The Enslaved of England - Part Four

1739: 

Edited by CJ Tointon

Setting Conscience aside, perhaps we can look at this from a non-moral-animal-cruelty angle. Maybe it is really all about money, especially our own money, and our habits of spending it. If the worst crimes are committed by the rich, then the worst habits belong to the regular consumer. There's always a shortage of money, reminding us of our 'slave' status. It's all about money and finding ways of acquiring it. And if that isn't hard enough, there's the managing of it. Money demons jump out of the bag when we neglect the reality of money management (maxing-out credit cards or undertaking unrealistic financial commitments, etc.). Wake these demons at your peril! When money goes wrong, everything goes wrong. Relationships go wrong! For the 'enslaved' classes, there's plenty to worry about. A psychological bubble bursts when we live beyond our means. 

But where's this going? I'm trying to paint a picture of those who are NOT fighting for their freedom (maybe as 'slaves' they can't) who only want to improve their own enslaved lives and can think of nothing else. If they're aware of farm animals at all, their only concern might be that they need better conditions - bigger cages for hens, etc. Otherwise the attitude that it's acceptable to USE animals is fixed. And it's this same fixed attitude we hold about our own unchangeability. We don't believe we'll ever be free. But by starting to think about animal welfare, there comes a slender hope that we can improve the unchangeable life of ourselves and the animals. And we can do it by the most peaceful method of all - by letting 'them' go out of business; by NOT buying 'their' stuff!

The enslavers (they know who they are) are our jailers as well as being the jailers of animals. You might say (kindly) that they don't set out to be cruel bastards. They might want to be different, but their hands are tied. They must walk the path of convention or go out of business.

Today's present-day 'slavery' spreads everywhere; into our freedoms and into our overall health. Of course, we do ourselves no favours by eating animal rich foods. But (despite guilt) it always comes back to humans impacting on innocent animals' lives. Humans are a danger to them. The human separates sentient animals from sentient humans and that one attitude is underscored every time we make a cheese sandwich. If I weren't vegan, I'd be attracted to those thousands of different temptables on those Durrington Tesco shelves too. I'd be attracted to buying the many harmful consumables omnivores buy. Their unwillingness to change is a mixture of stubbornness and self-focus. The stubbornness is relatively easy to fix compared to the self-interest surrounding the attitude that animals are of little importance and no danger to us since they can't fight back in the traditional way. We think we can do anything with them and there'll be no consequence. But the consequence is that we are not altruistic enough to look beyond ourselves. And it's this narrowing, this anthropocentrism, that becomes narcissism.

Our daily mantra should be that it's not only about US. We should be aware that our lifestyles cause collateral damage to BILLIONS of animals. We humans have incurred a moral debt from years of theft from and assault upon animals.

In the consumer mind there are money worries, relationship worries and moral/ethical worries. People are worried about many issues. The planet, the climate, the refugees and the malnourished millions. It's sad to think that animals and vegan principle don't figure large. The animal issue is put in the Too Hard basket. And therein lies the rub! People must know that the animal industries play a big and ugly part in their lives, but to consider animals and their welfare the way vegans do - is almost unimaginable!