Imaginary companions speaking Vegan

1588: 

Standing firm against seductive temptation isn’t quite what Veganism is. It’s not just about giving things up, or about will-power and self-discipline. It's about keeping control of decision-making, and finding a reason to be standing firm. For you, it might start as a health issue, eating plant-based foods making you feel better, but that's a side issue and a bonus for vegans. Of greater importance is the stand against the unethical treatment of animals. I ask myself, “What am I going to DO about stopping it?”

Anyone's conscience would be troubled by animal-farming, and the conscious knowledge of it edit

links to choice. The choice is to buy meat and dairy. About that we might worry. Animal Rights and Vegan are starting to figure large. More people are thinking about this, as an issue. On a personal level the question is about complicity.

But even that isn’t at the heart of this conundrum, going vegan-not-going vegan: It’s not about the guilts and reasonings of non-vegans, this is more why vegans become vegan in the first place.

The 'animal situation' affects each of us in different ways. For me, it's my claustrophobia. Horror: inescapability,  'captivity'. Mountainous empathy from me, from plenty others, for these banged-up, innocent creatures.

Your empathy driver might be focussed differently, but we all come together to do what all vegans do - we boycott anything to do with animals, because it's our only way of protesting the plain cruelty of what's being done to them.

If animal activists are going to achieve anything, and be noticeably 'effective', then it won't happen unless it's more than a diet or a gesture. I can't see how logic can point anywhere else - I can't see how it can be anything other than vegan, since any involvement with animals will always be feeding the very anthropocentricity that serves violence. And heck! Isn't it the violence we're trying NOT to encourage?

So, in my mind it's clear - go vegan asap - but it's also to be considered a step, which asks advice from body, emotions and social implications. But our own gut advice is there too, and that shouldn't be dismissed too lightly. A voice we rely on. Our conversation partner. Maybe it sits on our shoulder, as self-protecting as mischievous. It might be warning us not to go in too hard, too quickly with new step, yet another big step. Warning: Don't be too ambitious and then risk not continuing. Falling off this wagon can hurt in unexpected ways. For ex-vegans the social kudos is a bit like retiring.

For vegans there is a lure. Once you're vegan you can say you're vegan; but once you aren't vegan you can't that any more. By being vegan, you can then say , etc. But imply what? Is it done to my credit, for my honour and prestige? And there again, it may seem little to others, and there again might bring a level of respect. But the main impact is surely on oneself, the truth of being able to tell yourself that you are what you want to be. For ourselves, it doesn't seem a little matter at all. But it means being it and staying it. Glory and Purpose, eh!

To tap into a great purpose like this one, there's a feeling of being in harmony. And with animals too (as in, no longer being one of their abusers!!).

Even if our 'animal-relationships' are just in our imagination, we can sense them there, sitting on our shoulders, whispering great possibilities, most of which can’t be overheard by our omnivorous, cloth-eared friends. For the vast majority of humans, this matter of using animals has hardly crossed their minds. It hasn’t come up. It hasn't been taken seriously. The notion of  'going vegan' is un-contemplatable!! "It’s absurd. I'll stay as I am" is what's mainly thought.

If omnivores like their food, then they’re particularly enamoured of foods with animal ingredients. A dangerous defence for them is: “You don’t know what you’re missing”, and our response could be one of many possible replies, because it hardly matters what we say at this juncture.