Cannibalism: yay or nay?

The Andes Accident.

On October 12, 1972, forty Uruguayan rugby players and five crew members faced what could be their complete demise. They were caught in between bad winds that could easily toss around their little Fairchild F-227. The flight was from Montevideo, Uruguay to Santiago, Chile. Due to the weather, the pilots decided to land in Mendoza, Argentina to spend the night in hopes that the weather would get better. The next day they took off from Mendoza and set their course for Santiago. As the plane was flying over the Andes Mountains, they hit an air pocket and plunged 3,000 feet down. To make things worse, they hit the side of the mountain causing the right wing to be ripped off, taking the tail with it. Five people were pulled out of the gaping hole by the wind. The rest of the passengers waited for the impending doom as the fuselage of the plane tobogganed down the valley at two hundred miles per hour. Of the original forty-five people on the plane, only twenty-seven survived. That number quickly dwindled as they remained stranded.

Their lives were at stake. Their only hope of survival was to eat those that had passed away. This created much controversy among the group. They could not stand the thought of cutting into their friends and then proceeding to eat them. At first only a few people felt slightly comfortable with the idea saying, “we have a duty to survive. If we don’t eat the bodies, it is a sin. We must do this not just for our own sakes but also for our families”. The idea was very slow to grow on the rest of the survivors. The first to try human meat had difficulties swallowing the flesh so they downed it with a handful of snow.

After they heard that the search for them had been called off, they began to lose hope. They picked three of the strongest survivors to start out to find help. The idea of eating their comrades began to set in as the survivors started realizing their fate. Still there were ones that would not eat a human carcass. They were afraid. It was shortly discovered that human meat tastes better cooked; though it has more protein raw. (Ew!)

As time passed and they got more accustomed to their new diet, rules were set. They would not, by any means, eat the women. No body was required to eat, and those who did eat could not eat more that what was rationed to them. The search party ate more than everyone else so that they would be strong. Ten days after the search party set out, they discovered a shepherd’s hut. Four days before Christmas, the rest of the survivors were rescued.

These people were in constant conflict when it came to eating their teammates. Their body said “I’m hungry! Feed me now.” while their brains said “Heck no! I am not eating my buddy”. This is similar to any situation when you’re heart says one thing and your brain says another; this is just the extreme version. Sociologists use the “conflict theory” analogy to describe this situation.

When it comes to cannibalism, human eating other humans isn’t the only type. There is also such a thing as “economic cannibalism” which is happening in the United States right now. Of the over 300 million Americans, 63 million are not responsible for paying income taxes. These people are cannibalizing the system and taking from those who are paying income taxes. Massive government spending is projected to increase interest rates. To make up for the higher interest rates, the government is increasing our income taxes.