Conscience

Is conscience an instinct? Certainly there’s no tangible proof it exists but we all have one and it links us in our common pursuit of ideals, happiness and enlightenment. It might have no physical presence but we all know it exists.
A numbed conscience lets us get away with things but a troubled conscience casts a dark light on some of the things we do. Is it pricking us when we buy a steak or do we feel nothing? Either sub-consciously or consciously, we presumably suffer ‘conscience pain’ unless we purposely switch it off.
Over aeons of development, the human mind has learned how to section off certain unwelcome perceptions. Animal eating is such a sensitive subject that we’ve had to find ways of reassuring ourselves about it - “it’s okay, everyone does it”.
Just to help us along, this has been manipulated by the interested parties. People, who need to make their living from us, pound us with their messages on TV, in newspapers or commercial radio. For big business, animals are the big earner. Whether customer or producer, to humans ‘animals’ are here for our benefit. Usually we only consider what we can get from them. And it’s here that the conscience is supposed to remind us of the give-&-take world, where it’s not all take. Conscience is here to remind us of the danger of taking part in animal-slavery.
People today, even educated people, convince themselves that because they haven’t been main players in the torture and murder itself, that they can’t be held accountable for what goes on “down at the farm”. But for any person with a grain of honesty about them, they know they are supporting it all with their dollars. Even though we know (or can guess) what goes on “down at the farm” we try to suppress it. We try to become the Cold Hard Bastard. The trouble comes when we meet with sensitive and kind people who ask us quite innocently how we can possibly go on supporting “The Animal Industry”.