749:
These
days my passion is for non-violence alongside a concern for animals (mainly
those that are eaten). I think I’m looking up ahead, seeing that animals and
humans are inextricably linked, their fortunes and ours directly depending on
our becoming protectors of them.
We
humans have always been violent and exploitative towards them and now the time
has come for us to atone and become their protectors. They need our laws to
make them safe, and we need to learn from them how to restore our own
sensitivity. It’s a two way road - the need for human liberation is even more
urgent than animal liberation, if only because this is where it all has to
start. Humans are the violators and humans need to change, the animals don’t
need to. Our main aim should surely be to help them recover their true wild
natures. If that is unrealistic then at least we can try to help them gain
liberation. And for that, we first have to prove we are worthy to be their
representatives.
My
feeling is that if things don’t work out well for the animals, things won’t
progress for any of us. Humans, having such a long tradition of treating
animals barbarically, seem like true barbarians. (And we know there is another
more-awake side to humans where they are the very opposite of barbaric). But
this isn’t the way I want to see myself. I want to see the humanitarian self in
me. And I think others might want to too. But that will need a change of
attitude towards animals, by a lot of people, all of whom no longer want to
use, keep or eat animals - until at least 50% of the human population realise
there’s an animal problem, the animal problem will remain. And we will remain a
barbaric species, or at least have this barbaric side to our otherwise loving
natures. We may eventually get the worst abuses fixed, we may swing over to
becoming vegetarians but that will be still a long way from true liberation,
for animals or for us.
Ultimately,
this is what makes many of us feel so afraid – the way we charge along and yet
make no progress in some very important areas. All the time the animals are not
safe from us, we remain dangerous beings, and being dangerous makes us seem
very primitive. Is the collective human soul at screaming pitch?
On a personal level, my own happiness is
linked to wanting others to be happy too, whether they be humans or animals. On
a selfish level, I want to save my own soul from being too closely associated
with my own species; I don’t want to be held back by my own species’ reputation
for violence.
It
isn’t enough that I draw apart and fix up my own life, I have (as we all do) a
responsibility to restore our human nature. Most of all, I want to help change
our reputation by identifying some facts which even the youngest child could
grasp, like:
Fifty
billion domesticated farm animals, who are alive today, are on Death Row. None
of them have ever had any quality of life. None have ever had a reason to live.
None have had any contact with the natural world.
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