People resisting

249:

I think there’s support for veganism, in theory but not in practice. Ideally our arguments are attractive but for most omnivores they hate the idea of giving up so many things.
The logic goes something like this: we have, within vegan principles, the inspiration of non-violence, just by the sort of food we eat. At every meal I act ethically and think for myself, whereas other people obviously don’t think that’s important - they eat what they like and do and think much the same as everyone else, in regard to food. For them it isn’t important enough to break with convention.
So I have to keep returning to the drawing board to ask myself what it is I’m really facing. It isn’t just a stubborn mob of meat-heads but a difficulty most people see in front of them if they consider it at all, of taking on such a big personal repair plan. They don’t believe that changing the habits of a lifetime is possible. They do know that much of the food they eat isn’t ethically or nutritionally sound, and at the rate of about a thousand meals a year for every year they’ve lived, it spells big time damage to both body and conscience. But who wants to admit they’ve been wrong for that long?
To restore the balance, to make things right, I wouldn’t be suggesting small token changes to the shopping list since it won’t address the problem. It’s a matter of forgoing one’s favourite foods (as well as other commodities) for the sake of a higher principle. In that way one can move over into new thinking. In this case, move to another world, of plant-based foods and non-animal clothing ... and then to never look back.
Put that way it seems like a massive undertaking. But the principles vegans are suggesting not only make a lot of sense but they overturn addictions to dangerous substances, which we laughingly still call ‘food’.
For any one of us this sort of change is both exciting and daunting. As with any addictive substance, getting ‘clean’ is hard ... so usually people take the easy way out, and stick with what they know. They comply with the media and advertising messages, they go along with the displays in food shops and the nutritional advice from so called experts. Common usage of animal foods and commodities prevents the uptake of any negative information concerning animal foods or farm animal treatment. In fact almost every person with any influence in our society, be they spiritual or educational leaders, always remains silent on these issues, simply because they’re ‘users’ themselves. And they, like everyone else, are aware of the general popularity of commodities with animal origin. For them to speak out against any of this would lose them support, big time. It would ruin their position in Society and make for great personal inconvenience.
So much for those leaders of our society who live by higher principles.