From the Skeptic Tank
434 – The Annual, 2010-11
By Dr. Al Grossman
AKC and the sport of Purebred Dogs have enjoyed success for over one hundred years. Why is it now being torn asunder by the twin nemesis of PETA/HSUS and their legislative programs and the precipitous drop in registrations?
To understand this dilemma we need to take a historical/economic look at the rise and fall of “anti” movements throughout history. They all have had the same theme–roll back society to a simpler time. Unfortunately that simpler time was never what they envisioned it to be. It only seemed to be that way because they were living it and had mastered its intracies.
Let us begin with the Luddites at the beginning of the industrial revolution. They were against mechanization such as the cotton gin and the machines used in manufacturing and wanted to roll the clock back to an earlier time when life was not so complex. If you read shades of the current Tea Party into this you are probably correct. The Luddites lost out by the simple fact that life was becoming more complex and industrialization was needed to keep up.
Roll forward to the time just prior to World War II and the hostility to FDR and his “socialist ”programs and we see an earlier edition of the feelings about Obama. These gave rise to the German American Bund and its support of Nazi Germany and the appearance of Father Coughlin and his ethnic rants.
After World War II, we saw the rise of the John Birch Society which had great success in terrorizing the nation with the threat the Communists were coming. I had an interesting experience with this group. I had just recommended a new computer hardware and software system which would better keep track of pupils and staff as well as payroll for a rich school district outside Kansas City. After the Board approved the decision the John Birch Society moved in to convince the Board of Education that such a system would give the Communists control when they moved in and discovered all that information was available. It was the time of Joseph McCarthy and his Communist witch-hunt.
Today we have a president who seemed to be elected by minorities and the young and whom the opposition was determined to put in his place. Shades of FDR – who the rich thought he had violated their code and sided with the unwashed masses. We are a world society that’s in the throes of dramatic change. Robert Weinstein, the chief investment officer at Credit Suisse is credited with the statement that “We are in an accelerating process of pervasive global restructuring – regional, industrial, and behavioral.” In 2001 the ipod arrived. As a direct result the number of employees of music stores declined from about 80,000 to 20,000. George Wills points out in his November 2010 article in Newsweek that “today, three years is an eternity. In October of 2007, 81 percent of Facebook’s 50 million users were younger than 24. Today, 45 percent of its more than 500 million users are 35 or older. Three million ipods were sold in 2.4 years; three million Kindles were sold in two years and 3 million ipads were sold in 80 days and lastly, 3 million iphones were sold in three weeks.” What excites Weinstein is the certainty that there will always be a next new thing, and that it will not be new for long.
So why talk about politics and economics? Because they set the tenor of our times and all other matters take their cue from what they perceive is going on in the country. Some things that happen under one administration could not possibly happen in another.
PETA rose on the backs of the disaffected young who wanted to give those in authority a black eye. Their cult-like organization gave a home to those (many from wealthy families) who needed to rebel against authority and from guilt they were not doing more for society. HSUS, on the other hand, is an organization that is obsessed with power and money. They have a Vegan agenda and they get as much money as they can for their top people. They have a strategy that gets them the most money, and a propaganda machine than literally prints money. They appeal to people’s feelings to save the poor abused animals and then they advocate killing off entire species. Sick but effective.
AKC and the related organizations that have gathered together to fight the onslaught do not have an integrated plan and each fights the battle on their own terms. AKC needs to better explain why they don’t put dollars behind their effort so the fancy can better understand their position. Frankly, I do not think AKC understands how and why they are in the position they are in. Unless they learn and take actions to change with the times, I am afraid they are headed for the scrap heap of history. The world is changing all around us at a dizzying pace. AKC marches to its own internal drummer with both feet solidly planted in the past.
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