Animals’ wisdom, vegans’ principle

1175: 

If I went mad tomorrow it would probably be because I tried to find out who was to blame for the mess we’re in at the moment. My madness would come from the same place as yours, as all. Our collective madness comes because we won’t share the blame or point the finger back towards ourselves.

But wait. Isn’t that just another version of the Church’s “We are all sinners”? It occurs to me, whilst still sane enough to know, that judging and blaming can do more damage than bombs.

What’s done is done. It’s best to move on, towards repair. If I choose to go insane because of all this, maybe it’s just a cop out. I refuse to see my madness when I look in the mirror. Out of fear. I run from ME. How much better it would be, to simply take as much blame as you can, and then work out how to repair things. Many people are busy doing just that. They’re the sane ones. They’re the ones who think it’s important to respect the delicate machinery of our own sanity, and who remember just how wonderful this world is. They’re the ones who know what a subtle machine we have, what subtle machines we all are. Designed for repair! Designed for creativity actually, but until we do the repairs, creativity can’t get a footing. Until repairs are made, we don’t have a blank canvas to work on, we have no future to build because we haven’t come to terms with the present. Indeed, we’ve given up on the future. And by giving up we lose sanity. All you can see is true insanity.

But if there’s even a slender chance for repair (to get the machine re-working) then why wouldn’t we give it a go, if we are told, “this might work”?

Our history is black and selfish. Now, repair work is needed. Humans like strength, they like dominating their world, controlling it. Who isn’t impressed by strengths, by winning wars. Our physical and intellectual superiority has led us to believe we can control anything we want. War has decimated so many human lives, but the other kind of war, on animals, has decimated their number, and breeding has refreshed those numbers. If humans are superior it is for their sophisticated husbandry and their total disregard for ethics. In consequence, we are a very unhealthy species devoted to environmental terrorism. The main repair is to their single attitude which says, I am better than you and I deserve a tribute. From this comes separation and acquisition. As it consolidates it creates classes, castes and creeds. For the purposes of keeping everyone controlled by teaching them their place in the hierarchy, which is Society.

Some of us disagree that our betters are better. Nor do we agree to see ‘others’ as inferiors. We respect Nature. Feel sympathy for the animals. And by being able to see each animal as an individual, we can see their irreplaceability, their sovereignty and indeed their simple companionability. In many ways, Nature keeps giving us important clues, and yet we don’t seem to understand Nature’s messages, and it’s galling to admit that Nature is wiser than humans, even that animals are wiser than we humans.

But some humans are waking up to the urgent need for repair. We’ve strayed so far from the natural order that we need to get back ‘home’ to Nature, to where the peace is. And we can learn to do this by observing animals. If we’ve got a lot of repairing to do, and not sure where to start, we can remember one thing. That just about every necessary repair complies with vegan principle.