141: “All suffering matters morally” – Eva Hamer of Pax Fauna – Sentientism

We discuss the biggest questions: "what's real?", "who matters?" and "how to make a better world?" with scientists, celebrities, activists, writers and philosophers. The Sentientism worldview is "evidence, reason and compassion for all sentient beings." It's a simple, yet radical, philosophy that's grounded in reality (naturalistic epistemology) and has compassion for all sentient beings (mostly human and non-human animals). Naturalism & sentiocentrism combined.

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Eva is the operations lead for the startup non-profit Pax Fauna. Pax Fauna exists to design a more effective social movement for animal freedom in the U.S. Eva has been organizing in the animal freedom movement since 2015 when she started working with Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) in Chicago, where she focused on building community, writing protest music, and compiling the movements’ songs into an online songbook used by advocates around the world. She started working full time as DxE’s legal coordinator in 2018, managing the organization’s many legal cases, organizing trainings, and orchestrating large artistic demonstrations. Building on a background in Kingian nonviolence, Eva is a dedicated student of #nonviolentcommunication and is committed to bringing NVC’s repertoire of creative problem-solving tools to the work of building a better culture in the animal movement.

In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “who matters?”

Sentientism is “evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.

We discuss:

00:00 Welcome

01:39 Eva’s Intro

02:48 What’s Real?

– “Growing up I definitely loved the supernatural… ghosts… god… mystical things”

– Raised #episcopalian, baptised, church “I remember really enjoying that”

– Considering confirmation but “starting to feel a little bit sceptical”

– 5th grade: Debating people online about religion

– “A sudden realisation… I don’t actually believe all of this”

– Looking for purpose

– Identifying as an #atheist & focusing on the harms of religion (unaccepting, destructive, family rejections)

– “I still don’t believe in anything that can’t be falsified”

– “I’m really connected to the needs that can be met by religion…” working in an end of life hospice

– “My own spirituality… characterised by #nonviolence” a Kingian perspective, nonviolent communication

– Meeting the needs (community, morality)… without the supernatural

– Valuing acceptance & care for others led to hostility vs. some religious ethics

– #yoga & #meditation then finding “a more secular form of meditation”

– Using supernaturalism as a metaphor

– Naturalistic “spirituality”… “a felt sense of purpose”

13:20 What Matters?

– Non-violence: Getting away from black & white “right and wrong” thinking to “thinking about needs”

– Finding creative alternatives to meeting needs without violence

– Needs & strategies to meet them

– More fundamental needs: safety, sustenance, freedom from suffering

– #maslow ‘s hierarchy, Scott Barry Kaufman’s sailboat @ThePsychologyPodcast  

– Protective use of force. Justifiable force. “Nonviolence is definitely not #pacifism “

– Mourning unmet needs

…and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info.

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