Misperceptions

486: Except for those who are vegan from birth, all of us have compromised our principles over the foods we’ve used, assuming that we DO have regard for the humane treatment of animals. And we’ve justified it with some rather shallow thinking, and some convenient forgetting. None of us have a clean slate. So when I’m having a go at the animal-eaters I try to be careful not to hit out too hard. It’s easy to condemn others for faults we no longer have ourselves, like vegans accusing omnivores that they couldn’t care less. It rather misses the point anyway, because that’s not how omnivore sees themselves. They just have different priorities. The ethics of the food they eat may not be high on their agenda. Regarding food, they’re just ordinary consumers. To them vegan criticism sounds like unfair criticism - omnivores do care about many things, but they say “There are limits”. Eating or using animals isn’t even on their radar. Most omnivores know very little about how vegans think and probably don’t take us seriously anyway. There’s no common ground here. It’s a case of mutual misperception. There are strong cultural traditions holding food habits in place. Usually it’s about nutrition, not about ethics of animal farming. Now, there’s a new culture emerging, establishing new habits and an altogether different view of animal foods based on ethical principles. In this clash of cultures vegans are making what sounds like a terrible accusation: that ‘meat-eaters’ are ethically dumbing down, deliberately, so they can enjoy their animal foods with impunity. In reply, omnivores accuse vegans of being the new morality police, intent on spoiling the very pleasure of living which is enjoyed by ordinary, free-thinking people. We are the abstainers and they the partakers. There’s a gulf between the two and the nature of that gulf widens or narrows as we make the one crucial decision - to either aim to be hard or acknowledge our incapability of being hard. Vegans should boldly criticise the omnivore’s decision to ignore animal cruelty in the food industry, but moderate our feelings by remembering that, not so long ago, most of us were omnivores too.