Be normal, eat animals

686: 

It is an irrefutable fact, that ‘almost’ every human on the planet eats meat and uses animal products! The idea that animals may be used for food, is universally accepted. The habit of using animals for food and many other services is deeply embedded in the human psyche. This Goliath seems unconquerable … and yet the idea of Animal Rights has reached a considerable number of people and inspired them to be advocates for these animals. They’ve decided for themselves that they’ll no longer be party to animal exploitation. A recent survey by the Vegetarian Resources Group in USA, shows 1% are practising vegans and so it seems that, against all odds, the ‘Rights’ movement is gaining ground. But to reach the majority who are not as sensitive, who are less empathetic or more animal-food addicted, we ‘advocates’ might need to revise our approach. The near-impossible task in front of us is to persuade the majority of practising omnivores, comprise 99% of the population, to think for themselves.

            Let’s put it this way, almost no one is in full control of their own actions, when it comes to food choice. Our minds have been bent heavily towards the need to comply with majority behaviour. More than anything, people want to be seen as ‘normal’, and don’t want to stand out as being fussy about food or to be thought of as food-wowsers, or weird in any way. To underline our ‘regular guy’ status, perhaps we must believe that what is normal must be ethically okay, otherwise everyone else would reject it. From that belief stems a blind acceptance of a few dangerous premises: firstly the belief that animals bred for food are NOT at all like dogs and cats, secondly the belief that since unloved pigs and cows and chickens are brought to life solely for the use of humans, that it is then (by some contorted logic) okay to enslave them, brutally kill them and quickly forget them. Once this is accepted, we can believe that it’s okay to deny these animals any sort of life of their own, and from there build a case for accepting any level of atrocity to make their products available to us. All we need to do is treat them like inanimate objects and forget they are in any way sentient.