Comfort

1606: 

In the West we live comfortably enough but many of us are confined in an attitude prison where human-centred consideration outweighs the consideration of anything else. We trash the planet and we dominate animals, and all for our own benefit. We like what civilisation has given us, but we’re compromised by our addiction to comfort. So, whatever the price in terms of damage-caused, we know now that we are too soft to make any principled decisions that would interfere with our comforts. So, we don’t live in harmony with things especially outside the human realm.

         

Being trapped by comfort is rather like being born into the bottom of a pit with steep, slippery sides. There’s no chance we can climb out since we’re weighed down by our addiction to pleasure and the happiness it brings us. If we’re happy to stay where we are or we’ve given up trying to escape this 'pit', we know we can still survive in a human-biased bubble in which we don’t have to think too deeply about where we are or what we’re doing, as long as it’s comfortable.

         

The worst aspect of this 'pit' exists in our use of violence-based Animal Industry products, mainly in the form of food. Most people would, in theory, like to be free of this 'pit', but they don’t realise how trapped they are, especially by their need for comfort food. They choose to stay with what they know, and don’t want to be told anything which is discomforting. So therefore, talking about abused animals being used for food evokes uncomfortable feelings of guilt and squeamishness. But there’s another factor involved, where, even though some are willing to forgo a little comfort for the sake of self improvement, people don’t want to feel as though they’ve been pushed into change. If they’re going to change they want to do it at their own pace.

         

Your regular vegan response might be, “What? Leave it to them to decide if and when? Too slow, too slow”. But we know that if any sort of psychological pressure is applied to the reluctant-changer, they’ll dig their heels in and tell us, “There’s nothing worse than being morally blackmailed into 'self-improvement'”.

         

So, do people really want to change as much as vegans would want them to? It’s doubtful. If we ever start to speak to anyone about intensive farming or abattoirs we will see their eyes glaze over. At first they might seem interested but they probably only want to improve their life in the pit, not actually escape from it. They fear ending up in the fringes (like vegans appear to have done). They don’t want to learn uncomfortable facts or make too many radical changes, especially concerning their comfort foods. They want the best of both worlds, but they are torn between holding back and moving forward.

         

Some, however, are ready to move on. They want to find out what's really being done to animals, what's going on behind those 'closed doors'. But, eventually, they’ll see that it’s not as quick a fix as they first thought. There's a dilemma. On the one hand, they’re attracted to the idea of self improvement, even outraged by what they find out about animals and animal foods, but they may not like the idea of having fewer food and clothing choices. They mightn’t like the idea of so much hard work involved in changing the entrenched habit of a lifetime. And then the idea of moving on may not look quite so attractive. Would-be vegans look about them - their health is okay, their life is okay, they don’t have to confront face-to-face animal torture and no one is pressuring them to change. The idea of no-change doesn’t seem so bad after all, especially since it guarantees all the comforts, plus social acceptability and normality. The decision to change is deferred or thrown into the too-hard basket.

         

When the vegan 'missionary' has left and the horror stories have faded, the omnivore will sink back into their old familiar, cushioned pit, and be grateful that they didn't try to escape.