The real friction between vegans and non-vegans is that what we avoid they relish. Even though they may be as horror-struck as vegans, they know they are incapable of speaking out about it. Fist in mouth they stand in the Quiet Club. And when things don’t feel right in the stomach and animal products feel as though they are poison, and the animal cruelty thing haunts us into self loathing, we get used to it. It’s just an every day lack of well being we’re feeling.
If we are still ‘using’, although strong genes or insensitivity may help, in terms of self respect we know we’re dead meat. By eating animals we wreck our body and disqualify ourselves as peaceniks. Whether ‘straight’ or hippy, old worlder or new ager, somewhere along the line we give up a dream.
If we’ve given away our chance to be an agent of peace in the world, it seems a sad thing that it’s because of a food attachment or a desire to have a fur wrapped around our shoulders. To a greater or lesser degree we all have blood on our hands and plenty of poison in our bodies, but our souls are bruised by it too, by this daily condoning of violence within our society, to which we all subscribe.
Every time the knife cuts the life out of an animal and we condone it by spending our money, we are also taking some of that cut - the animals’ bodies we buy slowly making us ill. Simply by ingesting animals every day (of our lives), consuming the concentrated toxins from the foods they’ve eaten plus the adrenaline of terror at the point of execution, all this conspires to weaken our immune systems. And after that we don’t stand a chance. This is why vegans simply say “keep off the stuff and keep your health (and conscience).
By not suffering under a tastebud dictatorship, vegans stand a better chance of avoiding getting hooked. But for those who aren’t vegan yet, it isn’t only the food that’s involved, there are shoes and zoos and animal tested shampoos and so much more. By spending money on the goods and services from animal slavery, we build an effective barrier to making any headway towards our own spiritual development.