1267:
A middle aged person I’ve
known a long time, once vegetarian, is now eating lamb (see yesterday’s blog). For her this whole subject provokes a need to
put-down-the-righteous (in this case, me). She wants to shift my views, and me hers.
Young people find major
lifestyle change far easier than older people. It’s much harder to persuade someone, who’s
set in their ways over many adult years. It isn’t easy for them to even consider what
I’m saying, and it’s more difficult the older they are. At some point in their lives this whole matter
has been settled (about eating animals). They’ve probably promised themselves, family,
friends and colleagues, that “It will never happen”, and “It isn’t something I
want to talk about”.
Perhaps because their
position needs to be held to firmly, to make it clear that they are not in the
market for changing, they underscore their determination by making tasteless
jokes about vegans.
As one gets older, it’s
harder to change because there’s more to lose. Kids are less tolerant of their parents’
changing than the other way around; teenage kids are less intimidated by the
opinions of parents and elders, especially when it comes to points of ethical
principle. For older people, if they ‘go
vegan’ either for health or ethical reasons, the main problem they face is one
of losing friends and altering so many social habits that it all becomes too
daunting. So, when I suggest they should
consider a vegan diet, plus all the ethics that go with it, and if I then pick
up negative reaction, even to hostility, that’s usually time to withdraw.
No comments:
Post a Comment