Published: Dvarim 17a (November 2024): 81-108. (Hebrew)

This article examines the particular difficulties in conceptualizing absolute social weakness, that is, in conceptualizing situations of such comprehensive social subordination that the resistance efforts by the victims cannot affect the dominant power, whatever the nature of the resistance – actions or expressions of protest. The central argument in this article is that absolute social weakness is a condition that afflicts humans as well as animals of many other species, but conceptualizing the weakened state of animals is a greater challenge because the language accepted for describing animals and human-animal relations is overwhelmingly mobilized as a means of excluding animals from the realms of social thought. The mobilization of language is done mainly by referring to animals and human-animal relations in terms separate from the concepts accepted for referring to humans and their relations, and in particular by using technical terms, which denote natural or artificial objects and relations of use with objects. Various social critics have attempted to reconceptualize absolute social weakness, especially among humans, and inspired by their linguistic creativity, I will propose applying a similar critical approach to conceptualizing the situation of the most disadvantaged animals – in agricultural industries.