with peers or even physical trauma that impeded brain development -- which, in addition to a possible genetic predisposition towards antisocial behavior (as in antisocial personality disorder, not social anxiety or introversion), narcissism, and/or violence, resulted in their actions later in life. Children, who are taught to look up to adults, often blame themselves for any trauma they suffer and are ashamed of their experiences. As they have not fully developed their emotions, and, indeed, their emotional intelligence may be stunted from severe trauma or abuse, they seek an outlet for their pain and fear.

Often, animals are one of the first outlets children find when victimized by violence. Like bullies lash out because of their own vulnerabilities (also often a result of abuse or trauma), they seek to find those more innocent, more vulnerable, than themselves to victimize to give them a sense of power over their own lives because they don't know any other way to feel in control of their emotions. We can even see this kind of behavior in our own daily behaviors; if we had a bad day at work or received a poor grade on an exam, we may aggressively honk our horn at someone on the freeway or get into an argument with our partner at home. It's an entirely natural phenomenon to take out our feelings of anger, hatred, despair, or frustration on others; but, depending on certain circumstances, some people handle their emotions in a more extreme manner.

Disconnection

The Industrial Revolution birthed a new kind of human, one far more disconnected from the earth and food than ever before. Killing animals became a clinical, methodical, normalized source of constant violence in society. No longer did we need to forage for plants or hunt animals to survive; we became disassociated from the realism of the violence we consumed. As time went on and industrial processes became faster and more prevalent, we began to rely on industrialization to provide us with all our wants, not just our needs. We became completely dependent on mass-production for every aspect of our lives, no longer needing to do the work ourselves to have whatever we wanted.

Additionally, other animal products and services -- leather, fur, wool, zoos, circuses, animal testing -- became more common and accepted as part of modern society. As industrialization spread, humans began to feel more dominant, untouchable in our power, and because we had the ability to behave this way, we felt we had the God-given right to do so.

Today, we look at the past as a great human achievement, a herald of our astonishing power and intellect. Because we have gotten away with treating animals and the planet this way for so long, we use that as a justification for continuing to do so. Though victims often victimize others to feel in control, taking away control from the oppressors may be even more difficult because they believe that they would then become the victims. Like white people didn't want to lose ownership over black people and saw basic human rights for black people as a threat to their own personal freedoms, humans today are terrified of animal rights threatening human rights. However, anyone that won't relinquish their power over others to protect that exploitative power is nothing but a coward.

Apathy

There were undoubtedly serial killers before H. H. Holmes and Jack the Ripper, but we don't classify them as such because industrialization brought about a new era of murderers. What we classify as serial killers today may differ from ancient serial killers, like bloodthirsty conquerors, because the murders then were viewed as a way to gain power or destroy enemies, whereas serial killers today kill without a logical or justifiable purpose.

With the disconnection from food production, we became apathetic to the seriousness of what it takes to kill for survival, an archaic act of utilitarianism that we refuse to relinquish today. With developing technology, slaughtering animals has become nothing more than a series of numbers on a computer screen, with the persons tasked to kill often suffering the kind of psychological abuses that, ironically, lead to committing more violence upon themselves and others. But because the rest of the population is so far removed from the process of what they put into their mouths every single day, they are largely unaware of the scale of the violence they support.

The more we act unconsciously and without conscience, the more likely we are to commit more abusive actions. In order to break this cycle, we should seek to reduce the suffering we inflict on others as much as possible and encourage others to do the same by first learning about the oppression they support with their daily choices.

be conscious, be kind, be vegan