Animal Rights needs energy

For most people it’s not animals they feel strongly about. They may not be prepared to contribute their energy that way. After ‘work’ and home duties there’s maybe not so much energy left over, to splash it about ‘fighting for the animals’.
That we believe animals (i.e. food animals) are low on our priority list and that we think their treatment is not very important reflects a rather alarming attitude in humans. And yet it’s probably coming from a very basic survival instinct connected to the preservation of energy supply, and that in turn is linked to an attitude about energy itself. Where does it come from, how profligate are we in spending it?
We might firmly believe that all energy is the same - a finite resource (like the finite quantity of fuel we have in the petrol tank). We might resist the pressure to push ourselves too hard for fear of draining this valuable resource. But we end up afraid to DO things with it.
We restrict ourselves. We don’t volunteer to take the initiative. We’re always wanting to withdraw (from our already-too-long list of nagging responsibilities) because we’d rather keep what freedom (read energy) we have. Not waste it. Not do. But we have to weigh that against the guilt of not-doing! The daily dichotomy is, in itself, an energy drain. We weigh up our responsibility for things we own or have taken possession of or that we’re in charge of (like table, bike, food, kids, houses, spouses). They each take our energy. Protecting or promoting the rights of enslaved animals is particularly energy consuming.
If we act for them (as in working for Animal Rights), as their ‘guardian’, we may want to serve them because we love them. In the much harsher world, where animals are made to work for us, the care given to them is differently motivated. More cynically, more superstitiously, we know we’d be wise to attend to their welfare because they’ll respond better if we do. We’ll get more out of them. Attention to detail, on both the objective and personal level, makes things work better.
Energy. For animal guardians their energy is not about cold hard efficiency or substance, it’s about ‘soul’.