Eating Us

Warning: this post is about some horrible events that occurred during times of human despair, in Ireland and in the former Soviet Union.



     During the process of obtaining my dual citizenship with Ireland, I naturally found myself reading more and more about Irish history. One book about the Potato Famine told of cannibalism. It quoted court records about a man arrested for stealing food for his wife. He was set free after testimony that he had walked in on his wife as she ate parts of their son, who had died of hunger.

     Now, an article in Slate tells of similar events during Stalin's WWII Soviet Union. One story tells of a group of children eating one of their own who was still alive, a boy who joined them in eating his own flesh. The Slate article is a review of a new book about Stalin's activities during the war, and presents the argument that the U.S. became allies with Stalin, the monster leader of Russia, to defeat another monster, Germany's Hitler.

     Just imagine the forces at work that would put someone in a place where they would eat their own flesh to survive.