Hardening our nature

Making radical changes to our diet doesn’t do a lot for our image as an acceptable member of our society, especially if we’re advocating the overturning of so many normal behaviours. To become a vegan would seem ludicrous to most people, especially if it were done to benefit mere animals. The aim of most people is to be acceptable to others and hopefully make a little headway in life. If they do anything that doesn’t fit in with that aim, which isn’t self-benefitting, it might be for the environment; to save the world for their grandchildren or at least preserve the way of life as it is now. Most people wouldn’t believe that, by accepting animal slavery, we were hardening our nature. Even if we believed it, that society’s acceptance of killing animals for food had a malign influence on us, it isn’t obvious how we could escape that influence . . . unless we were willing to psychologically separate from society. But this is exactly what vegans have decided to do. By disassociating from the norm, vegans illustrate that their nature has not been hardened.