Greater good is self-benefit too

The criticism of both young and older people, for their indulgent lifestyle, seems partially true and partially misplaced. Older people react by arguing that the trouble with the world today is the young, who in turn argue that the trouble today is with the older people for causing major world problems … and so, whoever we are, we pass the buck.
For me as a cyclist I blame the car driver, for me as a wage slave I blame the rich, and so on. But really it’s a whole complex of issues that rise to the surface and make us cranky. We feel impotent because we are part of the group and the collective seems so fixed. We drive cars and we fly in planes that pollute our world. What can any individual do to stop it apart from not driving or flying? In today’s world how can we NOT take part without disadvantaging ourselves? I know if I tighten my belt and act responsibly I’ll feel resentment that others aren’t doing likewise.
Perhaps the one way each of us can get started, paying back, acting constructively and avoiding resentment is by looking at the one way in which we can make a stand without making a rod for our own back; doing something for the greater good which also happens to benefit ourselves.
Which brings us to saving the environment, our health, the animals, the economy and most importantly saving our own sense of meaningfulness, by going vegan. By not exploiting animals, by eating plant-based foods and by wearing non-animal clothing and shoes, we do something to make us and our world feel better. It helps pay back the debt we’ve collectively run up. By boycotting very many of the products on the market that are unethical it is one way we can affect the collective habit. And that might appeal to young people who don’t see how they can be otherwise constructive with their own lives. They almost certainly want to build a future and not have to adopt the ruined pleasure dome handed down by their elders.
By going vegan young people can show, by this one major gesture, how individual action can start the ball rolling.