Authority

Who authorises what we may do, how to think, what to eat? Kids follow adults, who give advice they followed as youngsters, modified to experience but based on the principle of Mum knows best and doctor knows best.
To question Mum and Teacher and Doctor and Priest leads to not knowing what’s for the best. Who should we listen to? Who is an authority? Should we rely on instinct? But even then we have unreliable instincts. The pleasure instinct is unreliable. Maybe the pain instinct is better, based on “if it doesn’t hurt it’s not doing you good”. Somehow our instinct needs its own reference point.
This is where we need a guiding philosophy, some basis from which we can make decisions and confirm it by instinct. I think veganism is not only an overall panacea for humans but it provides a framework for making most decisions. It simply says – “no animal foods” and it’s this one tiny principle to which all other details can refer. It won’t tell us what to eat or how to think but what NOT to.
From this plant-based platform, underscored by a non-violent approach to everything we do, our daily food choices are more straight forward. What not to eat makes it difficult for vegans to become obese or develop deadly physical conditions from food. Our diet avoids the sort of food that makes people fat or ill and filters out most of the rubbish food and fast food available everywhere. We miss out on so many things to snack on, the cakes and confections of life, but that saves us – our dietary principles filter out most of the fat foods on offer, because they’re usually made with animal by-products. We miss out on fashion too in many ways but that helps our pocket – the same principles filter out expensive items such as leather goods and silks and furs. Is all this a massive inconveniences? Yes, we get wet feet from wearing canvas shoes or or in the cold we have to wear a few more layers of cotton. And that may be inconvenient, but it’s nothing compared to the loss of the sheep’s own woollen coat or the cow’s very own skin. The shorn sheep suffers exposure on a cold night or sunburn on a hot day, the cow suffers death by skinning. It’s all such a messy business, the shame of abattoirs and shearing sheds and eggs from cages … we don’t need authority to tell us this is just plain wrong, and for us not to have any part in the ugly affairs of the animals industry. If we need any authorisation for our choices, we can refer to our own instinctive compassion - if it hurts an animal we mustn’t use it.