Consistency

1909:

I’m aware (and maybe you are too) of the scale of animal exploitation in our society. Commercial interests normalise animal abuse by concealing the truth of it.

         

All through my formative years there was never any suggestion that keeping animals captive and killing them for food was wrong ... and since it was food, and pleasurable food at that, I never questioned it. There was never a strong enough base of compassion from which that sort of questioning could arise. And today, there’s still not a sufficiently strong ethical base to stir people ... so, almost nobody questions ‘the use of animals for human consumption’. So, nothing changes. And it will never change unless some people can enlighten others to the truth. And that may come about simply by showing others that life is possible without resorting to using animals for our convenience. 

         

If any of us are going to escape the outrageous brain washing our societies put us through, if we can ever escape a lifetime of normalising animal-eating, then it will start by re-examining what we do - our habits, our attitudes and our addictions ... and with a touch of altruism too. And that means we must do it not only for ourselves but for the sake of the animals. By focusing on them we ignite our own empathy. That’s something we’ve had numbed in us (and we’ve complied with) for the sake of acceptance of meat and dairy in our diets.

         

When I eventually considered vegan principles and started to see life through more compassionate eyes and then went on to apply boycotts to all sorts of animal-based commodities, my life did change. It got a bit uncomfortable, at first. But soon enough I looked up and saw what I’d been doing. I saw that I was living in a carnivorous, violent society, and the thought of leaving it behind was a very comfortable thought. But if I wanted to help to change my society there’s be a price to pay. I’d have to face the fact that Society might remain as it was, even for a long time. This would mean, for me, that I’d be on the outer for a long time. As uncomfortable as that thought was I could still hope, and that hope could sustain me, and empathy could do the rest, to hold me together for ‘that long time’, knowing how bad things are for the true victims in all this. It’s a million times worse for the billions of animals (at this very moment of time) who are on death row, in prisons all around the world, who have no reason to hope.

If I and many other vegans try to ameliorate this discomfort I think we can best do it by being grateful that we don’t have to suffer as much as the poor creatures. We may have been born into a violent and animal-abusing world but we do have some chance, however slender, of escaping it. The animals were born with no chance of escape whatsoever. If we can hold that thought it may help us withstand the degradation we feel, being part of this unholy human species.

         

What better thing is there for any of us to do than set a new fashion in compassion, and to let that fashion translate as style. It’s not about being ‘cool’ nor even solely about being ‘vegan’ but about being consistent in our conduct, in all our daily activities. And if we aspire to consistency we do it to set an example, which others may or may not choose to follow. I don’t think we’re here to enjoy the experience of simply living as free beings in a human-dominated world but to offer reasons for radical attitude change which will, down the track, lift humans out of their subservient, violent and weakened state to become the angels of mercy we were meant to be.