Cleaning Up Our Act

2006:

We are modern. We are untouched by old fashioned ways of dealing with problems. We laugh at the stupidity of using war to settle differences. But we still use the same principle, force, to get what we want. We still grab what we can and become destructive. It doesn’t seem like real war when there’s no blood spilt (none we can see anyway) but much harm is still done in the hardening of our approach to each other and in the solving of problems. Whatever we do that uses force and violence is at least as stupid as war.

We need to see those situations where humanity could work, how the gentle touch can overcome difficulties and where the aggro element can be dropped. Our intention to clean up our act might need to start very close to home, with routine matters (in the way we speak to each other, in the boycotting of violent foods)  and move on towards what seems, at first, like an ‘impossibly clean’ attitude. Only later does it seem clean because the other way was so dirty.

If we avoid all temptation to go in hard, if we don’t ignore the brutality of what we’ve been doing, then life can become incredibly simple, and before we know it we’ve cleaned up our act. Which is what vegans have done.