How we come to see ourselves

957: 

I would argue that today most of our grandest aims are pointless. A blank wall faces most people if only because they can’t see any sort of solution to ‘the problems of the World’. Because of the presence of animal foods (and other animal-derived goods) in our lives, we can’t avoid involvement in violence; if violence can’t be shaken off then any move towards a more spiritually-driven life is meaningless. But for those who have stepped away from this daily involvement in violence there is a chance. For vegans, because we’ve so purposely disassociated from this daily act of violence, there is some opportunity to transform our own lives and be in a position to help others transform theirs. Our boycott of abattoir products is the start of a simple solution, but … there’s always a ‘but’.

We have been walled in. We are few in number and so we suffer from feeling isolated. It’s as if we are victims of a determined conspiracy against us, facing the forces of public persuasion to be ‘normal’.

If I could apply vegan principles to Society, that would seem to me to be a wonderful thing, but to most people it would be seen as a great threat to their way of life. It would mean revolution. So people like us, vegans, are likely to be bad-mouthed by the authorities and the pubic in general. I can imagine, if ever too many people started to consider becoming vegan that there would be a fight-back; people would be warned, by spreading rumours of cows wandering the streets and tax-payer’s money being spent on sanctuaries for retired farm animals.

Economic factors are very persuasive. Most of us can be made to fear any threat to our livelihood. But ethics are persuasive too. Leading an ethical life makes us feel strong, but how strong do our ethics have to be, how altruistic or how intelligent do we have to be, to consider becoming vegan? A future point in time, where people no longer keep or kill animals might seem far off, and yet where we are at the moment might be the start of a slow movement towards humans becoming conscious of something greater within themselves. We all have a sense of protectiveness that might overcome the desire for personal comfort. If that is so, then we could begin to see ourselves as caretakers of kids, as carers of climate and planet and long-suffering farm animals. In that way we might come to learn who we are and have a better idea of our precise role in the building of the future.