Authority

Who authorises what we may do, how we may think, what to eat? Kids follow adults, who give advice they followed as youngsters, perhaps modified but based on the principle of Mum knows best or doctor knows best.
To not question parents, teachers, doctors and priests leads us to NOT know for ourselves what’s best for us. Who should we listen to? Who is an authority? Should we rely on instinct? … but even then we have unreliable instincts. The pleasure instinct is unreliable. Maybe the pain instinct is better, but if it’s based on “if it doesn’t hurt it’s not doing you good” then it’s counterproductive. Somehow even our own instinct may need reference points, a guiding philosophy, some basis from which we can make decisions and then to confirm it by instinct.
I think veganism is not only an overall panacea for humans but it provides a framework for making most decisions. It simply says one thing – “no animal”, as in humans shouldn’t ever use animals. We aren’t to be trusted with them: we’ll always abuse them if they’re useful to us. It’s this one tiny principle to which all other details can refer. It won’t tell us what to eat or how to think but only what NOT to.
From this plant-based platform, underscored by a non-violent approach to everything we do, our daily food choices are straight forward. What not to eat makes it difficult for vegans to become obese or develop deadly physical conditions from eating ‘crap’ food. (There are crap vegan foods too of course!). Our diet avoids the sort of food that makes people fat or ill and filters out (boycotts) most of the rubbish food and fast food available. We miss out on so many things to snack on, the cakes and confections of life, but that saves us in many useful ways – our dietary principles filter out most of the fat foods on offer, because they’re usually made with animal by-products. By not wearing animal skins and body coverings we might miss out on current fashions in many ways, but that helps our pocket, filtering out expensive items such as leather goods and silks and furs.
Is all this a massive inconveniences? Yes, it could be - we get wet feet from wearing canvas shoes or cold, and have to wear a few more layers of cotton … and that may be inconvenient, but it’s nothing compared to the loss of the sheep’s own woollen coat and the suffering that causes on a cold hillside at night. The shorn sheep suffers exposure in the cold or sunburn in the heat. The cow, killed and skinned, the lamb killed and skinned, it goes on and on, it’s all such a messy business. The shame of abattoirs and shearing sheds and eggs from caged hens … we don’t need any authority to tell us this is just plain wrong.
Why then do we have any part in these ugly affairs of the animals industry? If we need guidance for our choices, we can refer to our own instinctive compassion, indeed the vegan principle - if it hurts an animal we mustn’t use it.