The superficial consumer

The best time to consider our own attitudes to animals is when we are shopping. Mostly we insist on getting what we want, emulating that carefree hedonism of the richer classes, buying almost anything that takes our fancy. As we attempt to ‘live life to the full’ we might force ourselves to ignore ethics, environment and health. When decisions involve buying ‘animal’, we might consider our responsibility but we usually avoid thinking in depth about animal issues.
Our superficiality leads us into all sorts of dangers. More than ever before. Seventy years ago people would have been horrified at the thought of putting their hens into tiny cages for their whole life. It would have been considered diabolical, and yet today we accept it. We eat eggs and think nothing of it. It is one of those things we can’t look at too deeply for fear of questioning our own inhumanity. No one wants to be reminded of this. And on that superficial level of thinking, where animal rights questions arise, if they arise at all, the principle of veganism has to appear ridiculous.