The unthinking approach

1034: 

The original principle of non-violence is behind everything Animal Rights stands for.  With that in place one can’t justify hurting animals, notably farm animals, animals used for food.

           

No one wants to hurt anything, hardly anyone would ever hurt let alone end the life of an animal, but we’re not used to resisting things we want.  Humans can overpower animals to get what they want from them.  Most animals aren’t protected by law, so we prey on them.  “Hang it, I’ll do what I’ve always done.  Everyone else does it so why shouldn’t I?”  If we don’t do the actual hurting we certainly connive with those who do.

Perhaps we’d be more involved in non-violence if it seemed to hold any interest or attraction or advantage for us.  But it seems to hold nothing; there’s nothing about non-violence that is immediately exciting or substantial.  It seems to be so much set in the far-flung future as to be not at all relevant to today’s world.

There being no good enough reason to adopt a non-violent approach to life, we continue as we were.  We stick with the violent world.