Can we erase other "ism"s without examining our diet?

I spent yesterday at an intimate day-long seminar with some extremely powerful women, many of who have been very active in women's studies or the feminist movement since the 70s. One of the powerful speakers, though, was a man... the UN's former envoy overseeing the UN's AIDS/HIV program.

He made the point that quantifiable progress has been made in every area of the huge AIDS/HIV in Africa problem except in one area: changing the predatory mind-set of African men, who feel entitled to use and abuse women sexually without regard for the transmission ramification.

Later we also heard from an East Indian woman who was gang-raped as a teenager. This rape was to "teach a lesson" to a group of students who were coming to the village where it happened and educating the young people, including the girls. She was chosen as the scapegoat because she was a woman, and because rape is a tool of violence and power. She has gone on to become an anti-trafficking activist.

A common thread from both stories: horrific abuse is rationalized and justified in the minds of the perpetrators because the lives of their victims are considered to be inherenetly of less value than their lives. In these two cases the victims in question are women. And the lives of women are secondary and second-class.

Many people in the room kept talking about the project we were discussing, and how it had to effect "political change", but I had a slightly different view: all the policy in the world is not stopping the mind-set of the men in Africa to whom the UN envoy referred. It is the culture and the mind-set that needs to be changed. And it is connection and empathy that has the greatest chance of achieving this. (Think about those people whose views on gays, and gay marriage in particular, soften once they actually count gay people amongst their friends.)

A thought that occurred to me amidst all this discussion of the hierarchies of value attached to different kinds of life is that it is no surprise that humans are capable of this mental compartmentalization. We are indoctrinated to do this from the time we are small children. Some animals are pets. Some animals are food. Those animals share the same nervous system structure. Those animals share the same capacity to feel...pain and otherwise. But we have to somehow draw some distinction...against reason and against logic. And we do this form the time we are very smal children, encouraged by our parents.

Perhaps this is more applicable in Western cultures, which tend to be more meat-centric, but even in India...the cow is sacred (to some) while other animals are not.

I brought this up with the Indian woman who spoke about her gang-rape experience. As it turns out she's a vegetarian, so she agreed. But I didn't really have the guts to bring it up to the whole group. I did bring it up at dinner with a couple of folks, and I think I gave them food for thought (no pun intended.)

What do you think? Does a carnivorous diet create a mind-set that encourages the worst behavior in those so inclined?