The wall

1819:

When you see our society through vegan eyes so much becomes clear about our habits - the selfishness, violence, stupidity and weakness of humans. Habits developed early in life lock us into later ones, so primal taste sensations in childhood, urging us to eat what we like eating, continue into adulthood; there’s nothing in the food-eating experience itself to make us want to change. For almost everyone, this means a whole lot of animals are killed in order that we can have the food we want. This settles into a lifetime of eating habits that lead to ill health, and that eventually lead us into ‘old-age’ diseases. Elderly patients visit their GP complaining that they feel unwell all the time. The doctor says it’s just getting old and we can expect it. We believe the doctor. No changes of lifestyle habits are prescribed. We spend a lifetime eating poisonous foods and developing a guilty conscience for conspiring with animal violence, and we can't expect any good to come out of it. Vegans aren’t immune to illness but they just don’t suffer in this way, because they are eating plant foods which are conducive to good health and a good conscience.

Learning the vital information about plant foods is done quite easily today. Nothing can be kept secret. The animal industries are exposed. But that's not to say that we want to be looking. We may be content with the way things are, afraid to move on, intimidated by the massive propaganda wall we would have to climb over. This wall has been built in our minds during our formative years and most people accept the attitude that animals are safe to eat, and that it isn’t wrong to imprison them and kill them.

If we’re suspicious of what we’ve been taught and have enough rebellious spirit in us, then we might go exploring. And once we dare to climb that wall, the mind starts to change. Instead of avoiding information we start to look for it. And to our surprise, we find it easy. We come to see what life’s like on the other side.

Young people (and a few older ones too), using technology to access information, start to take control of what they learn, and thereby learn different values suited to a different lifestyle. Traditions and conventions and authorities and mass media will attempt to scream their opposite values at us. But in answer to that, we are now strong enough to disassociate from their dark, violent world. We become more optimistic about our own future as well as wanting the best for the planet. Simply by eating plant foods we radically alter our previously conventional attitudes as well as defend the innocent, exploited animals.

We swop foods, swop attitudes and eventually notice we’ve also swopped body chemistry. I’ve even found that my own small brain functions better when not weighed down with animal foods. And feeling unwell, catching colds, having too little energy - it’s all a thing of the past.

For young people especially, the great advantage of having read about Animal Rights and vegan diets gives a new perspective on life. Now one is more self-confident. One feels better educated. And one is less manipulated by no longer living in ignorance of important issues .

As soon as we move on, we’re already half way to solving Earth’s main problems by being less wanting, less selfish, already repairing damage, and leading our society towards becoming  more optimistic.