Conscience

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By staying well away from the grubby world of animal products, vegans can stay in touch with their own conscience. To some extent we have, by our twenties, actively suppressed conscience so that we can maintain our feeling of adult independence. We eat the same foods as almost all others do so that we can fit into adult society. But once we see through that, as soon as we ‘go vegan’, we regain the fighting spirit we might have had as kids; we are rebelling against the status quo. Here, as adults who can make their own decisions, we restart the engine of ethical conscience, and use conscience to guide us.

            Conscience is for our own welfare, giving us the capacity to live our lives without acting carelessly. That’s my point here. While vegans aren’t necessarily nicer people than carnivores, veganism gives us the opportunity to be so. We see the chance to travel a bit lighter on our feet. We don’t wear such leaden boots, and in that way we do ourselves a big favour’.