The biggest battle

If the population was much closer to agreement with us (as they are over environmental matters) there would be greater support and a louder demand for reform and a greater acceptance of vegans. But animal rights isn’t like that. Animal liberation is not (at least obviously) a planet-saving solution nor is it perceived as being ‘good for us’. If something isn’t going to benefit us directly and personally we’re not as likely to agree to any personal inconvenience connected with it. It’s likely that we’ll do nothing until we have to . . . unless we grant some support for giving hens larger cages or pigs bigger pens, but that’s as far as it goes. And that’s as far from the abolition of animal slavery as anything can be. It’s so far from addressing the matter of animal rights as to make a joke of it.
This struggle we have with the popular mindset is a classic David and Goliath battle. For us to create the right atmosphere for an entire switch of attitude seems like an impossible dream. It’s almost a hopeless cause, and yet it doesn’t rest there if our final aim is to use these issues as a springboard towards building a non-violent society. If we do want a peace-loving human to emerge, if we want a transformed species of human to emerge, then we must want a world where ethics are considered before personal comfort. That will mean, at the very least, a compassionate consideration of other species. At present we stand a million miles from this.
What we have at the moment is a love of comfort. Animal foods, being one of the greatest comforters, can’t be threatened. Therefore animals themselves must be seen for what they are – as objects more than as sentient creatures. In this way we can enjoy eating them without empathising with them as individuals.