Our conscience voice

So, here we have it, the battle between body and conscience. The battle goes on every day in our decision making. We project all the factors we can think of and then make our choice, usually in our own interest. Sometimes that choice is at the expense of animals. Could we call them ‘satisfaction decisions’ because they aren’t based on ethics?
In a subsistence environment we’d have hardly any choices to make, but in our world it’s different. We’re offered so many temptations that some things we do, and not done especially consciously, turn out to be mistakes. We follow others, we follow habits and we use autopilot. We prefer minimum thinking tasks. We like to emphasis energy-conservation. We prefer doing things the easiest way possible.
Was it for that we humans were given such good brains? Now, as couch potatoes, it makes no sense to stand for anything very much. Certainly not to get active against the majority viewpoint. Therefore we don’t question normal practice, and we don’t look at the rights and wrongs of things. We are eager followers when food tastes good. We do what we do unquestioningly, just as we’ve done for the whole of our lives. We segue into adulthood on the lubricated wheels of habit. We continue to do what we’ve been taught to do. And when that involves food most of us gladly roll over when it tickles our fancy.
So, by questioning our community on such a grand scale, as vegans do, we marginalise ourselves. We lose about 99% of our support base just by way of the food we eat. But we go further. We seem to alienate our taste-buds and pleasure-zone experiences too. We get off side with people: we seem to get off side, masochistically, with our bodies … for the sake of it?
For the sake of the animals. This is what balances it all. This is the reason for taking such a bold step. And it might be a mixture of animal compassion, the future of our children and grandchildren, or just for cheaper food bills. Whatever the reason, it’s the kick start that counts. It’s the outrage at how things are at present. It’s the cruelty, irresponsibility and waste of money. It’s being misled. Teachers, parents, doctors, VIPs, priests, rock stars, writers, academics – they don’t stand up, so we are misled by each and every leader (with notable exceptions). We’ve been led astray to such an extent that we might want to put that right before we do anything else. And the first step is to step away, to disassociate … which brings us back to the animal question: the excesses of animal abuse and the vested interests, who win at the expense of the gullible consumer. Our conscience is our guide.