1139:
I’m always reminded of
Alice’s (in Wonderland) surprise when she steps into another world
inhabited by strange beings, and they don’t respond to her as she expects - it
reminds me of the strangeness of omnivores, and their obstinacy, and their
unnecessary suffering, all to preserve the rightness of what they do. Everything
that’s wrong becomes right - it’s a topsy-turvy world, when the omnivore is out
there justifying things.
In our world, we face
problems whose obvious nonviolence-based answers seem to be staring us in the
face. So, it’s by being obstinate about
going completely non-violent that stops us making important changes. Omnivores won’t give up violence-based
solutions. They won’t risk non-violence,
which they don’t fully understand - they can’t connect up the reasoning between
their becoming a solely-plant-based-eater and for that single act bringing an
end to the big problems of the world.
Of course, they’re
right. What can one person do to solve
global problems? Omnivores believe our
plan is too ridiculously simple to work.
They still think in the old ways - that everything changes by collective
action, eventually. Too slow and too
passing-the-buck, I say. This particular
vegan believes it starts and finishes with the individual.
If you’re vegan, you not only
know that it works but also why it works, both on a personal
level and the solving-global-problems level.
Omnivores make the mistake of relying on big machines of change,
legislation, fines, taxes - using force to bring about change. They still think governments, with
reputations for using force, will be able to solve the big problems of today.
They even believe the pollies actually have the will to solve the big
things!! But governments don’t do
that. They patch-up. They never fix-up, long term.
The most disillusioned punters
in our society, fall back in desperation on personal-martyrdom or suffering in
various forms or towards seeking an enlightened state of mind, with which they
can stay cushioned from the state of the world.
Unfortunately, neither politics nor religion can help solve many of
these presently-surfacing problems, because many of them are here with us for
their symbolic significance. They point
to individual truth and responsibility, where solutions to our problems can
only be found by doing something for ourselves.
The way we live, the items we
buy, the habits we have, they are all so strongly set in our daily
behaviours. They are the comfort
blankets we use when we consider shaking our reality by making radical
changes. For some of us there was always
this gut instinct, overriding everything, to act to change for the better. For the greater good. And since the greatest good is the result of
hard work, it was always going to have to be change that involves a mix of
altruism and enjoyment.
These are individual changes. These are on that level where we are looking
to ourselves, making this level of change for ourselves, and doing the
right thing because it give us great pleasure. Becoming ‘vegan’ is a simple
solution. It’s selfish. It’s done for myself. It’s unselfish too, just as much so. It’s something we can do at home. It’s something that immediately transforms life. And in addition, it eventually, inevitably,
sets a global trend.
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