Saturday, February 28, 2015

The Incredible Blindness of Seeing

1293: 

Everybody knows we're trashing the environment and doing things against our own ethical standards.  But here's the justification trick - by admitting culpability in one main issue-area we can ignore other much more difficult issue-areas.  Some measure of environmental awareness shields one from any need for awareness of, say, animal exploitation.

Animal use and abuse has become so much part of our lives that the last thing a person would want to hear is a condemnation of animal farming.  It's in that yukky area which leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.  It never reaches the brain since it's an automatic gut-feeling reaction, that cuts in to stop anyone, like a vegan, having the chance, to speak about it.

My own rather futile strategy would be to try ANY approach, despite knowing that I'll be either shut out or shut up as soon as any opening remark is made.  This is what I find usually happens: I open up provocatively - saying that whilst animal farms were providing us with much of our food they were little more than death camps.  That's when eyes glaze over and there's no chance to expand on that theme.  I never get as far as mentioning how animal farming is a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions and general pollution.  I never get as far as suggesting that by eating so much of this contaminated produce, our bodies are going haywire, and that was causing us to lose control of our health.  Nor do I ever get to talking about animal foods being too ‘rich’ and being such fat-saturated food, leading to obesity linked with over-indulgent lifestyles.

You soon enough realise that everything which needs to be said is taken as an insult, and reason enough not to have to listen to ANY expansion of the theme.  Which means that there's an effective taboo on a whole line of argument, since there’s an obvious link between each of these issues - animal-use has links to many of the world's problems, the one issue leading to the other and on to the next, ending up with the shameful state of affairs where so many children in poor countries, even the country next door, are dying for want of food. 

One can point out the connections, between certain specific actions and the worst possible consequences, but most people can't find any way to see any of this, since they are so caught up in the present system.  They are so keen on consuming animals and all the ‘goodies’ made available by dint of farming them, that they can't heed the warnings.  They continue as they have always continued.  They can't make any substantial progress in what they do or think, since they are standing almost transfixed, like a rabbit in the car’s headlights.  The consequences of their action and inaction rush towards them and their first line of defence is to stop in-coming information.  It's the information that is rushing towards them, threatening to crush them with a need for change.  It sounds like something unpleasant, and it touches their gut feeling.


Our biggest difficulty is that we are not dealing with the brains of people but their gut-instinct.  We might have a lot to say but no one to say it to.  The more one learns about the use of animals, the more cruelty one sees, the less one can tell others about it.  Either the cowardliness or the dishonesty of ordinary people is the biggest shock; it seems incredible that so many people are unwilling to see such obvious links between what they condone and what is happening all around them.  Millions of children are dying needlessly and millions of animals are being killed shamelessly, and everyone, it seems, turns away and goes about their business as if nothing bad is happening. 

Friday, February 27, 2015

What does "Animal Rights" mean?

1292:
Edited by CJ Tointon

The term Animal Rights is still not understood very well.  It's not surprising!  How can animals have 'Rights' when they don't know they have them or even know they want them?  No, it's really about 'Human Not-Rights'.  That is the 'not-rights' of humans to abuse animals, take away their lives or diminish the quality of their existence.

Imagine, if you will, a little puppy.  The most beautiful creature you could imagine;  innocent, playful, trusting with big brown eyes.  What happens after a few blissful days of guzzling Mum's milk and playing with his brothers and sisters?  He's taken away and put with his new 'humans' who soon enough subject him to the nastiest experience of his life - the destruction of his most sensitive reproductive organs.  His body undergoes surgery for the removal of its most fundamental function.  His psyche is assaulted in readiness for a life of seclusion - in a 'human' house.  From there he will be 'played with', incarcerated day and night and let run at the end of a leash (tied around his throat) for his 'walk' around the block.  He will be fed a totally unnatural diet - a few daily bowls of crappy tinned food - and that's it!!!  If there is any purpose to his existence, it is to be nothing more than a 'toy' or 'companion' for humans to play with and fondle.  He can look forward to no company of his own species, no relationship with anyone other than his human and his death date will be determined at the convenience of the same human he has been friends with all his life.  His use-by date comes when he eventually sickens and it's no longer economically viable to medicate him further. That's when he's 'put to sleep' (that's the child-friendly euphemism we use for 'murder'). 

All this is a grotesque assault on another living being.  What humans do to animals for their own pleasure, convenience or profit is what Animal Rights is all about.  And it's not just about charming little puppy dogs. It's about the whole pantheon of domesticated animals humans use for company, for eating, for experimenting-upon, for their secretions, for their skins and furs - and many other uses too numerous to mention.  Needless to say, for the added convenience of the human 'owners', the animals are not only castrated, neutered and sexually isolated, but they undergo terrible mutilations (and finally execution) without any regard for their feelings.

Advocates for the 'Rights' of animals are trying to explain something to people that they've probably never even thought about before.  Using animals is so taken for granted these days that it's assumed there is no NEED to think about it.  As soon as any one of us dares to speak out against using animals (let alone puppy dogs being 'de-sexed') hands are held up in horror that we should even think of mentioning it!!  But since animals can't speak up for themselves, all we are doing is showing things from the animal's perspective.  And when we do that, people may start to think.  But just as quickly they'll shrink away, because they'll be thinking to themselves,  "What, no pets?  No meat?  No ...?".  It's always about human loss.  Never about a loss to the animal, never about its sovereignty or its happiness.

There's so much to reveal, so much to tell people, so many human traits connected with the using of animals.  It's no wonder that one's first forays into confronting people with the 'truth' are failures.  But it teaches us one valuable lesson: that human habit and social mores are very deeply set.  Nothing any animal advocate can do or say will shift things, even revealing what is incontrovertibly true.  

I consider myself to be a sensitive person, and it seems everyone else does too.  Everybody has their own way of justifying themselves.  If you have a dog or a cat at home, it's important to justify everything about the 'owning' of a 'companion animal'.  For some people, the home is not complete without a cat or a dog in the house.  Without the animal component, the sky would fall in!!  

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Coming to terms with disagreement

1291: 

Veganism shows that ‘omnivores’ are not serious about the welfare of animals, and it shows that being a herbivore is the obvious way to spare animals.  It's obviously a beautiful idea in theory but in practical terms is it possible?  Even if I could get over missing all those familiar foods, could I withstand the opprobrium of all those dedicated omnivores and enthusiastic carnivores.  Going vegan would mean that I was living in a society I disapproved of.  I'd be denigrating the eating habits of nearly everyone.  By exposing and explaining and talking about animal abuse in the food industry, I wouldn't be winning myself friends.  It's likely, I'd find myself socially dropped by family and friends, and be considered ‘on the nose’. 

Wouldn't my becoming a vegan win some admiration?  Surely they'd see I was only trying to get to the truth, only wanting to point out the human capacity for acting hypocritically.  All I wanted was for people to see the way they were living dangerously (acting by commission or omission, acting directly or by proxy, acting up front or clandestinely) and for that to be discussed.

As it turned out, it seemed there was almost NO interest in this sort of discussion.  Maybe people hadn't understood what I was suggesting?  Maybe they needed to be jolted awake? Perhaps I could stimulate discussion by being a bit rude.  But that didn't work either.  Things quickly descended into mutual abuse, and that was a long way from any sort of rational discussion of the issues.


Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Being 'right' and being 'wrong'


1290: 

As soon as we feel ‘right’ about our argument, there’s a danger we become too cocky with it.  Our own certainty might be good for keeping us ‘on the wagon’, but too much certainty looks ugly.  So, it’s important for us to remember that we ourselves used to be no different to all those omnivores we criticise.  As an adult, and earlier as a child, almost every single person on this planet consumed any foods and confections that seemed attractive and were available, without question.  There was a tacit understanding that the value of each food needed nothing other than its taste; until relatively recently, there had never been an ethical component to food.  Food was eaten simply to satisfy hunger, maintain health and to give us pleasure.  There weren’t issues concerning animals, and very few concerning nutritional qualities.  It was only from the 1970’s that these issues started to get publicity.  Then macrobiotics and vegetarianism became all the rage, and after that came the stunning connection between animal sentience and the cruelty involved in animal farming and slaughtering.

The general reluctance to come to terms with the ethics behind animal-based foods was based on the belief that there was no need for any "special consideration for the sake of an animal”.
Up to now, we have been almost entirely human centred in our concerns; vegans suggest broadening that concern to include non-humans.

Our anthropocentricity will always suggest reasons to NOT alter animal-eating habits.  The mind will weigh compassion, but always come down on the side of fellow humans; there are enough humans to feel sorry for, without trying to empathise with all the animals too.  This conveniently brings us to believe that compassion doesn’t need to extend to animals, not the ones we eat anyway.
         
Life-long meat eaters don’t like admitting they could be wrong about day-to-day food habits. That would mean too much loss of face.  And consequently too ambitious a change of lifestyle. If we have been eating the same sort of foods all our lives, then it would take a lot of undoing, to do without animal products.


The established adult omnivore has an entrenched ego, a proud mind and a well established self image. To step down from all this and admit some major fault in oneself is difficult.  If a major attitude change is going to happen, it's best to happen at an early age.  Young people are less set in their ways, with fewer years of guilt about their food choices, which have largely been made by their elders.  Youth rebels, and a change of food habits could become the subject of rebellion and a stepping stone to building a more independent individuality.  A radical diet change might feel like making a stand, by accusing elders of being ‘asleep’ on animal issues (and many other issues too).  This particular stepping stone allows the young person to ‘set up camp’ on the other side of the river. 

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

The basis of argument

1289: 

Our aim should be to create space and freedom for anyone to talk freely about their feelings, even if it obviously runs counter to our own.  Being in such a minority, it’s likely most of us vegans will try to defend our position, and make sure there’s no confusion about where we stand on the ‘animal issue’.  But if we come on too strong we’ll effectively shut the door to the discussion room.  It’s only when both sides of an argument have a chance to put their ideas forward that we'll get a chance to make our basic arguments clear.

Our basic argument:
There’s a lot of confusion about what it is we are on about, a lot of which is convenient confusion.  So, before anyone turns off or finds a reason to stop trying to understand, we should spell out our position in the simplest and briefest way possible.

They might not be able to agree with us but nothing we say should give anyone an excuse for an easy disagreement.  In other words, if we are clear about our own position and we state it plainly, we avoid provocation.  There's no emotion behind our words, we merely seem to be inviting an equally simple reason why someone thinks we might be wrong.  We're aiming at civilised talk here.

So, if our bottom line is that we are unable to find any justification for any animal use, then that stands as our position from which a challenge can be made, by anyone who might want to disagree.  Discussion can go on from there.  And ideally, both sides can always return to this general point – animal-use versus no-animal use.  Then the details can follow.

Our position is that animals should never be used because we humans can't be trusted not to abuse them.  There are so many examples of ugly ways animals are treated.  When it comes to food and the inevitable slaughtering of animals (either for their carcass or after their food production drops off, like low milk yields and low egg laying rates) humans seem to be incapable of independent thinking or coming to rational conclusions.  It seems that omnivores are captive to their own food habits, and these daily habits can be so deeply entrenched that most people can’t afford to think about such things as animals’ feelings.  This means they can’t complain about their treatment on farms or their method of slaughter, which makes it very difficult for them to argue that animals should be used.

If people are creatures of habit and, on this matter, particularly unwilling to think things through for themselves, then they have to be 'followers'.  It seems that most people will only ever do what they’ve always done; we do what our parents taught us and what we then go on to teach our own children.  This comes down to eating the food we like and side-lining any other consideration, because it has to take second place to something as fundamental as food-satisfaction; we must, at all costs, enjoy the food we eat, and be able to eat it with confidence; and to eat it with a clear conscience if only because it’s the same food everyone else eats.

For all omnivores, this is their most powerful argument.  All that vegans are suggesting is that they question the basis of that argument.


Monday, February 23, 2015

Strong beliefs but neutral emotions

1288: 

The abattoir is perhaps the most ugly institution we have in our society.  And the abattoir mentality is therefore particularly ugly because it’s the one routine violence almost every person is involved with.  The tragedy of this universal participation is that completely unnecessary.

Vegans aim to get this across, while maintaining their love of animals and people alike.  We aim to shift this attitudinal Goliath, but to do it without using any sort of force or violence ourselves.  The trouble is, that traditionally, when you want to make a point strongly you often resort to forceful language.  And any perceived use of force simply looks ridiculous when addressing the almost-total population, when criticising the behaviour of almost everyone.  So, to get our point across, we have to find some other way.

It’s easy to get steamed up about cruelty to animals, so we have to remind ourselves NEVER to harass people into agreeing with us, but instead to encourage people to begin thinking for themselves.  No guilt, no push, no aggro, no high moral platforms, just an accentuation of the positive mixed with well documented information.  Most people, having both a capacity for loving and being loved, just need to be consciously extended to embrace non-humans.

Most vegans have a strong urge to be rescuers of animals.  It’s something most people would sympathise with.  But the floating ship runs aground when it comes to ‘food’ animals, the ones people like to use for food.  Perhaps we can only attempt to persuade people by the words we use, by using kind words about unkind behaviours.  If we don’t go in gently, there’s a danger that we’ll fall into the classic trap, where our arguments are simply off-putting.  To avoid this, our approach mustn’t seem to be judgemental or insulting.  And if in the past we’ve seemed to regard ourselves as superior, that must be exploded too.

Anything even vaguely approaching the “I’m vegan, how about you?” sort of comment, will only entrench hostility in people.  It’s hardly surprising, that in this modern world moralising doesn’t work because it’s connected to the old fashioned preacher threatening retribution for sinning; if we get a reputation for being boring or predictable, we’ll undo a lot of the fine work others have done on behalf of Animal Rights.

So, we jettison slogans like “Meat is Murder”.  Although it’s true enough, the impact is never quite how we expect it to be.  We are effectively accusing people; what we’re really saying is “YOU are a murderer if you eat meat” and that sounds like an attack.

We can’t shock or bludgeon people into change.  As soon as we make a value judgement like this, the shutters come down, and we can expect to be counter-judged with something like, “What bitter bastards you vegans are!”  And that effectively puts an end to any meaningful communication.


Sunday, February 22, 2015

Miracles start with fashion

1287: 


All our best arguments for bringing about a non-violent society might inspire us, once we've decided to take the plunge and move away from unethical and empty foods.  And then find, after a while, that we're happy to be without it.  But it has to be experienced for oneself.  Just telling others how good it feels isn't enough to convince others.  Because this is largely a complaisant and self-indulgent society, most people think they can ignore the values enshrined in vegan principle.  They are attached to their favourite foods and WANT to ignore all this, even though the principle represents the most intelligent and compassionate path.

It might be thought to be laughable, that any of our as-yet-small number could persuade people to radically change their ways of eating.  (And that's if it were only food change).  Persuading others might seem almost impossible.  Almost, but not quite.  Over the past seventy years many people have adopted this ultimately non-violent principle, and in some parts of the world numbers are growing rapidly.  Surveys show that in parts of North America, up to 1% of the population is vegan. This increase is mainly amongst the younger-twenties generation.  So, if you happen to believe in miracles ...!

Change in human habit must start by setting a trend in fashionability.  And this begins with reasoning.  We need to include in our reasons for change, improvements in health, hope for the planet, for animals, for our own spiritual welfare.

The social kudos of being vegan can't be underestimated.  There might be ridicule and scorn, we might be ignored or even thought to be dangerous, but to ourselves, being vegan defines us in an important way.  Most of us lay great store on doing something we're proud of. It makes us seem less superficial.  And however negatively people think, we know there's a secret admiration there too.  Even though we might not ever get to mention why we are vegan, just abiding by a consistent set of personal rules denotes self-discipline and self-control.  This is something most people would envy.  It's rather like adopting a whole extra dimension to one’s life.


By taking on this level of challenge, by disregarding the temptation-power of so many foods and commodities, we can stand that much taller.  The sense of freedom that comes with it, makes us feel as though we can't be manipulated by the vested interests of the food and clothing industries.  We're not in league with those who profit from the misery of animals.  And apart from anything else, by not-buying expensive meat and dairy foods, woollens and leather products, it makes for great savings in the budget, and thus, wise-spending vegans should be financially far better off than our omnivore friends.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

An Altruistic Transformation

1287: 

If survival isn’t dependent on animal-foods (or animal-anything-else) then everything changes for us, as humans.  If anyone could prove that we do need animals to survive, the whole vegan argument would collapse, since it would be suicidal to ignore those needs.  However, since no one has put up a serious argument along those lines (ever since the first vegans appeared seventy years ago) we must continue to assume that plant-based foods are efficacious and safe.  However, studies show that vegans and vegetarians are NOT immune to the risk of heart disease, brain disease and nerve damage.  And it’s probably true to say that most of us aren't fully aware of our nutritional needs.  Doing without animal foods but living in such a hygienic environment means we must take certain precautions.  I watched a most informative lecture on You Tube, by a Michael Doctor Greger MD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFFWstlfDRk
​​And I've taken note: He suggests that the safeguards vegans need to be aware of include the importance of taking, daily, a good source of Omega 3. He suggested a tablespoon of ground flax seeds (kept in fridge once ground). A weekly dose of one thousand micrograms of Vitamin B12.  And to use something like Melrose Omega Gold spread to avoid margarines, stressing the importance of keeping away from transfats.  He mentioned lots more on vegan nutrition, but it seems these three safeguards are particularly important.

By attending to the safety-health factors, we can feel free to adopt a vegan diet and thereby adopt the non-violence principles of veganism into our day to day lives.  This then allows us to assume the role of animal advocate with a clear conscience and enough health to carry on advocating for as long as it’s necessary, which might be a long time!!

Going vegan is no selfless pursuit.  It benefits us greatly to be vegan (avoiding dangerous and unhealthy foods, relieving the pressure on our conscience, etc).  It’s also great to have this endlessly fascinating subject occupying our thoughts and energies.  It’s such an interesting subject and such a worthwhile project to get involved with, because it shifts us away from traditional attitudes concerning health and animal-use.

There's a deal of work involved.  We each need to readjust our diets, need to avoid many of the food temptations, and harden ourselves to the ridicule of our friends, who might not be as inspired the way we are.  The people who know us won't necessarily appreciate our changes of lifestyle, and the exploited animals won't thank us either (but only because they can't).  There might be hardly anyone to encourage us in fact.  We'll be doing whatever we do on a largely solo basis.  And we'll be doing it to contribute towards bringing about what we want to see happen on this planet, namely a transformation of human attitude - the aim being to bring us from a state of chronic violence to one of non-violence.  Hopefully we visualise the bigger picture: focusing the collective brain on achieving a sustainable planet peopled by gentler humans.

At present, there are too many humans who are clumsy, unthinking, cruel or stupid.  One of the most important contributions a vegan can make to the well-being of this planet, and to our own species, is to do what vegans do best; abstaining from the use of animals. This relieve cruelty towards animals and makes for a healthy and vibrant human species.  And that species will have a more altruistic concern for future generations.


With non-violence comes a reduction in fear and selfishness.  And most importantly, it brings hope.  

Friday, February 20, 2015

Mixing Betting Money with Racing Animals

1286:
Edited by CJ Tointon

Live baiting greyhounds means live rabbits tied to boards and used as bait, bodies torn apart, piglets dangled by the tail at the end of a rope, dogs let loose on them!!!!!!!   "Blooding the dogs.  You've got to blood the dogs", one of the so-called 'trainers' was heard to say. 

Within a few days of the ABC TV Four Corners report, everyone had either seen it or heard about it and most had only seen some of it before averting their eyes.  If you watch the full footage from Animals Australia, it's gut wrenching.  The footage is accompanied by a report, which includes this description: "Terrified piglets, rabbits and native possums are all victims of live baiting — tied to lures, flung around racetracks at breakneck speeds, and then mauled to death.  Some animals who survived their first attack were 're-used' multiple times...".  One less sympathetic politician being interviewed on TV, summed it up like this:  "This is a welfare issue.  It shouldn't happen.  But don't close the whole industry down (greyhound racing).  The Animal Rights people (and he quotes PeTA) believe that no animals should be used for anything".

Punters at the greyhound track are interested in the outcome of these findings.  They don't want to see the end of greyhound racing!  They'll believe it's a few rogue trainers doing something most trainers wouldn't do.  They will say, "Prosecute the bad ones and let the rest of us get on with the fun of the race".  They choose to believe what they want to believe. 

It's the same with horse racing.  No live baiting, but a terrible wastage of horses that don't run fast enough. The industry values these animals on the basis of  'financial return'.  Thirty thousand horses are in training at any given time in Australia.  Over half of those registered for racing end up prematurely at the abattoir - as pet meat!
It's not surprising that the more an animal can generate money the less respect some humans show when it disappoints.  Of greyhound pups bred for racing, 40% of the 20,000 born each year are not deemed fit for the track and are slaughtered.


The nastiest facts are being uncovered, the less nasty facts will always remain hidden from view.  Punters who enjoy a bet don't want to know the truth and the racing industries certainly want to keep everything that goes on behind the scenes well hidden from the public.  All praise to those hidden cameras spying on these ugly scenes and the courageous activists who are not intimidated by the Ag-Gag laws which threaten to prosecute the trespassers who plant the cameras.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

The Omnivore's Underworld

1285:

Edited by CJ Tointon
These days, it seems that as soon as one brings up the subject of "Animal Welfare", be it 'pets', animals used as research 'tools', for food, for shoe leather or performing dolphins;  there are immediately hundreds of accusatory fingers pointing, asking "Why are you supporting any of this?"

None of the great variety of 'animal uses' are justifiable.  Some are less desirable than others.  If you pick the worst, say, the caging of hens, you find a 'second-worst', in the slaughtering of free range hens that have become no longer productive.  There’s an ugly aspect to all animal-use and usually an ugly end to every domesticated animal's life.  It's impossible to deny the cruelty involved in 'animal usage', yet most people can't imagine not using animals when they want to improve the quality of their lives.  They live in a sort of 'Underworld' from which there seems to be no escape.  One might not want to be associated with exploitation and cruelty, so one might make a small gesture of compassion by 'giving something up', to show ourselves that we aren't locked in like everyone else.  But therein lies the biggest problem.

Once you try to escape this Underworld, you are confronted by an extraordinary guard.  Like trying to defeat the Lernaean Hydra.  Strike off the head of Hydra and two more take its place!  Avoid one 'animal abuse' and logically you have to avoid another and another and another!  As soon as we start avoiding one type of exploitation there's no end to it.   

Unless you become Vegan, you can't escape.  If you give up meat, you must ask yourself why you shouldn't also give up fish.  Give up wearing leather shoes and you must question your use of milk.  There's cruelty behind all these products.  What starts as a statement of good intention brings on unexpected consequences.  One simple kiss may be a "come on" leading to intercourse, pregnancy and a life of unwanted commitment.  Similarly, a progression from one ethical decision (perhaps made in haste) leads towards a more comprehensive set of ethical decisions with which you can't keep pace.

This dilemma faces anyone who contemplates becoming vegan and who thinks ahead to all the changes that will have to be made to remain consistent.  It might be the reason why people don't want to open these particular flood gates.  It’s not so much a matter of wanting to do the 'right' thing, it’s more a matter of not wanting to be 'wrong', not wanting to appear foolish or not strong enough to develop one’s ethical decision base.

Maybe, you (along with everyone else) hates the thought of slaughterhouses.  The image of a beautiful bovine creature being forced into a killing chamber to have a bullet fired into its head, isn't a pretty picture.  You might hate the thought of imprisoning hens in cages or pigs in concrete pens.  But you also hate the thought of imposing a food restriction on yourself, where your favourite breakfast of bacon and eggs is no longer on the menu.

The more you know, the less comfortable you are, for in every corner of your life there is some instance of condoning animal cruelty.  And since that is unbearable, it follows that the less you know the more comfortable your life will be.  But we are brought up to believe that education expands the mind, knowledge leads to wisdom, kindness brings one closer to becoming a better person.  By burying our heads in the sand, we become victims of the worst of self-accusations and self-judgements.  So, is there any way out of this dilemma?

It's a fact of life that everyone has to 'make a buck'.  Everyone must find enough money to survive.  Some will go into the business of producing felt hats, but they have to skin rabbits for their pelts to make the hats.  Some have to get involved with killing cattle to make hamburgers.  There are thousands of other uses-of-animals chosen to make a living, each involving cruelty and animal slaughter.   And each in turn involves the thousands of customers who buy their product.  Customers, producers, manufacturers must be involved in killing to get the result they want.  And it’s this involvement in the 'Underworld of Death' from which there is no escape, unless you find another way to make a buck and don't spend it to support animal cruelty.  

One thing logically leads to another.  One can’t be a little bit guilty of involvement any more than one can be a little bit pregnant.  There’s always one first step that must be avoided altogether if we don’t want to lay ourselves open to the reasonable suggestions of:  “If you hate the killing of whales, how come you’re okay with the killing of cows"?  Or, "If you hate the idea of climate change, why do you support the huge carbon footprint involved in cattle farming?”


Unfortunately, there’s no half-way house.  It's sad that well-meaning lacto-ovo-vegetarians get tangled into wanting to be thought of as 'animal-lovers', while their love is conditional.  This stops them ever being able to have an effective voice for animals.  Unless you are Vegan, you can only ever be a 'welfare-ist', merely wanting an improvement for the animals' conditions of enslavement.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

The power of food

1284:

What the Animal Industries may NOT realise is that a strong counter-culture is gaining ground.  People are beginning to wake up to the fact that animal products are dangerous as well as immoral.  We know food is obviously essential to life.  But not this food. If animal-derived foods are anything, they’re toxic and unethical and detrimental to the environment, and yet almost everyone, even when they know this to be true, remains an omnivore.  They’re seduced by roast dinners, egg and bacon breakfasts or their after-dinner ice cream.  And they can’t walk past a cake shop without paying a visit.

It seems that we can’t get past our own tastebuds and food-tastes.  We’re hemmed in by our social eating habits.  If we go against eating norms, then our social relationships will suffer.  Whereas if we eat from the same table we know we’ll be accepted.

For people like vegans, social isolation is a potent punishment, simply because we eat different food.  Perhaps people think we are trying to appear to be better than everyone else.  Whether that’s fair or not, it seems that way.  But however we are perceived, it shouldn’t make any vegan feel insecure or depressed. After all, we’ve looked carefully at our own habits and decided to make changes which go against majority opinion.  That’s a substantially brave thing to do.  We boycott products and condemn the industries who make their business out of animal exploitation.  It should at the very least be seen as brave action, and we should be thankful we’ve become vegan, despite the struggle.  One might argue that some life-struggle is good for us, since it develops appreciation for what we have, contributing to a strength of character, with which we’ll eventually be able to attract others towards our ideas.

As vegans, we develop a respect for sovereignty.  We learn to acknowledge others, and especially their sovereign right to a life.  We recognise the unique individual who is worth something in their own right.  If that does nothing else for us, it should give us enough self confidence to combat the social isolation that being vegan might bring.  It helps us lead the fashion and not simply follow it.  It says to us, “Yes, go ahead, boycott, do what is necessary and right, and don’t back off when things get rough”.  And this is the same confidence that says “no” when we happen to be tempted to forsake principle.


If that strength of character is lacking in our world, and if people do keep giving-in to exactly what the brain-washers have in mind for us, then our biggest problems are ones concerning conformity.  If we are giving-in to social pressures, in order to be the same as others, we have to consciously go against that, if we want to stand firm.  If we feel this way but don’t act, then our sitting on the fence erodes self esteem and self-confidence.  It can only serve to prove that we haven’t been able to stand up to the power of food.

Monday, February 16, 2015

Hand in hand

1283: 

The Animal Rights movement doesn’t have a lot of funding or help from top-level professionals.  So we don’t seem to have a very strong voice.  We can’t compete with the exploiters’ wealth.

They have all the material advantages.  They own the media and advertising industries.  They can buy whoever they please.  They legally sell addictive food substances to the public.  Their researchers tell them how far they can push the customer.  On this level, veganism can’t win people over.  We have to go the longer way around, at least at this stage.

All omnivorous humans in the rich Western world are having such a good time indulging in animal stuff that you can hardly expect  they’d be wanting to spoil their own fun.  They don’t want to think about food, they just want to eat it and enjoy it.  They’d rather not know about animal exploitation.  And they’re grateful that the worst of it is done behind closed doors.

In this respect, our whole society is like a mutual encouragement club – the customer goes along with what the exploiters do, just so long as their favourite animal products are available for purchase.  It’s similar to a classic drug dealing system - there’s a co-dependency between dealer and client.  We all get what we want and it’s in everyone’s interest not to welsh on the other.

But if our providers give us satisfaction, they also own us.  If we continue buying their products we’ll have less and less chance of weaning ourselves off them.  How seductive their product is.  But when you look at it more closely, it’s just smoke and mirrors, it’s as unattractive as it is attractive.  One’s attachment crumbles as soon as we puff some resistance towards it.  And that resistance comes from a deeper, more passionate, compassionate, inner self.  It’s something we can be proud of, but something we often find too many reasons for keeping locked away from ourselves.

If we do decide to rouse this sleeping giant of compassion within, it’s obvious what we have to do.  We have to drop the lot, drop everything connected with animals.  Once we become vegan, a whole new opportunity to educate others arises.  Suddenly we find ourselves in a strong position to speak up about something we’ve perhaps suppressed for a long time - the ‘animal problem’.  Up to this point we’ve been unable to defend animals because we’ve still been eating them.


By boycotting animal produce, we can reduce the impact of the exploiters and effectively help to put them out of business.  Surely that’s a noble enough cause.  But food addiction is like a lump of concrete in our gut.  The food binds both body and mind, more than we realise.  All of our life we’ve been ‘doing it’ - we salivate at the very thought of something delicious to eat (activating the reward system of the brain, rather like a ‘dopamine reaction’).  Food-shopping isn’t just a chore, it’s something else - it becomes part of our day-out, going in to the malls, supermarkets and even the corner shops, to get our fix.  They provide us with our treats and little food luxuries.  It’s here we plan our meals and even keep up our spirits by eating snacks along the way.  Our providers display, at eye level, the most popular products they know we want.  Especially regarding animal foods, the customer knows that what they are buying will soon enough be the main ingredient of a meal, which will soon enough be enjoyed by others too.  The foods on display, that we drool over, are guaranteed to bring us communal pleasure and social acceptance; by ‘eating together we stay together’.  It’s a powerful reason to forget about the animals and emphasise the need to feed ourselves and others with what pleases us most.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

The Animals’ Revenge

1282: 

I like the idea of exploited animals having some sort of payback, even if it adversely affects kids, who must be regarded as un-knowing victims themselves; if meat is poisonous then a child fed with it, suffering from eating it, is an unknowing victim.  But otherwise, what we have is Nature’s way of evening things up.

On one side, we have the producers, and on the other side the consumers.  When it comes to food, we buy items that are, to some extent, addictive.  Our addiction to our favourite ‘animal’ foods (or other animal products we tell ourselves that we ‘can’t live without’) is essential to the welfare of the Industry, but there’s another nasty twist, and it’s mostly unforseen.  All this producing and consuming and enjoying comes with a sting in the tail – the Animals’ Revenge.

It may be so that, by consuming the (stolen) body parts of animals, there’s a creeping deterioration in human health.  If we ingest them and get used to them, we pay, in more ways than one.  Animal products are excellent health destroyers and therefore good for keeping doctors in business.  Perhaps that’s why most of them don’t advise their patients to avoid using them.  (The doctors themselves are unlikely to be vegan and can’t therefore advise their patients to be this way even if they wanted to).

Animal foods are profitable to the exploiters but just as certainly not so good for the humans who consume them.  Omnivores, along with the hapless animals, are simply victims.  But, to some extent, we humans can look after ourselves.  We can learn and we can change, since we aren’t entirely enslaved, whereas the domesticated animal is entirely helpless.  Vegans are calling for a stop to the production of this animal-based food, because it’s unhealthy (indeed suicidal) but mostly because animals can’t defend themselves against human attack.  Humans act as parasites on the animals, and for a so called advanced species this has to be our most shameful act - we the strong made strong by making the weak weaker.  The exploiter-producers of animal foods, along with the 'knowing' consumers, are certainly long overdue for a dose of the animals’ revenge.

I, for one, am so glad to be shot of it all, to be entirely disassociated from all of it.  I just feel so sorry for the animals themselves and for children who deserve better, whose food-providers are so careless with what they provide for them.




Saturday, February 14, 2015

Background to personal observations

1281: 

I’m glad not to be part of the exploiting classes, even though I sometimes work for them as a handyman in their splendid houses.  I notice how they behave with one another (often rather badly), I notice their extravagant cars, fine clothes and expensive belongings on which they squander huge sums of money.  Perhaps I do envy their wealth a bit and perhaps I have a chip on my shoulder, but I’m also glad not to be too closely involved with them because of the ways they make their money.  They are not paragons of concern for the people they employ, but more so, they never seem to be too fussy about the resources they exploit.

What I do notice about these people is that their rule-number-one is “succeed or perish”.  They face fierce competition from their competitors, and if they don’t succeed they know they’ll suffer most from letting down their shareholders.  Conscience has to take second place.  Their credo is an economic one; they are not famous for making decisions based on ethics.  They suffer stress, they never seem to be truly happy and in so many ways, in spite of their material advantages, their lives are unenviable.  But so be it.  It’s none of my concern.  I’m probably working in their homes or businesses, doing my thing, and I’m not there to make judgements of them.  

Unless what they make their money from are animals, and then, because the animals concerned have no protection, I want to make it my business to expose their exploiters.
         

Today’s shareholders in the animal food and clothing industries demand good dividends.  'The Business' must therefore attempt to monopolise the market and send its competitors broke if it can.  The Exploiters will, of course, take any opportunity and play every dirty trick in the book to keep their advantage.  If they can stay afloat they’ll do whatever is necessary to keep their customers and shareholders happy.  It all becomes more pernicious when these businesses are food-based and where they exploit both humans and animals.  These people I would definitely NOT work for, even in their homes. 

Friday, February 13, 2015

Soul food

1280: 

Why are you still eating animals?  This, you may find, is a surprising question which you might answer by saying: “But they have no souls so it’s okay”.  Or, “They don’t feel things as we do”.  Or, “They can’t reflect on their situation or see what’s in store for them”.

Whether ethical or unethical, the fact is that eating the body parts and secretions of animals, all of whom are executed in horrendous ways, is not good for us.  (And not good for our soul).  We have enough information today to suggest, with certain specific and important precautions, that it’s safe to eat solely plant-based foods.  But health and humanity are still not sufficient persuaders.  People have been brain washed into an easy agreement with what they’ve been told - that animals have no souls and that meat and cow's milk is good for you.  Added to this is the main fall-back position: “We’ve been eating meat for two million years, so why stop now?”

But the wild animal, the untampered-with animal, is not the animal that’s being eaten.  The chickens and fish and cattle we eat are unhealthy creatures themselves, eating either contaminated foods or foods containing harmful chemicals.

In many positive ways, food production has improved today. There are healthy foods available, chemical-free and organic fruits and vegetables, whole foods like brown rice and wholemeal flours.  We don't need to use empty foods.  Perhaps it’s timely to be more careful about the quality of the foods we buy and to stop this unnecessary ‘carnivore-ism’, not only because we know we can survive safely without animal food but also because we’ve been shown how cruel the system is towards animals.

When the human is making money, beware!  Especially when they’re making it from producing certain foods.  If you play your cards right, it’s easy pickings in the animal-based food business.  But wherever, anywhere in the world, this business is thriving it is nevertheless up against fierce competition, which encourages the producer to lower standards, in order to undercut the competitors.  Just look at what hell holes the factory farms are.  They aren’t designed as punishment camps, they are merely the cheapest way of growing the product (rearing animals) to stay ahead in the world of business.

We no longer chase and hunt animals to kill them for food.  Instead we keep them captive and treat them like machines.  Since the early part of last century the wealthy Animal Industries have been intensifying animal husbandry.  Quoting from J.S. Foer’s Animal Eating, he says, “Modern industrial agriculture has asked what hog farming might look like if one considered only profitability – literally designing multitier farms from multistorey office blocks …”.

The ruthlessness of these designs reflects the worst imaginable outcome for the animals themselves.  The customer has ‘just gone along with it’ and doesn’t want to know too much detail.  They’ve  allowed agribusiness to wield the same powers as, in the past, the lords of the manor once did, weaving their minions into an inescapable maze.  We, the customer, need.  They, the producer, provide; we shop, they profit.

The Animal Industries have been successful at cementing-in our shopping habits, by giving us what we want, whilst messing with our minds at the same time.  They effectively do our choosing for us, do it by way of brazen temptation and misinformation.  Subtly and subliminally, they secure our loyalty to their products – we, the customer, support the Animal Industries in order to serve our own best interests.  Apart from vegans, has anyone noticed anyone routinely NOT wearing animal skins somewhere on their body or NOT eating abattoir-derived foods?  And you don’t need to look too closely to see that most adults over 40 are already ill from their life-long use of these food products (ever seen The Biggest Loser on television?)

By using misinformation to persuade the spending dollars out of peoples’ pockets, the Animal Industries also succeed in screwing up the future of the planet at the same time.  And we must ask how did they ever get so much power?  It might be that they made it their business to know the way their customers think.  They realised how legislation could be passed to protect their businesses.  And most importantly, they cast moral values aside in order to no longer worry about being thoroughly wicked.


They operate on a set of values (to do with the exploitation of resources) which most of us could never accept.  We take what they give us (by buying it from them).  We don’t fully realise how dangerous our shopping habits are.  We are their playthings, and they’ll do whatever it takes to keep their advantage.  They’ll always conserve what they have.  They’ll always act within the law.  They’ll always protect themselves by never seeming to be directly accountable for what’s being done.  And they won’t usually act openly against the interests of humans, because they wouldn’t want draw attention to themselves in that way.  But for all their stealth and careful image-making, they know their customers don’t really care to know too much more than they're told.  They know the customer is willing NOT to notice, or even care about what’s being done to ‘non-humans’, as long as the good times keep rolling. 

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Conforming

1279: 

The animal exploiters know their customers can be relied upon to not-want-to-know what’s going on down of the farm or in the abattoir.  Most importantly, they know most people are conformists; they’re part of a system which is tightly controlled.

As a kid, when I first noticed how little choice I had, how many restrictions there were, I accepted it, as from people who I considered were lovingly protecting me.  I learnt what ‘normal behaviour’ meant. I learnt how to conform.  My habits formed, guided by my parents and Society, especially concerning my choice of food (no one I knew had ever heard of vegetarian food, let alone vegan).  Once I was beyond parental care and control I was able to decide for myself, but my habits were already set.  Undoing any of my food habits promised a lot of hard work.  And yet there were exciting new trends involving whole foods and eating regimes that used no processed foods.  It made me look at food afresh, and I started to make decisions based on discrimination and disapproval.  And it wasn’t long before animal issues were being looked at, in relation to my food.

Soon enough I realised I’d have to be involved in some sort of boycott, because there was no doubt that I disapproved of animal exploitation and therefore meat products.  Later, as I thought more about it, it had to include all animal by-products.
         
If young adults today reassess the foods they’ve been brought up with, they’d probably follow a similar path of logic and eventually arrive at the same vegan principle I arrived at.  And if they do, they’ll associate the two most important forms of liberation - the freeing of the conformist human mind and the liberating of animals.  They’ll weigh savagery against non-violence, slavery against freedom, and they’ll choose one over the other.

By chance, as a teenager, I took up athletics, and in particular running.  And the only teacher who showed any interest in my training was my history teacher so, in return, I showed an interest in his subject.  I went further with studying history.  And part of that study brought me to read up about the human struggle to escape slavery and win freedom.  And emancipation affected both slave and slave master, marking a major turning point in human self development.  We were then able to look more clearly at what slavery signified.  And that led, in the latter decades of the last century, to consider enslaved animals.  For me, history provided the essential context for examining all forms of enslavement. And animal enslavement took on a great significance, showing how humans are almost hard wired to always fall back on taking advantage of the weak and undefendable, in this case the animals.

But unlike their human counterparts, they’ve never been able to organise resistance for themselves.  The only chance they have, to be released from slave status, is with human advocates working on their behalf.

My present freedom allows me to be an animal advocate but that privilege comes at a price.  By uncovering certain truths and speaking about it in public, I find myself getting off-side with all sorts of people.  I decide to tread carefully. I see a woman in the supermarket with a carton of "caged eggs" in her trolley. My instinct is to point out how unethical it is to buy them, and as politely as possible to mention the cruelty of the cage-system.  But I'm ashamed to say that I don't, because if I did she would probably call Security and tells them I have assaulted her, by interfering with her freedom to buy a product, and I'd end up being chucked out of my local supermarket.  Animal advocacy upsets almost everyone.

But no worries (I think to myself), it won’t always be that way. There are obvious chinks of good sense in what we stand for, that will become apparent, eventually.  I hold onto that, especially when I’m on the brink of despairing of our fellow humans.

Vegan principle and anti-slavery make sense, if only in terms of human health.  We, as vegans, wish to weaken the influence of the ‘exploiter’ on Society.  Our aim would be to keep people away from animal foods and therefore help to keep them out of hospital, and safe from premature death.  We encourage people to stop poisoning their bodies and minds and of course to no longer be part of the present obscenity, that amounts to 150,000 animals throughout the world being executed every minute.  Until we move away from so much gratuitous self-harm and away from this daily animal holocaust, nothing can possibly go well for us personally or collectively.


Tuesday, February 10, 2015

The Exploiter Classes

1278:

Edited by CJ Tointon
If we want to help clean up today's mess, we have to home in on two specific things:  the waste connected to pollution and the cruelty connected to animal slavery.  They're both dark forces familiar to the wealthy exploiters who are running the animal-exploiting industries.  Their grip on things needs to be weakened.  We should all withdraw our support from them.  We should all stop spending our money on the goods they produce.  Anyone who does this will be making a difference.  They will be liberated and at the same time, they will be supporting the liberation of animals.

The exploiters are often kind and loving towards their family.  They might see themselves as good, caring people, believing that 'charity starts at home', believing in a better world for their grandchildren.  Their charity doesn't extend much further, however.  They care less about the community or about 'the greater good' - especially if by doing so, it affects their profits!  They like acquiring money and have little empathy for anything or anyone from which they make their money.

I was listening to one of them, a hunter, on the radio.  He farmed animals and loved guns!  He was trying to justify the pleasure he got from pulling the trigger on a moving animal.  He couldn’t say what it was, except that it felt 'natural' to him.  He’d done it since he was a boy.   Animal farming and hunting - that's how he and his family had always made their living (as well as getting their kicks)!  It seems this type of person is used to finding opportunities and taking advantage of weaknesses.  It's 'in the blood' (no pun intended).  They see dollars in everything.  Where most people see a forest in terms of beauty, they see the trees as lumber.  Where most people couldn't kill an animal, the exploiter has no trouble doing so, or employing someone who’ll do the messy business for them.

The consumer, for some unknown reason, respects these people, perhaps even admires them, for doing what they can't do.  And with all this support, the exploiters come to believe that they are doing nothing wrong.  How can they be wrong when they enjoy the support of so many dollar-spending customers?

Perhaps we should regard exploiters as spoilt brats and consumers as weak parents.  The longer children believe they can get away with bad behaviour, the longer they will.  And, unstopped, they'll grow towards being 'monsters', becoming all the more dangerous the stronger they get.


Monday, February 9, 2015

Our main fears

1277:

Being vegan doesn’t protect us from everything - we can have the same fears as anybody else and suffer just as much as others do, but it’s significant that we probably suffer from different things.  Vegans perhaps fear and suffer from being isolated within the community. But in an entirely different way, the wealthy also suffer from being isolated within the community.

Most ordinary people, who are not wealthy enough to build a fortress about themselves, will experience guilt about what they eat but lack sufficient knowledge to prevent ill health.  The small percentage of wealthy people are likely to be rusted-on materialists, and won’t feel too insecure, because they’ve numbed their guilt and used their money to buy health insurance.  (And so they might, since they do inevitably become ill as a result of their rich lifestyle).  For rich and poor, fear is the driver, for the poor it's about survival, for the rich it's fear of not getting richer. But the wealthy industrialists, especially the manufacturers of food fear current trends.

There is change in the air, and the wealthy manufacturers must be getting nervous these days.  They sense changes in the market place.  Their fears are based on the withdrawal of the ‘retail’ dollar – the loss of their loyal customers.  They fear rebellion, not by violent insurrection but by customers becoming better informed and taking their dollars elsewhere.

These are very real fears for them, sensing their time is almost up.  They know they’re at odds with Nature.  And in this computer age, they realise that their whole way of life is jeopardised by public access to solid information.  They almost invented misinformation and grew wealthy on the strength of it, by way of false advertising and hype. In that way they've stayed afloat for as long as they have.  But now they’re beginning to see their world washing away.  The availability of ‘new information’ is making an impact, and that’s down to the Internet, where so much information is made so easily available.

In so many ways, by learning sources who have no ulterior motives, ordinary people have access to a whole raft of reliable information.  We now develop our inner security by referring to Nature, in the sense that many people are coming closer to the model Nature intended for us.  It feels like ‘being-at-home IN Nature’.  Our foods are becoming more 'whole', less synthesised and processed, and certainly coming from more humane sources.  The trend is away from the mass-produced, pre-packaged products, and towards 'health foods'.  And the more the market grows the less expensive these products will become.  And it doesn't mean we have to go native or take up residence in a forest, but simply become more streetwise and less vulnerable to the influence of mass marketing.  Our feelings of at-oneness with animals, even the most domesticated ones, lets us experience, to some extent, how it is IN Nature.  Without the trappings of rich living, life is uncushioned and we naturally develop survival skills, like enquiring more deeply into the nutritional value of our foods.  Perhaps by living in a more Nature-oriented world we are, like the wilder beings, living off our own wits.


Life regularly tests our metal, and in that way we can explore our own individuality as we draw away from the pernicious influence of the big food corporations. We liberate ourselves, help to liberate others, and liberate the enslaved animals along with ourselves.  Perhaps we are already witnessing the beginnings of a transformed species, with far fewer self-imposed limitations, and with our eyes already focusing on a more hopeful future, where the sky is the limit.  

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Rebel’s view of things

1276: y

Vegans have to be changers and rebels all at the same time.  We have to be fearless, since we are fighting against a HUGE popular mind set.  Many vegans have only ever known people who follow the traditional ‘truths’.  And before we became vegan ourselves, we  might have been content to go along with the popular 'truths' concerning diet, nutrition and eating habits.  Conforming allows one to be acceptable, and although there might have been a niggling concern about farm animals, one's choices of food never altered much at all, never questioning the authority of doctors and nutritionists.  But today, everything is up for grabs.

With so much more information at hand, there’s a lot to rebel against, and a lot to discover, as to why so much conventional knowledge is faulty.  Perhaps vegans are in the best position to see why it’s faulty, since so much is predicated on the ‘immovable essential’ that we must continue with our animal dependency.  Take away the animal element and we miss out on a vast amount of luxury product.

To boycott animal products, because they are in every way damaging to ourselves, to turn the popular myth on its head, that will be difficult.  It might take a long time to explode the myth.  After all, humans have been convinced of the ‘essentiality’ of eating or using animals for a very long time.  But if our main aim is to make our species better (in all senses of the word) the work involved will need the right fuel, otherwise we’ll run out of energy too soon or fall prey to deadly diseases.

For energy and health we need good food.  But we need other fuels too, that are self generated and are made by and used for a robust mental state.  You might call it ‘strength of character’, but whatever its name, it needs to be on tap.  So that when we ‘see’ something better we can simply drop the energy-draining habit and replace it with a better one.  We have to prove to ourselves that we’re not intimidated by anything as trivial as missing our favourite foods or missing-out on being just-like-others.

As we slough off our old conformist skin, we can see better the connections between various big issues.  For example: animal eaters connect to the cruelty of the animals’ living conditions; their rearing connects to the overproduction of carbon emissions; the production of animal protein uses crops which could be sustaining life amongst the poor and hungry.  To ignore all these connections one must either be unaware of them OR be ruled by self indulgence and an almost total lack of empathy.


Saturday, February 7, 2015

Leading the guiltless life of conformity

1275: 


By the omnivores' being so easily seduced by safety-in-numbers, they're able to get over their guilt, simply by going with the crowd.  Even if they suspect they're swimming against the tide of the coming age, they believe that they're still in step with the march of the day.

If we’re not so easily seduced, we may have jumped ahead already, and be changing fast, and moving towards veganism and disassociation from the crowd. Understandably any such ‘unauthorised change’ is a threat to the Leaders of the Food Industry. They probably realise that the world is approaching a more expansive age, and suspect that the coming age may eschew violence and embrace a more intelligent approach. And that won’t be good for the arms manufacturers or meat producers.

Today, this ‘expansive awareness’ still seems far off. We still resort to war and allow ourselves to be poisoned with the secretions and corpses of animals. Vegan food won’t eradicate this entirely, but it helps to move things on, to dissolve the ‘lump’. Veganism breaks open the belief that we eat meat for strength or that we can kill to gain advantage. It also takes our support away from those powerful entities who we want to become powerless.

If we're not helping to sap their strength (by boycotting their commodities, mainly animal food and clothing) then we’re active in condoning what they do. By helping to boost their spirits, omnivores open their hearts to them. They spend their money with them. And they do that best by pretending they aren’t aware how their money helps to keep them thriving.


Friday, February 6, 2015

Seduced by second rate pleasures

1274: 

When it comes to food and keeping up our lifestyle, almost all of us are controlled by the carrot and stick factor.  The ‘carrot’ is in the form of the pleasures of our preferred lifestyle, which include the sorts of foods we eat that bring us the most satisfaction.  These foods mostly comprise animal products.  The ‘stick’ is in the cost of things, reducing disposable income, and very much needed for the buying of our accustomed animal products.

The good things in life are abundant for those who can afford them and who will conform to ‘normal habits’, but they’re much fewer for poorer people who can’t conform.  It seems conformity and affordability go hand in hand.  It’s a neat system.

Everything which comes from the Animal-food Industries is meant to be pleasurable enough to make us toe the line, in order to acquire them.  To get what they want, most people are only too willing to toe the line.  But these favourite foods are not always very satisfying, especially when soured by what we know about the animals’ lives, down on the farm.  Usually it doesn’t take much to sour that picture anyway; the foods are often very second rate.  They provide nothing more than a few stomach-fillers and unsubtle taste sensations, anything from ice cream, chocolate, cakes, meat and all the little food luxuries we think we couldn’t do without.  It’s a sort of ‘seconds world’ of cheap and cheerful commodities.  But for lack of anything better, we continue to 'need' them.

Our wanting and acquiring them, keeps us endlessly working and earning and consuming.  And conforming.  We don’t want to miss-out, so the thought of voluntarily boycotting a whole heap of delicious food products isn’t an attractive idea.  So there’s little reason to give any thought to the animals producing the stuff we want.

Lifestyle is everything, whereas ethics or the development of consciousness is less important.  Most people will settle for any old ‘pleasure experience’ where food is concerned.  Instead of individually thinking things out for ourselves, we follow others’ leads - “Everybody does it so why shouldn’t I?”

With safety-in-numbers and going with the crowd, we buy whatever we want.  Vegans, on the other hand, opt for a lifestyle governed by the ethic of no-animal-use.  In a very major way, vegans disassociate from the crowd.  We might not know all the answers but at least we think for ourselves.

Understandably, this could be a worry for the Animal Industries, since they probably realise that the world is beginning to change in strange and unpredictable ways.  They may foresee a ‘vegan-inspired’ world, with ethical principles governing behaviour (and spending habits).  To them, it might all look dangerously close to practising non-violence.  And that’s hardly good for business!  But they also know that it’s still a long way off yet.  They are comforted by the fact that the majority of people are still happy to be poisoning themselves with animal foods.  Thankfully, for the Industry, their customers are addicted to their products and reluctant to give them up, even though their products so obviously makes people overweight and push them towards diabetes and heart disease.  

Vegan food doesn’t protect us from this entirely, and we are notoriously complacent about certain deficiencies in the standard plant-based diet, but it helps dissolve the addictions to these specific foods.  Our ethics keep us away from many harmful foods and strengthens our liking for plant-based foods.

As soon as I got used to a plant food diet, I realised it was good for energy but even more importantly it was good for making me feel more alert, and consequently more suspicious of traditional food regimes.  As soon as I realised how cruel and unthinking traditional diets were, it awoke the rebel in me.

The rebel asks tricky questions in public.  The rebel challenges the so called ‘food authorities’.  What I most wanted to do was to help sap their strength, by boycotting every Animal Industry commodity I’d ever used.  I was realising that once you open up your purse or wallet to them, you automatically turn a blind eye to your own involvement in what they are doing.  And whichever way you look at it, what they’re doing is not very nice at all!


Thursday, February 5, 2015

Money speaks loudest


1273: 

Whether we’re part of the an elite 1% or amongst the other 99%, we’d probably all be tempted to sell our soul for the chance of making big money.  Money cushions fear, and it isn’t just the wicked who believe this.  All over the world humans fear poverty, or fear being forced to ‘live-without’ the things they’ve become accustomed to. In order to allay this fear, everyone tries to get hold of as much of it as possible.  And if we succeed, it’s likely we’ll indulge ourselves in ‘high’ living.  We’ll eat the richest foods, partake of the most powerful intoxicants, and make use of anything that money can buy, to relieve the fear of insecurity and the tedium of living as poor people have to.


And where are the animals in all this?  They are chained up, entirely exploited, entirely forgotten and entirely abandoned.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Comforts for the taking

1272: 

Those who control the Animal Industries probably do know what the consequences are for the creatures they abuse, but they do it all the same.  For them, empathy and profits don’t mix.  Whereas most others do feel empathy for farmed animals and either suffer from guilt or they succumb to a feeling of helplessness.  They are so used to their diet that they don’t feel able to change their food habits.

Those who profit from animals have to numb their sensitivities - they’ll say “if it makes money then go for it, whatever it takes”.  They don’t have a problem with using animals as a resource as the source of their income.  But for the rest of us, it’s not that simple.  There’s a ‘moral’ struggle between what is right for oneself and what is best for others.  The struggle may not be quite conscious, but there’s an awkward feeling about abusing animals for the sake of indulging ourselves with our favourite food products.

Almost all people like the meats and pastries and rich creamy desserts, the cheese and eggs dishes and the wide variety of milk-made products.  Tucking into them relieves the monotony and stresses of life, and for that reason most people feel that they can’t afford to look too closely at where their ‘comfort’ foods come from.  If these foods make us feel better and stronger, the ugly origins of these foods have to be ignored.  If we allowed ourselves, even for a moment, to consider the truth behind our animal-food habits, then our consciences would be badly shaken; if we dared to take one moment to look at the part we play in the ongoing animal massacre, we’d feel ashamed.


It is a massacre whichever way you look at it, even though we have to pretend it isn’t.  By pretending we’re NOT engaging in the act of ‘hurting’ (hurting ourselves, hurting animals, hurting the planet, etc) our inner eye is refusing to see what is ‘see-able’.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

The wicked and their supporters

1271:

The terrible suffering the 'slave masters' have inflicted on animals might be said to be truly wicked.  They've manipulated people's minds in order to sell their product.  By, making their customers party to their crimes, is doubly wicked.

Not too many people will admit playing a part in the tragedy of animal abuse, but they’re involved nonetheless - the customers are buying the stuff and the producers are reaping the profits.  No one has clean hands.

The producers have built empires on the backs of animals.   They've provisioned generations of customers.  They’ve supplied food and clothing on both the survival level and at the luxury end of the market.  The Animal Industries have taken a lot of money out of people's pockets, whether by selling them clothing, food, shoes, cosmetics, medications or entertainment.  They seem to provide what others can’t - seemingly reliable, safe, economic and fashionable products and services.  They give the customers what they want without letting on just how the products come into being.  Especially where food is concerned, they’ve been allowed to sell harmful products, tell lies about them regarding their nutritional value, hide the cruelty to their animals, and go on to profit greatly.  We, the customers, have been made into suckers.  We can’t really believe that so much untruth, harmful products or monetary greed can exist.

The customer is partly to blame of course (it takes two to tango) because we believe what we want to believe.  But at heart, most of us can’t accept that some people can be so unprincipled that they’d do almost anything to turn a profit.  I’d be very surprised if even the smallest percentage of humans are truly wicked or so mentally ill or desperate that they’d sell their soul for wealth.  But many wealthy people are capable of doing just that, perhaps because of their desperate fear of ‘being without’.  They’ve only known wealth and cannot contemplate the idea of having less than they’ve been used to.  And if the sort of money they think they need can be made out of exploiting animals, that is exactly what they will do.

It seems that a small but powerful minority are without moral scruples.  These are the really dangerous people in our community, for they’re willing to abandon all moral constraint to guarantee their own material security.  They inhabit the board rooms of agribusiness (and allied industries) and think nothing of forcing small farmers out of business in order to establish intensive farms and processing operations.

For the remaining 99% of us, who’ve never had the chance to be tempted this way, we choose to believe what we’re told, and let ourselves be exploited in much the same way the animals are exploited.  Unless one is vegan, then almost all people seem to allow themselves to become supporters of these unprincipled businesses.  But if we did have the chance, would we be like them too?

All of us probably have a few really deep fears – fear of failure, fear of poverty, fear of abandonment, fear of death etc., but most of us don’t have that monster-gene that allows us to destroy things on a grand scale, in order to make things safer for ourselves.  We might flirt with the devil sometimes, we might be less than fully conscious of what we do, but most of us are still in touch with our own feelings and would resile from actually inflicting pain on either human or animal.

But are most people speciesist at heart, when it suits their purpose?  Perhaps most people would think nothing of someone else exploiting animals if it could be of benefit to themselves.

With what we now know about today's animal husbandry practices, the 'customers' act as if they didn't know.  They see how the tycoon behaves, and let themselves be led by their example, living with a low empathy threshold, in order to carry on eating the poor creatures whilst feeling nothing for them.


Perhaps most people don’t realise the significance of what is happening behind the scenes.  Perhaps they really don't  know how badly farm animals suffer, and on what scale they suffer.  They keep their eyes and ears averted, in order that they may eat what they want to eat and wear what they want to wear.  They close off to information, so that they can act as if they didn’t know.  But in these well informed times that’s a rather lame position to take. It's as if they prefer to seem a bit slow on the uptake, rather than go through the much more taxing process of trying to refute the information on hand.