Stepping out - First step

1550: 

I’m always reminded of Alice’s (in Wonderland) surprise when she steps into another world inhabited by strange beings, and she notices that they don’t respond to her as she expects - it reminds me of the human obstinacy to what you'd expect to be happy learning about.  In this 'other world' there are so many people suffering unnecessarily, and refusing to change out of loyalty to a habit.  It's almost as if they keep to their habits in order to convince themselves of the rightness of them.

         

The obvious answer to all this suffering seems to be staring us in the face.  But people refuse to look because they're afraid of change - people don’t want to risk doing something new which they don’t fully understand.  And the main reason for not understanding is that it all seems too ridiculously simple to work.  So what solutions are we talking about here?  They aren't the sorts of solutions people en masse take up to create societal change.  These answers aren't about global economic change which we leave to governments to tackle.  And they aren't answers that push us towards private martyrdoms, either.  They're just the simplest of all kitchen answers, shopping answers, eating and clothing answers - the simplest things we can do at home, which nobody else may even notice.  Simple, but not necessarily easy.  But they are answers that could not only transform our own lives but eventually set off a global trend, and provide an answer for whole populations of people.

But is this just about grasping the nettle?  Is this a simple, effective alteration of intellectual approach?  No, I don't think it is, because the spark needed to take on such an answer must initially be attractive enough for us to experiment with.  Strong enough to try, despite the advice of those who advise us not to.  The attraction comes from two distinctly different directions.  Firstly, we'd be attracted by the prospect of developing greater self-awareness.  Secondly there'd be an altruistic driver that accepts a narrowing of choices for the sake of the greater good - by becoming vegan we accept putting some strain on an unselfconsciousness of daily activity for our own greater good and for the good of the selves of 'animals'.  And it's important to note here that we aren't focusing on a known being but ones that we would have no personal acquaintance with at all.

If that spark is missing or too faint to take notice of, we might say, "Why should anyone be worried about the foods they eat when health seems okay, or is at least not frightening?  Why should we be bothered about some pigs and sheep and chooks"?

These are seminal questions.  They touch some and not others.  Obviously, for those who take care of the health of their body and who love animals, there's no hesitation - they head towards becoming vegan, and that's it.  For others, on the cusp of these concerns, there might be great hesitation and therefore no movement.