The phrase also refers to generalized anxiety resulting from the lack of emotional and economic security. Most of us experience daily harassment from numerous sources, job instability, media overload, debt, alienated relationships, deficient medical care. We're subject to corrupt politicians, malevolent social policies, and disasters resulting from corporate profiteering. We worry about who will take care of us when we're old and how our children will survive.

As for people whose art or writing is their main form of political activity, what's wrong with that? It's taking a stand, and a whole lot better than doing nothing. Making a pointed statement or exposing injustice or helping people laugh at forces they're afraid of-this is a very valuable service that challenges people to take a deeper look at what's going on. There are a million ways to fight the system. People do need to be out in the streets, but they also need commentators and artists who cheer them on and inspire them.

Later, after reading "Diet for a Small Planet," it became clear to me that meat production in the US is wasteful and destructive. The protein fed to cows, pigs and chickens could provide enough food for every person on the planet (if we had a different economic system, that is-since it's not profitable to give away excess food they just dump it). Cattle production is partly responsible for global warming, plus the loss of huge swaths of rainforest.

I don't really think in terms of animal "rights," because that assumes that someone has the authority to grant those rights. I think human beings should just stop interfering so much with the natural world, stop thinking of it as a collection of "exploitable resources" and try to live, instead, in harmony with it. That would be better for all living things, including us. Maybe at that point nobody would want to eat sentient beings any more, or pave over ground for that matter, or drill for oil, or use another person for personal gain.

To me, the meat-eating issue is a matter of deciding what our standards of behavior should be. The current form of meat production is degrading, not only to the earth and other creatures, but to ourselves as well. We hide from the reality of the suffering, from the filth and disease of the factory farms. We should at least be honest about what we do. What makes me really mad is hypocrisy. Many people say they "love" animals, have affectionate relationships with their pets and spend fortunes on vet bills, and then deny the cruelty they're perpetuating when they eat other animals. Also, many people spend a lot of energy on the well-being of their pets or fighting for "animal rights," while ignoring the suffering of other human beings.