313:
In the West we live comfortably enough but many of us are confined in an attitude prison where human-centred consideration outweighs any other consideration. We trash the planet and we dominate animals ... for our own benefit. We enjoy the fruits of our exploitations. We like what civilisation has given us, but we’re compromised by comfort. We’re too soft to make any principled decisions so we don’t live in harmony with anything especially if it’s outside the human realm.
Being trapped by comfort is rather like being born into the bottom of a pit with steep, slippery sides. There’s no chance we can climb out since we’re weighed down by our addiction to pleasure and the measure of happiness it brings. If we’re happy to stay where we are or we’ve given up trying to escape we know we can still survive in a human-biased bubble in which we don’t have to think too deeply about where we are or what we’re doing, as long as it’s comfortable.
The most trapping habit is our violence-based use of Animal Industry products, mainly for food. I’m sure people would, in theory, like to be free of it, but they don’t realise how trapped they are, especially by their need for comfort food. They choose to stay with what they know.
If I get the opportunity to talk about self-improvement, talk about escape, I might get some people to listen. But for everyone listening far more prefer not to. They don’t want to be told anything which is discomforting and of course if I say anything at all about animals used for food it evokes uncomfortable feelings of guilt and squeamishness. But there’s another factor involved - where, even though some are willing to forgo a little comfort for the sake of self improvement, they don’t want to feel as though they’ve been pushed into change. If they’re going to change they’ll want to do it at their own pace.
Your regular vegan response might be, “What? Leave it to them to decide if and when? Too slow, too slow”. And if any sort of psychological pressure is applied to the reluctant-changer, they’ll dig their heels in and tell us, “There’s nothing worse than being morally blackmailed into 'self-improvement'”.
So ... do people really want to change as much as vegans would want them to change? It’s doubtful. If I start speaking to anyone about intensive farming or abattoirs I see their eyes glaze over and know I’m saying too much. At first they might seem interested but it occurs to me that they simply want to improve their life in the pit, not actually escape from it. Probably they fear landing up in the fringes (like vegans appear to have done) ... so, they don’t want to learn uncomfortable facts or make too many radical changes, especially concerning their comfort foods. They want the best of both worlds, and in the end maybe they want to preserve their free-will most of all, but it’s a no-win situation for most people, they are torn between holding back and moving forward.
Some, however, will be almost ready to move on. They’ll want to find out, but eventually they’ll see that it’s not as quick a fix as they first thought. A dilemma - they’re attracted to the idea of self improvement, even outraged by what they find out about animals and animal foods … but, all things considered, they may not like the idea of having fewer food and clothing choices. They mightn’t like the idea of so much hard work in changing so many things about their lifestyle.
Moving on may not look so attractive. The would-be vegans look about them, their health is okay, their life is okay, they don’t have to confront face-to-face animal torture, so the idea of no-change doesn’t seem so bad after all - the comforts, the social acceptability, the normality. The decision to change is put off or thrown into the too-hard basket.
When the vegan missionary leaves and the horror stories fade, they sink back into their old familiar, cushioned pit.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Boycotting wins no friends
311:
Animal rights is about introducing values unheard of before. Most omnivores haven’t even considered that animals deserve ‘the right to a life’. Vegans, busy pursuing their own sense of responsibility, leave their friends behind. Their omnivore friends, more self-protective, aren’t as interested in developing a new value system. But, knowing today what they know, they are faced with a moral dilemma. They can’t convince themselves that what vegans are saying is not true.
Some animals are well known to be exploited - the hen, laying battery eggs in a cage; the chimpanzee, going insane in a science lab; the breeding sow, held in an ‘iron maiden’ sow stall; the dairy cow, turned into a milk-making machine. Today we know things about animal cruelty that weren’t widely known about forty years ago, and most people are distressed when they do get to know about it. But how strange, it doesn’t seem to change their eating habits. Perhaps this shows just how strong the impulse is, to not alter our food regime unless it’s to our own advantage, or not to choose a lifestyle which will separate us from others. But the more we learn the harder it is to be comfortable about our choices.
The whole idea that vegans are putting forward highlights this dilemma. We seem to inflict guilt just by bringing up animal issues ... which is why most people want to avoid us.
So we vegans might be lonely because we’re avoided and lonely because we deliberately disassociate from the lifestyle shared by almost everyone else - we not only boycott many products sold in shops (to our own considerable inconvenience) but boycott social events like barbeques, dinner parties and restaurants, and for this we’re likely to be disliked ... which is why we need to find a way of dealing with this loneliness and vilification.
We all suffer (the omnivore from guilt and chronic illnesses, the vegan from alienation) but for us there are special advantages - it’s great that we’re into self-improvement, great that we stand up to the hypocrisy in Society ... but we have to take into account our need for other people. And this comes down to our approach and how we advocate for animals - how do we advocate strenuously whilst not necessarily going on the attack, how we remain friendly with those we’d much rather be in judgement of.
The big question for us is surely how we stay emotionally neutral and not feel depressed when the people we know avoid us or avoid talking about this subject?
Animal rights is about introducing values unheard of before. Most omnivores haven’t even considered that animals deserve ‘the right to a life’. Vegans, busy pursuing their own sense of responsibility, leave their friends behind. Their omnivore friends, more self-protective, aren’t as interested in developing a new value system. But, knowing today what they know, they are faced with a moral dilemma. They can’t convince themselves that what vegans are saying is not true.
Some animals are well known to be exploited - the hen, laying battery eggs in a cage; the chimpanzee, going insane in a science lab; the breeding sow, held in an ‘iron maiden’ sow stall; the dairy cow, turned into a milk-making machine. Today we know things about animal cruelty that weren’t widely known about forty years ago, and most people are distressed when they do get to know about it. But how strange, it doesn’t seem to change their eating habits. Perhaps this shows just how strong the impulse is, to not alter our food regime unless it’s to our own advantage, or not to choose a lifestyle which will separate us from others. But the more we learn the harder it is to be comfortable about our choices.
The whole idea that vegans are putting forward highlights this dilemma. We seem to inflict guilt just by bringing up animal issues ... which is why most people want to avoid us.
So we vegans might be lonely because we’re avoided and lonely because we deliberately disassociate from the lifestyle shared by almost everyone else - we not only boycott many products sold in shops (to our own considerable inconvenience) but boycott social events like barbeques, dinner parties and restaurants, and for this we’re likely to be disliked ... which is why we need to find a way of dealing with this loneliness and vilification.
We all suffer (the omnivore from guilt and chronic illnesses, the vegan from alienation) but for us there are special advantages - it’s great that we’re into self-improvement, great that we stand up to the hypocrisy in Society ... but we have to take into account our need for other people. And this comes down to our approach and how we advocate for animals - how do we advocate strenuously whilst not necessarily going on the attack, how we remain friendly with those we’d much rather be in judgement of.
The big question for us is surely how we stay emotionally neutral and not feel depressed when the people we know avoid us or avoid talking about this subject?
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Ah, but the loneliness!!
309:
What’s it like being an animal activist, someone who wants animals to have a life but whose words fall on deaf ears? With almost everyone chomping away on their meat and various animal secretions nobody seems to be listening. No one is interested in anyone who seems to be denying them their pleasures.
As vegans, we know how it feels to be alone but perhaps it’s essential, because it lets us empathise more closely with animals. It helps us not to forget that domesticated animals are not only alone but at the mercy of violent humans. It’s no consolation though, for us personally, when we realise the apathy and silence of most people around us. I can’t help seeing this hardness of outlook, even in dear friends. I can see them desperately trying to shield themselves from taking a ‘soft’ view. They’re harder than I want them to be or even they want to be. They won’t communicate with their soft side for fear of what they might become.
I want to be an advocate for animals but I do want to feel close to my friends. However, at this point in time, it seems one must be sacrificed for the other. The louder I speak up the sooner my friends seem to turn off and walk away.
I don’t underestimate the pain of being marginalised. I know it could be dangerous to feel so alone. It may drive me crazy but I also know that, more dangerously, my need for acceptance might tempt me back to my old idiot-ways.
I have to tell myself that if I’m serious about ‘the greater good’ I have to find ways of NOT feeling alone and not feeling that it’s all pointless. It helps to know other vegans, it helps perhaps to meet up with a whole bunch of animal rights activists on a Tuesday night. But in reality, we all live apart. We’re on our own. This is one big personal challenge for most vegans - not in the changing of our diet but the facing up to a diminished social life and a shortage of simpatico companions.
What’s it like being an animal activist, someone who wants animals to have a life but whose words fall on deaf ears? With almost everyone chomping away on their meat and various animal secretions nobody seems to be listening. No one is interested in anyone who seems to be denying them their pleasures.
As vegans, we know how it feels to be alone but perhaps it’s essential, because it lets us empathise more closely with animals. It helps us not to forget that domesticated animals are not only alone but at the mercy of violent humans. It’s no consolation though, for us personally, when we realise the apathy and silence of most people around us. I can’t help seeing this hardness of outlook, even in dear friends. I can see them desperately trying to shield themselves from taking a ‘soft’ view. They’re harder than I want them to be or even they want to be. They won’t communicate with their soft side for fear of what they might become.
I want to be an advocate for animals but I do want to feel close to my friends. However, at this point in time, it seems one must be sacrificed for the other. The louder I speak up the sooner my friends seem to turn off and walk away.
I don’t underestimate the pain of being marginalised. I know it could be dangerous to feel so alone. It may drive me crazy but I also know that, more dangerously, my need for acceptance might tempt me back to my old idiot-ways.
I have to tell myself that if I’m serious about ‘the greater good’ I have to find ways of NOT feeling alone and not feeling that it’s all pointless. It helps to know other vegans, it helps perhaps to meet up with a whole bunch of animal rights activists on a Tuesday night. But in reality, we all live apart. We’re on our own. This is one big personal challenge for most vegans - not in the changing of our diet but the facing up to a diminished social life and a shortage of simpatico companions.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Style
307:
My conscience may call on morality, but it’s not its only driving force and I’m not keen on the idea of morality when it has so much ugly association with god botherers and goodness-preachers. I’d like my conscience to take a constructive path and avoid the bad and insincere as one would avoid foul-smelling air, but I’m aware that ‘being good’ is still very much about brownie points, which I haven’t any interest in – ideally, my truth pie has to have ingredients like panache and style.
In a vegan lifestyle I see a smoother operation - the body itself is usually functioning in top form simply because it isn’t being daily poisoned by animal stuff. I feel that my mind too is inspired by the sophisticated idea of it rather than the dull focusing on bald goodness or sensible healthiness. I don’t want to just ‘do right’ but do right things more easily. I’m happier being in a more gentle relationship with my environment. It’s most proved for me when everything that can respond back does so, positively and in a gentler style.
Vegan lifestyle is stepping beyond the tempting world of commodities in order to become free to develop a number of things, not the least of which is style ... and that comes with sensitive thinking and sensitive attitudes. I notice it in myself, when I’m not for ever tripping over guilt and grubby attitudes, especially those which regularly concern favourite foods made by the animal-death-industry. For me personally, as a vegan, this is the really great advantage of my lifestyle - but I admit that it’s frustrating that I can’t say this without sounding ‘up’ myself.
When I’m advocating for animals I’m also hoping to set ‘style’. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not rubbishing a bit of old fashioned morality, it’s just that I like to think morality is a stepping stone to more interesting things. Morality is a good reference point, like having rules when you’re playing a sport. Then it’s a matter of honesty. The honourable sports-player plays a straight game and enjoys playing by the rules. The problem, as I see it, with evangelical preachers preaching unvarnished morality is that they always kill the enjoyment. They have to make pleasure sinful, and in terms of vegan principle if it’s made into a strictness it certainly loses its attractiveness.
Morality, ethical upbringing, values, they’re guides, pointing out the right direction, but we’re heading towards more sophisticated ways of living and decision-making these days . “Thou shalt not eat meat” isn’t inspiring, whereas “Lighten up - be vegan” seems to be worth investigating. It’s more attractive and just as moral.
My conscience may call on morality, but it’s not its only driving force and I’m not keen on the idea of morality when it has so much ugly association with god botherers and goodness-preachers. I’d like my conscience to take a constructive path and avoid the bad and insincere as one would avoid foul-smelling air, but I’m aware that ‘being good’ is still very much about brownie points, which I haven’t any interest in – ideally, my truth pie has to have ingredients like panache and style.
In a vegan lifestyle I see a smoother operation - the body itself is usually functioning in top form simply because it isn’t being daily poisoned by animal stuff. I feel that my mind too is inspired by the sophisticated idea of it rather than the dull focusing on bald goodness or sensible healthiness. I don’t want to just ‘do right’ but do right things more easily. I’m happier being in a more gentle relationship with my environment. It’s most proved for me when everything that can respond back does so, positively and in a gentler style.
Vegan lifestyle is stepping beyond the tempting world of commodities in order to become free to develop a number of things, not the least of which is style ... and that comes with sensitive thinking and sensitive attitudes. I notice it in myself, when I’m not for ever tripping over guilt and grubby attitudes, especially those which regularly concern favourite foods made by the animal-death-industry. For me personally, as a vegan, this is the really great advantage of my lifestyle - but I admit that it’s frustrating that I can’t say this without sounding ‘up’ myself.
When I’m advocating for animals I’m also hoping to set ‘style’. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not rubbishing a bit of old fashioned morality, it’s just that I like to think morality is a stepping stone to more interesting things. Morality is a good reference point, like having rules when you’re playing a sport. Then it’s a matter of honesty. The honourable sports-player plays a straight game and enjoys playing by the rules. The problem, as I see it, with evangelical preachers preaching unvarnished morality is that they always kill the enjoyment. They have to make pleasure sinful, and in terms of vegan principle if it’s made into a strictness it certainly loses its attractiveness.
Morality, ethical upbringing, values, they’re guides, pointing out the right direction, but we’re heading towards more sophisticated ways of living and decision-making these days . “Thou shalt not eat meat” isn’t inspiring, whereas “Lighten up - be vegan” seems to be worth investigating. It’s more attractive and just as moral.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Experiments in imagination
305:
Imagine what it would be like to ‘go vegan’, trying to give things up but always finding it to be an effort - if it was like that we’d surely, eventually feel like giving up and going back to easier ways.
But isn’t that the characteristic of any experiment – finding out whether it is worth putting in the effort and going on, in order to eventually reach a time when it’s no longer such an effort? Once over that hurdle then experiments become all-interesting. I suppose all people want to get to that stage. when they start out on any discipline.
I remember when I first contemplated veganism I’d ask myself if expending the initial energy (to get over the inertia) was worth it. But there’s a double hurdle for vegans, because there’s a huge weight of opinion set against us, trying to drag us back to convention. Vegans are in danger of being scuppered not only by a lack of support, not only by others’ inaction but by open hindrance.
In an ideal world we’d be simply pioneering, setting an example and others inevitably following - ‘vegans doing the right thing’, others alongside lightening the load. But that certainly isn’t the case for most of us, not right now anyway.
So, to break this cycle, to turn things around, to be experimenting rather than always watching one’s back, I found it best to approach this great lifestyle change as if I were forging my own philosophy. I was conducting a big experiment in order to feel a more exciting and effective energy flowing through me. I felt as if I were letting imagination play a part in linking self development with self discipline.
By going vegan I discovered my own potential for jumping the hurdles, for ‘making the effort’, without having to first be certain of anything - it was being done in the true spirit of experimenting, by not needing outside help to confirm my decisions or to keep me on track.
Imagine what it would be like to ‘go vegan’, trying to give things up but always finding it to be an effort - if it was like that we’d surely, eventually feel like giving up and going back to easier ways.
But isn’t that the characteristic of any experiment – finding out whether it is worth putting in the effort and going on, in order to eventually reach a time when it’s no longer such an effort? Once over that hurdle then experiments become all-interesting. I suppose all people want to get to that stage. when they start out on any discipline.
I remember when I first contemplated veganism I’d ask myself if expending the initial energy (to get over the inertia) was worth it. But there’s a double hurdle for vegans, because there’s a huge weight of opinion set against us, trying to drag us back to convention. Vegans are in danger of being scuppered not only by a lack of support, not only by others’ inaction but by open hindrance.
In an ideal world we’d be simply pioneering, setting an example and others inevitably following - ‘vegans doing the right thing’, others alongside lightening the load. But that certainly isn’t the case for most of us, not right now anyway.
So, to break this cycle, to turn things around, to be experimenting rather than always watching one’s back, I found it best to approach this great lifestyle change as if I were forging my own philosophy. I was conducting a big experiment in order to feel a more exciting and effective energy flowing through me. I felt as if I were letting imagination play a part in linking self development with self discipline.
By going vegan I discovered my own potential for jumping the hurdles, for ‘making the effort’, without having to first be certain of anything - it was being done in the true spirit of experimenting, by not needing outside help to confirm my decisions or to keep me on track.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Imaginary companions
301:
The struggle to stand firm in the face of temptation isn’t merely one of disciplined decision-making but in finding a reason to be disciplined. For me, this reasoning is based upon the prioritising of issues in my own mind, where I sort out what is the most urgent thing needing my attention ... concerning the major issues of the day. I’m for ever asking myself “What am I going to do about it?”
Animal Rights figures large. Is it my own claustrophobia or my empathy with innocent little creatures that leads me to want to defend imprisoned animals? Whatever it is, it’s very clear and strong and urgent, leading me to boycott anything to do with cruelty to animals. If I’m going to do anything, I want to be effective and I don’t want to fail at it, so it’s a toss-up between making a big gesture (going vegan) and going in so hard that I risk not being able to continue with it.
When I ‘went vegan’, perhaps I feared it would inevitably drive me crazy, craving all these ‘prohibited’ things and not allowing myself any of them.
People often ask me if I’m “allowed to eat” certain things and I always say, “I can eat what I like. It’s my own choice. There’s no authority watching over me”. I’m sure other vegans get asked that a lot too. But to be able to say that you’re ‘a vegan’ you have to actually be it and stay it.
I know that I stay vegan by tapping into my sense of purpose and vision of a future in harmony with animals. But I stay vegan for other reasons. Now, this might sound a bit weird but it’s the best I can come up with. I like to think I have the ‘little people’ living on my shoulders … whispering in my ear … suggesting great possibilities and telling me things I can do. Now that I’m ‘clean’ (i.e. vegan), I can afford to hear them. I can use my imagination. And I know others can’t, not in the same way, if only because that can’t afford to hear ... most of them being omnivores or worse. They can’t go around condemning an abusive world because they’re condoning it. They’re caught up in it. They haven’t contemplated going vegan. They still think it’s absurd. They couldn’t even allow ‘such absurdity’ to enter their heads. They opt to stay where they’ve always been.
These omnivores love their animal products and tell anyone they know who is vegan “You don’t know what you’re missing”. But we know they can’t hear the ‘little people’ (and would think me quite mad if I were to mention them).
For me, it would be these ‘little people’ who do a lot of the difficult work for me - they suggest I take notice of things I could easily have missed. They alert my conscience when I’m in danger of doing something I don’t need to. I imagine ‘the little people’ as coming from another world, directly accessible through my conscience. Once my conscience is fired up it’s a bit like tuning into a radio station - I find ‘them’ and use ‘them’ and listen to ‘them’.
Whether you acknowledge such things or not, you’d probably agree that the whole matter of ‘the unknown’ interests most people. We’re all attracted to the unknown, ‘the possible-though-seemingly-improbable’. There’s nothing I like better than peering into the unknowable future, and in preparation projecting anything which might benefit our children’s’ generation and their welfare. The unknowable tempts me away from conforming to convention. The rationale here is, I suppose, that since conventional ways have gotten us into today’s mess, the opposite may well get us out of it.
Imagine this if you will: the world is dying from unimaginativeness. So, I like to cultivate imagination. Un-imaginative the ‘little people’ are not, indeed I think they embody imagination and have an overwhelming impulse to guide us by way of it. But they’re rough teachers, their guidance is full of fun and mischief, tripping me up when I get above myself, pushing me beyond my comfort zone, working for my best interests but they’re ever-ready to do ‘mischief’ if I ever drop my guard. I imagine them as elders, tough in order to keep standards high.
As I walk barefoot along a safe, sandy beach feeling rather self-important, I stub my toe on a rock. I’m angry. I’m cursing the bastards who made me do it ... but it’s only the ‘little people’, squatting on my shoulder, reminding me, sometimes painfully, not to get carried away with thoughts of self importance.
Imagining them into existence is similar to imagining ideas into reality. Learning from the ‘little people’ is like watching ideas grow until they’re independent of imagination.
Stubbing my toe on a rock I see the need for change, for growth in myself. Change needs exhilarating bursts of fresh energy. If change is too slow it will whimper along, never building up enough momentum, always held back by mistake after mistake. If I relax too often I’ll be constantly clobbered by the ‘little people’. They’ll scream with mischievous delight whenever I’m being idle or showing no gratitude for what’s on offer. When I’m not looking they’ll lay a rock in front of me, to stub my toe on.
The struggle to stand firm in the face of temptation isn’t merely one of disciplined decision-making but in finding a reason to be disciplined. For me, this reasoning is based upon the prioritising of issues in my own mind, where I sort out what is the most urgent thing needing my attention ... concerning the major issues of the day. I’m for ever asking myself “What am I going to do about it?”
Animal Rights figures large. Is it my own claustrophobia or my empathy with innocent little creatures that leads me to want to defend imprisoned animals? Whatever it is, it’s very clear and strong and urgent, leading me to boycott anything to do with cruelty to animals. If I’m going to do anything, I want to be effective and I don’t want to fail at it, so it’s a toss-up between making a big gesture (going vegan) and going in so hard that I risk not being able to continue with it.
When I ‘went vegan’, perhaps I feared it would inevitably drive me crazy, craving all these ‘prohibited’ things and not allowing myself any of them.
People often ask me if I’m “allowed to eat” certain things and I always say, “I can eat what I like. It’s my own choice. There’s no authority watching over me”. I’m sure other vegans get asked that a lot too. But to be able to say that you’re ‘a vegan’ you have to actually be it and stay it.
I know that I stay vegan by tapping into my sense of purpose and vision of a future in harmony with animals. But I stay vegan for other reasons. Now, this might sound a bit weird but it’s the best I can come up with. I like to think I have the ‘little people’ living on my shoulders … whispering in my ear … suggesting great possibilities and telling me things I can do. Now that I’m ‘clean’ (i.e. vegan), I can afford to hear them. I can use my imagination. And I know others can’t, not in the same way, if only because that can’t afford to hear ... most of them being omnivores or worse. They can’t go around condemning an abusive world because they’re condoning it. They’re caught up in it. They haven’t contemplated going vegan. They still think it’s absurd. They couldn’t even allow ‘such absurdity’ to enter their heads. They opt to stay where they’ve always been.
These omnivores love their animal products and tell anyone they know who is vegan “You don’t know what you’re missing”. But we know they can’t hear the ‘little people’ (and would think me quite mad if I were to mention them).
For me, it would be these ‘little people’ who do a lot of the difficult work for me - they suggest I take notice of things I could easily have missed. They alert my conscience when I’m in danger of doing something I don’t need to. I imagine ‘the little people’ as coming from another world, directly accessible through my conscience. Once my conscience is fired up it’s a bit like tuning into a radio station - I find ‘them’ and use ‘them’ and listen to ‘them’.
Whether you acknowledge such things or not, you’d probably agree that the whole matter of ‘the unknown’ interests most people. We’re all attracted to the unknown, ‘the possible-though-seemingly-improbable’. There’s nothing I like better than peering into the unknowable future, and in preparation projecting anything which might benefit our children’s’ generation and their welfare. The unknowable tempts me away from conforming to convention. The rationale here is, I suppose, that since conventional ways have gotten us into today’s mess, the opposite may well get us out of it.
Imagine this if you will: the world is dying from unimaginativeness. So, I like to cultivate imagination. Un-imaginative the ‘little people’ are not, indeed I think they embody imagination and have an overwhelming impulse to guide us by way of it. But they’re rough teachers, their guidance is full of fun and mischief, tripping me up when I get above myself, pushing me beyond my comfort zone, working for my best interests but they’re ever-ready to do ‘mischief’ if I ever drop my guard. I imagine them as elders, tough in order to keep standards high.
As I walk barefoot along a safe, sandy beach feeling rather self-important, I stub my toe on a rock. I’m angry. I’m cursing the bastards who made me do it ... but it’s only the ‘little people’, squatting on my shoulder, reminding me, sometimes painfully, not to get carried away with thoughts of self importance.
Imagining them into existence is similar to imagining ideas into reality. Learning from the ‘little people’ is like watching ideas grow until they’re independent of imagination.
Stubbing my toe on a rock I see the need for change, for growth in myself. Change needs exhilarating bursts of fresh energy. If change is too slow it will whimper along, never building up enough momentum, always held back by mistake after mistake. If I relax too often I’ll be constantly clobbered by the ‘little people’. They’ll scream with mischievous delight whenever I’m being idle or showing no gratitude for what’s on offer. When I’m not looking they’ll lay a rock in front of me, to stub my toe on.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
The power of food
298:
What the Animal Industries may NOT realise is that a strong counter-culture is gaining ground. People are beginning to wake up to the fact that animal products are dangerous as well as immoral. We know food is obviously essential to life … but not this food. If animal-derived foods are anything, they’re toxic and unethical and detrimental to the environment, and yet almost everyone remains an omnivore. They’re seduced by roast dinners, egg and bacon breakfasts or after-dinner ice cream. They can’t walk past a cake shop without paying a visit.
We can’t get past our own tastebuds and food-tastes. We’re hemmed in by our social eating habits. If we go against eating norms then social relationships are affected, whereas if we eat from the same table we’re accepted.
For people like vegans social isolation is a potent punishment, simply because we eat different food. Perhaps people think we are trying to be better than everyone else. Whether that’s fair or not it happens that way ... but it shouldn’t make any vegan feel insecure or depressed, after all we’ve looked carefully at our own habits and decided to make changes which go against majority opinion. We boycott products and condemn the industries who make their business out of animal exploitation ... and most of us are thankful we’ve gone vegan despite the struggle. One might argue that some life-struggle is good for us, since it develops appreciation for what we have, contributing to a strength in our personality with which we’ll have no trouble attracting people towards us … and eventually towards our ideas. We develop a personality that seems unique and sovereign, and which acknowledges others’ sovereign right to a life. We recognise the unique individual in each other, who is worth something in their own right. If that does nothing else for us it should give us self confidence, enough perhaps to combat the social isolation that being vegan brings. It helps us lead the fashion and not follow it. It says to us, “Yes, go ahead, boycott, do what is necessary and right, and don’t back off when things get rough”. And this is the same confidence that says “no” when we’re tempted.
If that strength of character is a bit lacking in our world, and if people do keep giving in to exactly what the brain-washers have programmed us to want, then our biggest problems are ones concerning conformity. If we are giving in to social pressure to be the same as others we have to consciously go against our better judgement, our wanting to stand firm. And that, perhaps more than anything else, erodes self esteem and self-confidence, proving that we haven’t been able to stand up to the power of food.
What the Animal Industries may NOT realise is that a strong counter-culture is gaining ground. People are beginning to wake up to the fact that animal products are dangerous as well as immoral. We know food is obviously essential to life … but not this food. If animal-derived foods are anything, they’re toxic and unethical and detrimental to the environment, and yet almost everyone remains an omnivore. They’re seduced by roast dinners, egg and bacon breakfasts or after-dinner ice cream. They can’t walk past a cake shop without paying a visit.
We can’t get past our own tastebuds and food-tastes. We’re hemmed in by our social eating habits. If we go against eating norms then social relationships are affected, whereas if we eat from the same table we’re accepted.
For people like vegans social isolation is a potent punishment, simply because we eat different food. Perhaps people think we are trying to be better than everyone else. Whether that’s fair or not it happens that way ... but it shouldn’t make any vegan feel insecure or depressed, after all we’ve looked carefully at our own habits and decided to make changes which go against majority opinion. We boycott products and condemn the industries who make their business out of animal exploitation ... and most of us are thankful we’ve gone vegan despite the struggle. One might argue that some life-struggle is good for us, since it develops appreciation for what we have, contributing to a strength in our personality with which we’ll have no trouble attracting people towards us … and eventually towards our ideas. We develop a personality that seems unique and sovereign, and which acknowledges others’ sovereign right to a life. We recognise the unique individual in each other, who is worth something in their own right. If that does nothing else for us it should give us self confidence, enough perhaps to combat the social isolation that being vegan brings. It helps us lead the fashion and not follow it. It says to us, “Yes, go ahead, boycott, do what is necessary and right, and don’t back off when things get rough”. And this is the same confidence that says “no” when we’re tempted.
If that strength of character is a bit lacking in our world, and if people do keep giving in to exactly what the brain-washers have programmed us to want, then our biggest problems are ones concerning conformity. If we are giving in to social pressure to be the same as others we have to consciously go against our better judgement, our wanting to stand firm. And that, perhaps more than anything else, erodes self esteem and self-confidence, proving that we haven’t been able to stand up to the power of food.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Hand in hand
296:
The Animal Rights movement doesn’t have funding or pro bono help from top-level professionals. We can’t compete with the exploiters’ wealth.
They have all the material advantages. They own the media and advertising industries. They can buy whoever they please. They legally sell addictive food substances to the public. Their researchers tell them how far they can push the customer. On this level, veganism can’t win people over. We have to go the longer way around, at least at this stage.
All omnivorous humans in the rich Western world are having such a good time indulging in animal stuff that you can hardly expect they’d want to spoil their fun. They don’t want to think about food, just eat it and enjoy it. They’d rather not know about animal exploitation ... and they’re grateful it’s done behind closed doors.
In this respect our whole society is like a mutual encouragement club – the customer goes along with what the exploiters do, just so long as their favourite animal products are available for purchase. It’s a classic drug dealing system - there’s a co-dependency between dealer and client. We all get what we want and it’s in everyone’s interest not to welsh on the other.
But if our providers give us satisfaction, they also own us. If we continue buying their products we’ll have less and less chance of weaning ourselves off them. How seductive their product is ... but when you look at it more closely, it’s just smoke and mirrors, it’s as unattractive as it is attractive. One’s attachment crumbles as soon as we puff some resistance at it. And that resistance comes from a deeper, more passionate, compassionate inner self - something we can be proud of but something we often find reason to keep locked up.
If we do decide to rouse this sleeping compassion it’s obvious what we have to do - drop the lot, drop everything connected with animals. Once we become vegan a whole new opportunity to educate others arises. Suddenly we find ourselves in a strong position to speak up about something we’ve perhaps suppressed for a long time - the ‘animal problem’. Up to this point we’ve been unable to defend animals because we’ve still been eating them.
By boycotting animal produce we can reduce the impact of the exploiters and effectively help to put them out of business. Surely that’s a noble enough cause ... but food addiction is like a lump of concrete in our gut. The food binds body and mind more than we realise. All of our life we’ve been ‘doing it’ - we salivate at the very thought of something delicious to eat (activating the reward system of the brain, rather like a ‘dopamine reaction’). Shopping isn’t just a chore, food shopping is something else. It becomes part of our day-out, going in to the malls, supermarkets and even the corner shop to get our fix. They provide us with our treats and little food luxuries. It’s here we plan our meals and eat snacks along the way. Our providers display, at eye level, the most popular products they know we want. And the customer knows what (especially the animal foods) they are buying will soon enough be the main ingredient of a meal which will be enjoyed by others too. The foods on display, that we drool over, are guaranteed to act to bring us communal pleasure and social acceptance - ‘eating together to stay together’. It’s a powerful reason to forget about the animals and emphasise the need to feed ourselves and others with what pleases us.
The Animal Rights movement doesn’t have funding or pro bono help from top-level professionals. We can’t compete with the exploiters’ wealth.
They have all the material advantages. They own the media and advertising industries. They can buy whoever they please. They legally sell addictive food substances to the public. Their researchers tell them how far they can push the customer. On this level, veganism can’t win people over. We have to go the longer way around, at least at this stage.
All omnivorous humans in the rich Western world are having such a good time indulging in animal stuff that you can hardly expect they’d want to spoil their fun. They don’t want to think about food, just eat it and enjoy it. They’d rather not know about animal exploitation ... and they’re grateful it’s done behind closed doors.
In this respect our whole society is like a mutual encouragement club – the customer goes along with what the exploiters do, just so long as their favourite animal products are available for purchase. It’s a classic drug dealing system - there’s a co-dependency between dealer and client. We all get what we want and it’s in everyone’s interest not to welsh on the other.
But if our providers give us satisfaction, they also own us. If we continue buying their products we’ll have less and less chance of weaning ourselves off them. How seductive their product is ... but when you look at it more closely, it’s just smoke and mirrors, it’s as unattractive as it is attractive. One’s attachment crumbles as soon as we puff some resistance at it. And that resistance comes from a deeper, more passionate, compassionate inner self - something we can be proud of but something we often find reason to keep locked up.
If we do decide to rouse this sleeping compassion it’s obvious what we have to do - drop the lot, drop everything connected with animals. Once we become vegan a whole new opportunity to educate others arises. Suddenly we find ourselves in a strong position to speak up about something we’ve perhaps suppressed for a long time - the ‘animal problem’. Up to this point we’ve been unable to defend animals because we’ve still been eating them.
By boycotting animal produce we can reduce the impact of the exploiters and effectively help to put them out of business. Surely that’s a noble enough cause ... but food addiction is like a lump of concrete in our gut. The food binds body and mind more than we realise. All of our life we’ve been ‘doing it’ - we salivate at the very thought of something delicious to eat (activating the reward system of the brain, rather like a ‘dopamine reaction’). Shopping isn’t just a chore, food shopping is something else. It becomes part of our day-out, going in to the malls, supermarkets and even the corner shop to get our fix. They provide us with our treats and little food luxuries. It’s here we plan our meals and eat snacks along the way. Our providers display, at eye level, the most popular products they know we want. And the customer knows what (especially the animal foods) they are buying will soon enough be the main ingredient of a meal which will be enjoyed by others too. The foods on display, that we drool over, are guaranteed to act to bring us communal pleasure and social acceptance - ‘eating together to stay together’. It’s a powerful reason to forget about the animals and emphasise the need to feed ourselves and others with what pleases us.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
The animals’ revenge
295:
I’m glad not to be part of the exploiter class, even though I sometimes work for them and see the splendour of their houses, cars, fine clothes and expensive belongings. I’m also glad not to be too closely involved with political corporations, which aren’t too fussy about the ‘natural resources’ they exploit. The corporations and those who run them - for them, rule number one is to succeed or perish. They face fierce competition from each other, and if they don’t succeed they let down their shareholders. In some ways they have many advantages, in other ways their lives are unenviable.
Today’s shareholders in the animal food and clothing industries demand good profits. Business-wise, they attempt to monopolise their market by sending competitors broke if they can. They conserve their assets, expand at every opportunity and play every dirty trick in the book to keep their advantage … in that way they stay afloat and keep their customers happy. They are the producers: we the consumers ... and especially ‘all-consuming’ when it comes to food. We buy items that are, to some extent, addictive. Our addiction to our favourite ‘animal’ foods (or other animal products we ‘can’t live without’) is essential to the welfare of the Industry but there’s another nasty twist, that all this producing and consuming and enjoying is The Animals’ Revenge. It may be so that, by consuming the (stolen) body parts of animals, there’s a creeping deterioration in our metabolism. If we ingest them and get used to them, we pay … in more ways than one. Animal products are excellent health destroyers and therefore good for keeping doctors in business. Perhaps that’s why most of them don’t advise their patients to avoid them or even to follow a vegan diet.
Animal foods are profitable to the exploiters but just as certainly not so good for the humans who consume them. We, along with the hapless animals, are simply victims. But, to some extent, we humans can look after ourselves. We can learn and we can change since we aren’t entirely enslaved, whereas the domesticated animal is helpless. Entirely. Vegans are calling for a stop to it because it’s unhealthy and suicidal but more so because animals can’t defend themselves against human attack. It’s bullying in its worst form. We act as parasites on the animals and for a so called advanced species this is a shameful act - the strong made strong by making the weak weaker. I, for one, am so glad to be shot of it, to disassociate from all that.
I’m glad not to be part of the exploiter class, even though I sometimes work for them and see the splendour of their houses, cars, fine clothes and expensive belongings. I’m also glad not to be too closely involved with political corporations, which aren’t too fussy about the ‘natural resources’ they exploit. The corporations and those who run them - for them, rule number one is to succeed or perish. They face fierce competition from each other, and if they don’t succeed they let down their shareholders. In some ways they have many advantages, in other ways their lives are unenviable.
Today’s shareholders in the animal food and clothing industries demand good profits. Business-wise, they attempt to monopolise their market by sending competitors broke if they can. They conserve their assets, expand at every opportunity and play every dirty trick in the book to keep their advantage … in that way they stay afloat and keep their customers happy. They are the producers: we the consumers ... and especially ‘all-consuming’ when it comes to food. We buy items that are, to some extent, addictive. Our addiction to our favourite ‘animal’ foods (or other animal products we ‘can’t live without’) is essential to the welfare of the Industry but there’s another nasty twist, that all this producing and consuming and enjoying is The Animals’ Revenge. It may be so that, by consuming the (stolen) body parts of animals, there’s a creeping deterioration in our metabolism. If we ingest them and get used to them, we pay … in more ways than one. Animal products are excellent health destroyers and therefore good for keeping doctors in business. Perhaps that’s why most of them don’t advise their patients to avoid them or even to follow a vegan diet.
Animal foods are profitable to the exploiters but just as certainly not so good for the humans who consume them. We, along with the hapless animals, are simply victims. But, to some extent, we humans can look after ourselves. We can learn and we can change since we aren’t entirely enslaved, whereas the domesticated animal is helpless. Entirely. Vegans are calling for a stop to it because it’s unhealthy and suicidal but more so because animals can’t defend themselves against human attack. It’s bullying in its worst form. We act as parasites on the animals and for a so called advanced species this is a shameful act - the strong made strong by making the weak weaker. I, for one, am so glad to be shot of it, to disassociate from all that.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Soul food
291:
Eating animals: “But they have no souls so it’s okay”. “They don’t feel things as we do”. “They can’t reflect on their situation or see up ahead to what’s in store for them”.
Whether any of that’s true or not, does it matter? New information today says that it’s safe to eat solely plant-based foods, so why not simply do just that? In our world of misinformation people concur with what they’ve been told - that animals have no souls and that meat is good for you. Their main fall back position is a powerful one: “We’ve been eating meat for two million years so why stop now?”
But now we’ve moved on in so many ways. We are not Neanderthals. We are reconstructed humans, and perhaps it’s timely to stop this unnecessary ‘carnivorism’, not only because we know we can survive safely without animal food but also because we’ve shown how cruel the human system is towards animals. When the human is making money, beware – especially when they’re profiting from producing certain foods. It’s such easy pickings that everybody’s doing it all round the world and that spells competition and the danger of lowering standards to undercut you competitor. Just look at what hell holes the factory farms are. They aren’t designed as punishment camps they are merely the cheapest way of growing the product to stay in business.
We no longer chase and hunt animals to kill them for food. Instead we keep them captive and treat them like machines. Since the early part of last century the wealthy Animal Industries have been intensifying animal husbandry, and quoting from J.S. Foer’s Animal Eating, he says,
“Modern industrial agriculture has asked what hog farming might look like if one considered only profitability – literally designing multitier farms from multistorey office blocks …”.
The ruthlessness of these designs reflects the worst imaginable outcome for the animals themselves. The customer has ‘just gone along with it’ and doesn’t want to know too much detail. They’ve allowed agribusiness to wield the same powers as, in the past, the lords of the manor once did, weaving their minions into an inescapable maze - we need and they provide; we shop, they profit.
The Animal Industries have been successful at cementing-in our shopping habits, by giving us what we want whilst messing with our minds at the same time. They effectively do our choosing for us, do it by brazen temptation and misinformation. Subtly and subliminally they secure our loyalty to their products – we, the customer, support them (the Animal Industries) in order to serve our own best interests. Apart from vegans, has anyone noticed anyone routinely NOT wearing animal skins somewhere on their body or NOT eating abattoir-derived foods? And you don’t need to look too closely to see that most adults over 40 are already ill from their life-long use of these food products (ever seen The Biggest Loser on television?)
By using misinformation to persuade the spending dollar from peoples’ pockets the Animal Industries also succeed in screwing up the future of the planet at the same time. And we must ask how did they ever get so much power? It might be that they made it their business to know the way their customers think ... and not giving a stuff about being wicked.
They operate on a set of values (to do with the exploitation of resources) which most of us could never accept. We take what they give us (by buying). We don’t fully realise how dangerous our shopping habits are, since we are their playthings - they’ll do whatever it takes to keep their advantage. They’ll always conserve what they have. They’ll always act within the law. They’ll always protect themselves by never seeming to be directly accountable for what’s being done. They won’t usually act openly against the interests of humans … they wouldn’t draw attention to themselves in that way. But for all their stealth and careful image-making, they know their customers don’t really care to know too much. They know they won’t notice, or even care about, what’s being done to ‘non-humans’, as long as the good times keep rolling.
Eating animals: “But they have no souls so it’s okay”. “They don’t feel things as we do”. “They can’t reflect on their situation or see up ahead to what’s in store for them”.
Whether any of that’s true or not, does it matter? New information today says that it’s safe to eat solely plant-based foods, so why not simply do just that? In our world of misinformation people concur with what they’ve been told - that animals have no souls and that meat is good for you. Their main fall back position is a powerful one: “We’ve been eating meat for two million years so why stop now?”
But now we’ve moved on in so many ways. We are not Neanderthals. We are reconstructed humans, and perhaps it’s timely to stop this unnecessary ‘carnivorism’, not only because we know we can survive safely without animal food but also because we’ve shown how cruel the human system is towards animals. When the human is making money, beware – especially when they’re profiting from producing certain foods. It’s such easy pickings that everybody’s doing it all round the world and that spells competition and the danger of lowering standards to undercut you competitor. Just look at what hell holes the factory farms are. They aren’t designed as punishment camps they are merely the cheapest way of growing the product to stay in business.
We no longer chase and hunt animals to kill them for food. Instead we keep them captive and treat them like machines. Since the early part of last century the wealthy Animal Industries have been intensifying animal husbandry, and quoting from J.S. Foer’s Animal Eating, he says,
“Modern industrial agriculture has asked what hog farming might look like if one considered only profitability – literally designing multitier farms from multistorey office blocks …”.
The ruthlessness of these designs reflects the worst imaginable outcome for the animals themselves. The customer has ‘just gone along with it’ and doesn’t want to know too much detail. They’ve allowed agribusiness to wield the same powers as, in the past, the lords of the manor once did, weaving their minions into an inescapable maze - we need and they provide; we shop, they profit.
The Animal Industries have been successful at cementing-in our shopping habits, by giving us what we want whilst messing with our minds at the same time. They effectively do our choosing for us, do it by brazen temptation and misinformation. Subtly and subliminally they secure our loyalty to their products – we, the customer, support them (the Animal Industries) in order to serve our own best interests. Apart from vegans, has anyone noticed anyone routinely NOT wearing animal skins somewhere on their body or NOT eating abattoir-derived foods? And you don’t need to look too closely to see that most adults over 40 are already ill from their life-long use of these food products (ever seen The Biggest Loser on television?)
By using misinformation to persuade the spending dollar from peoples’ pockets the Animal Industries also succeed in screwing up the future of the planet at the same time. And we must ask how did they ever get so much power? It might be that they made it their business to know the way their customers think ... and not giving a stuff about being wicked.
They operate on a set of values (to do with the exploitation of resources) which most of us could never accept. We take what they give us (by buying). We don’t fully realise how dangerous our shopping habits are, since we are their playthings - they’ll do whatever it takes to keep their advantage. They’ll always conserve what they have. They’ll always act within the law. They’ll always protect themselves by never seeming to be directly accountable for what’s being done. They won’t usually act openly against the interests of humans … they wouldn’t draw attention to themselves in that way. But for all their stealth and careful image-making, they know their customers don’t really care to know too much. They know they won’t notice, or even care about, what’s being done to ‘non-humans’, as long as the good times keep rolling.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Conforming
288:
The exploiters, brain focused on self interest, know their customers can be relied upon to not-want-to-know-what’s-going-on. Most importantly, they know most people are subservient to a system which is tightly controlled.
When I first noticed the restrictions, as a kid, I accepted them as from people who I considered were lovingly protecting me. I learnt what ‘normal behaviour’ meant. I learnt how to conform.. My habits were formed, guided by my parents and Society, especially concerning my choice of food (no one had ever heard of vegetarian, let alone vegan food). Once I was beyond parental care and control I was able to decide for myself, and that involved decisions based on discrimination and disapproval ... and it wasn’t long before animal issues had to be looked at. Soon enough I realised I’d have to be involved in some sort of boycott, because there was no doubt that I disapproved of animal exploitation and therefore meat products. Later, as I thought more about it, it had to include all animal by-products.
If young adults today reassess things they were brought up with they could probably follow a similar path of logic and eventually arrive at something like the same vegan principle I arrived at. They’ll associate two forms of liberation - the freeing of the subservient human mind and the liberating of animals. They’ll weigh slavery against freedom and choose one over the other.
By chance, as a teenager, I took up running and the only teacher who showed any interest in my athletics was my history teacher so, in return, I showed an interest in his subject ... which I went further with. In studying history I found that slavery and the human struggle to escape it figured large. Humans had been forever trying to win their freedom and discover more intelligent value systems which would be better aligned with human progress. Now, basking in our freedom these days, we (in the relatively free West) no longer have to struggle on our own account and can now afford to look at what slavery signifies, and do something about it ... become advocates for the enslaved, some of whom are undoubtedly humans. But by far the most and worst enslaved are animals. Unlike their human counterparts they have no chance to organise on their own behalf (having no power to do anything about human oppression). Unless human advocates step in on their behalf they have no chance of being released from slave status.
My present freedom allows me to be an animal advocate but it comes at a price. By uncovering certain truths and speaking about it in public I find myself getting off-side with people. Animal advocacy upsets almost everyone.
But no worries (I think to myself), it won’t always be that way. There are obvious chinks of good sense in what we say, that will become apparent, eventually. I hold onto that, especially when I’m on the brink of despairing of my fellow humans.
Vegan principle and anti-slavery make sense if only in terms of human health. We, as vegans, wish to weaken the ‘exploiter’ influence on Society by keeping people away from animal foods and therefore out of hospital, and safe from premature death. We encourage people to un-poison their bodies and minds and of course to no longer be part of the obscenity that amounts to 150,000 animal executions a minute. Until we move away from so much gratuitous self-harm and this daily holocaust in abattoirs all over the world, nothing can possibly go well for us personally or collectively.
The exploiters, brain focused on self interest, know their customers can be relied upon to not-want-to-know-what’s-going-on. Most importantly, they know most people are subservient to a system which is tightly controlled.
When I first noticed the restrictions, as a kid, I accepted them as from people who I considered were lovingly protecting me. I learnt what ‘normal behaviour’ meant. I learnt how to conform.. My habits were formed, guided by my parents and Society, especially concerning my choice of food (no one had ever heard of vegetarian, let alone vegan food). Once I was beyond parental care and control I was able to decide for myself, and that involved decisions based on discrimination and disapproval ... and it wasn’t long before animal issues had to be looked at. Soon enough I realised I’d have to be involved in some sort of boycott, because there was no doubt that I disapproved of animal exploitation and therefore meat products. Later, as I thought more about it, it had to include all animal by-products.
If young adults today reassess things they were brought up with they could probably follow a similar path of logic and eventually arrive at something like the same vegan principle I arrived at. They’ll associate two forms of liberation - the freeing of the subservient human mind and the liberating of animals. They’ll weigh slavery against freedom and choose one over the other.
By chance, as a teenager, I took up running and the only teacher who showed any interest in my athletics was my history teacher so, in return, I showed an interest in his subject ... which I went further with. In studying history I found that slavery and the human struggle to escape it figured large. Humans had been forever trying to win their freedom and discover more intelligent value systems which would be better aligned with human progress. Now, basking in our freedom these days, we (in the relatively free West) no longer have to struggle on our own account and can now afford to look at what slavery signifies, and do something about it ... become advocates for the enslaved, some of whom are undoubtedly humans. But by far the most and worst enslaved are animals. Unlike their human counterparts they have no chance to organise on their own behalf (having no power to do anything about human oppression). Unless human advocates step in on their behalf they have no chance of being released from slave status.
My present freedom allows me to be an animal advocate but it comes at a price. By uncovering certain truths and speaking about it in public I find myself getting off-side with people. Animal advocacy upsets almost everyone.
But no worries (I think to myself), it won’t always be that way. There are obvious chinks of good sense in what we say, that will become apparent, eventually. I hold onto that, especially when I’m on the brink of despairing of my fellow humans.
Vegan principle and anti-slavery make sense if only in terms of human health. We, as vegans, wish to weaken the ‘exploiter’ influence on Society by keeping people away from animal foods and therefore out of hospital, and safe from premature death. We encourage people to un-poison their bodies and minds and of course to no longer be part of the obscenity that amounts to 150,000 animal executions a minute. Until we move away from so much gratuitous self-harm and this daily holocaust in abattoirs all over the world, nothing can possibly go well for us personally or collectively.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
The exploiter class
287:
My own way of making a start in helping to clean up today’s mess is to home in on the waste of pollution and the cruelty of animal slavery. They’re both dark forces connected with the wealthy exploiters running the animal-exploiting industries. Their grip on things needs to be weakened, and what anyone can do is withdraw support from them by stopping spending money on the goods they produce. Anyone can do this and help make a difference that way. It will, at the same time, support the liberation of animals.
The exploiter is often a kind and loving individual who genuinely cares about their family. The might see themself as a good person, believing that ‘charity starts at home’. They are providing ‘a better world for their grandchildren’. They care far less about the community or about ‘the greater good’, especially if by doing so it affects their profits. They like acquiring money and have little empathy for anything or anyone being used by them to make their money.
I was listening to one of them, a hunter, on the radio. He farmed animals and loved guns. He was trying to justify the pleasure he got from pulling the trigger on a moving animal. He couldn’t say what it was, except that it felt ‘natural’ to him. He’d always done it since he was a boy. He said that it came naturally to him. Animal farming and hunting - it’s how he and his family have always made their living (or got their kicks). It seems they were used to finding opportunities and taking advantage of weakness. They see dollars in everything. Where most people see a forest in terms of beauty, 1%’ers see the trees as lumber. Where most people couldn’t kill an animal the exploiter has no trouble doing so ... or better still, they employ someone who’ll do the messy business for them.
The consumer lets these people thrive. And these people therefore believe themselves to be doing nothing wrong since they have the support of so many dollar-spending customers. Regard the exploiter as the spoilt child, the consumer as the weak parent - the longer the child believes they can get away with bad behaviour they will, and become all the more dangerous the stronger they get.
My own way of making a start in helping to clean up today’s mess is to home in on the waste of pollution and the cruelty of animal slavery. They’re both dark forces connected with the wealthy exploiters running the animal-exploiting industries. Their grip on things needs to be weakened, and what anyone can do is withdraw support from them by stopping spending money on the goods they produce. Anyone can do this and help make a difference that way. It will, at the same time, support the liberation of animals.
The exploiter is often a kind and loving individual who genuinely cares about their family. The might see themself as a good person, believing that ‘charity starts at home’. They are providing ‘a better world for their grandchildren’. They care far less about the community or about ‘the greater good’, especially if by doing so it affects their profits. They like acquiring money and have little empathy for anything or anyone being used by them to make their money.
I was listening to one of them, a hunter, on the radio. He farmed animals and loved guns. He was trying to justify the pleasure he got from pulling the trigger on a moving animal. He couldn’t say what it was, except that it felt ‘natural’ to him. He’d always done it since he was a boy. He said that it came naturally to him. Animal farming and hunting - it’s how he and his family have always made their living (or got their kicks). It seems they were used to finding opportunities and taking advantage of weakness. They see dollars in everything. Where most people see a forest in terms of beauty, 1%’ers see the trees as lumber. Where most people couldn’t kill an animal the exploiter has no trouble doing so ... or better still, they employ someone who’ll do the messy business for them.
The consumer lets these people thrive. And these people therefore believe themselves to be doing nothing wrong since they have the support of so many dollar-spending customers. Regard the exploiter as the spoilt child, the consumer as the weak parent - the longer the child believes they can get away with bad behaviour they will, and become all the more dangerous the stronger they get.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Seduced by second class pleasures
283:
When it comes to food and keeping up our lifestyle almost all of us are controlled by the carrot and stick … the ‘carrot’ is in the form of lifestyle-identifiers, the sorts of foods we eat comprising mainly animal product. The ‘stick’ is the threat of reduced disposable income for buying animal product (often owing to loss of employment). The good things in life are abundant for those who can afford them, i.e. those who conform, but meagre for poorer people and those who don’t conform. It’s all controlled. It’s a neat system.
Everything which comes from the Animal (food) Industries is meant to be pleasurable enough to make us toe the line ... but usually it’s second rate stuff – nothing more than a few taste thrills at restaurants, or ice cream, chocolate, cakes, meat and all the little food luxuries we think we couldn’t do without. It’s a sort of ‘seconds world’ of cheap and cheerful commodities and our wanting them keeps us working and consuming and conforming. We fear missing-out so we give very little thought for the animals producing the stuff.
Lifestyle is everything, whereas ethics or the development of consciousness is not so important. Most people will settle for any old ‘pleasure experience’ where food is concerned. Instead of individual thinking and the opening consciousness we opt for group-think - “Everybody does it so why shouldn’t I?”
With safety-in-numbers, going with the crowd, buying whatever one is wanting, we go the popular way. But vegans go against the popular, opting for a life governed by a strict no-animal-use principle. In a very major way vegans disassociate from the crowd and think for themselves.
Understandably this is something which could worry the Animal Industries. They probably realise that the world is coming into a more expansive age. They may foresee a world that is dangerously ‘vegan-inspired’ and non-violence-inspired, and that’s not so good for the future prospects of the Animal Industries. But they also know that it’s still a million miles away, and that today the majority of people are still happy to be poisoning themselves with animal foods. Thankfully, for the Industry, their customers are addicted to their products and reluctant to give them up even though the stuff makes people overweight and pushes them towards diabetes and heart disease.
Vegan food doesn’t protect us from this entirely, but it helps dissolve the addictions to these harmful foods and at the same time strengthens our liking for plant-based foods. The big plus for plant-food eaters it that our diet relieves us of the grumbling fear of these deadly health conditions.
As soon as I got used to a plant food diet, I realised it was good for energy but even more importantly it was good for the brain. It let me feel more alert, and consequently more suspicious of traditional food regimes. By waking up to this conspiracy (the acceptability of animal food) it awoke the rebel in me.
The rebel asks tricky questions in public. The rebel challenges the so called ‘food authorities’ - when I woke up to that, I wanted more than anything to help sap their strength by boycotting every Animal Industry commodity. The more I did that the more I realised how important it was to drop all the crappy stuff they sell or wheedle into products as ‘hidden’ ingredients ... I was realising that once you open your purse or wallet to them, you automatically turn a blind eye to your own involvement in what they are doing. And whichever way you look at it, what they’re doing is not nice.
When it comes to food and keeping up our lifestyle almost all of us are controlled by the carrot and stick … the ‘carrot’ is in the form of lifestyle-identifiers, the sorts of foods we eat comprising mainly animal product. The ‘stick’ is the threat of reduced disposable income for buying animal product (often owing to loss of employment). The good things in life are abundant for those who can afford them, i.e. those who conform, but meagre for poorer people and those who don’t conform. It’s all controlled. It’s a neat system.
Everything which comes from the Animal (food) Industries is meant to be pleasurable enough to make us toe the line ... but usually it’s second rate stuff – nothing more than a few taste thrills at restaurants, or ice cream, chocolate, cakes, meat and all the little food luxuries we think we couldn’t do without. It’s a sort of ‘seconds world’ of cheap and cheerful commodities and our wanting them keeps us working and consuming and conforming. We fear missing-out so we give very little thought for the animals producing the stuff.
Lifestyle is everything, whereas ethics or the development of consciousness is not so important. Most people will settle for any old ‘pleasure experience’ where food is concerned. Instead of individual thinking and the opening consciousness we opt for group-think - “Everybody does it so why shouldn’t I?”
With safety-in-numbers, going with the crowd, buying whatever one is wanting, we go the popular way. But vegans go against the popular, opting for a life governed by a strict no-animal-use principle. In a very major way vegans disassociate from the crowd and think for themselves.
Understandably this is something which could worry the Animal Industries. They probably realise that the world is coming into a more expansive age. They may foresee a world that is dangerously ‘vegan-inspired’ and non-violence-inspired, and that’s not so good for the future prospects of the Animal Industries. But they also know that it’s still a million miles away, and that today the majority of people are still happy to be poisoning themselves with animal foods. Thankfully, for the Industry, their customers are addicted to their products and reluctant to give them up even though the stuff makes people overweight and pushes them towards diabetes and heart disease.
Vegan food doesn’t protect us from this entirely, but it helps dissolve the addictions to these harmful foods and at the same time strengthens our liking for plant-based foods. The big plus for plant-food eaters it that our diet relieves us of the grumbling fear of these deadly health conditions.
As soon as I got used to a plant food diet, I realised it was good for energy but even more importantly it was good for the brain. It let me feel more alert, and consequently more suspicious of traditional food regimes. By waking up to this conspiracy (the acceptability of animal food) it awoke the rebel in me.
The rebel asks tricky questions in public. The rebel challenges the so called ‘food authorities’ - when I woke up to that, I wanted more than anything to help sap their strength by boycotting every Animal Industry commodity. The more I did that the more I realised how important it was to drop all the crappy stuff they sell or wheedle into products as ‘hidden’ ingredients ... I was realising that once you open your purse or wallet to them, you automatically turn a blind eye to your own involvement in what they are doing. And whichever way you look at it, what they’re doing is not nice.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Comforts
281:
Those who control the Animal Industries probably do know the consequences for the creatures they abuse but do it all the same. For them, empathy and profits don’t mix, whereas most others do feel empathy for the animals and either suffer from guilt or succumb to a helplessness to change their food habits.
Those who profit from animals have to numb their sensibility - they’ll say “if it works, go for it, whatever it takes”. They don’t have a problem with using animals as a resource. For the rest of us it’s not that simple. There’s a ‘moral’ struggle between what is right for oneself and what is best for others. The struggle may not be conscious, but somewhere there’s probably some awkward feeling about the animals who produce our favourite food products.
Almost all people like the meats and pastries and rich creamy desserts, the cheeses and eggs and milk-made produce. Tucking into them relieves the monotony and stresses of life, and for that reason most people feel that they can’t afford to look too closely at their ‘comfort’ foods. These foods make us feel better, and stronger perhaps ... and so the ugly origins of these foods have to be ignored. If we allowed ourselves, even for a moment, to consider the truth behind our animal-food habits then our sense of morality would be badly shaken; if we dared to take one moment to look at the part we play in the ongoing animal massacre we’d feel ashamed.
It is a massacre whichever way you look at it, even though we have to pretend it isn’t. By pretending we’re NOT engaging in the act of ‘hurting’ (hurting ourselves, hurting animals, hurting the planet, etc) our inner eye is refusing to see what is see-able. It’s laughable to think that we can kid ourselves about this, when we’ve already thought it through in our own minds.
Whether we are an elite 1%’er or amongst the other 99%, we’d probably all be tempted to sell our soul for the chance of making big money. Money cushions fear ... and it isn’t just the wicked who believe this. All over the world humans fear poverty, or fear being forced to ‘live-without’ the things they’re accustomed to. So, we try to get hold of as much of ‘the good stuff’ as we can, to allay this fear. We indulge ourselves in ‘high’ living, rich food, powerful intoxicants. In fact we’ll use anything to relieve the fear of insecurity and the tedium of living as poor people have to.
And where are the animals in all this? Entirely exploited, entirely forgotten, entirely abandoned.
Those who control the Animal Industries probably do know the consequences for the creatures they abuse but do it all the same. For them, empathy and profits don’t mix, whereas most others do feel empathy for the animals and either suffer from guilt or succumb to a helplessness to change their food habits.
Those who profit from animals have to numb their sensibility - they’ll say “if it works, go for it, whatever it takes”. They don’t have a problem with using animals as a resource. For the rest of us it’s not that simple. There’s a ‘moral’ struggle between what is right for oneself and what is best for others. The struggle may not be conscious, but somewhere there’s probably some awkward feeling about the animals who produce our favourite food products.
Almost all people like the meats and pastries and rich creamy desserts, the cheeses and eggs and milk-made produce. Tucking into them relieves the monotony and stresses of life, and for that reason most people feel that they can’t afford to look too closely at their ‘comfort’ foods. These foods make us feel better, and stronger perhaps ... and so the ugly origins of these foods have to be ignored. If we allowed ourselves, even for a moment, to consider the truth behind our animal-food habits then our sense of morality would be badly shaken; if we dared to take one moment to look at the part we play in the ongoing animal massacre we’d feel ashamed.
It is a massacre whichever way you look at it, even though we have to pretend it isn’t. By pretending we’re NOT engaging in the act of ‘hurting’ (hurting ourselves, hurting animals, hurting the planet, etc) our inner eye is refusing to see what is see-able. It’s laughable to think that we can kid ourselves about this, when we’ve already thought it through in our own minds.
Whether we are an elite 1%’er or amongst the other 99%, we’d probably all be tempted to sell our soul for the chance of making big money. Money cushions fear ... and it isn’t just the wicked who believe this. All over the world humans fear poverty, or fear being forced to ‘live-without’ the things they’re accustomed to. So, we try to get hold of as much of ‘the good stuff’ as we can, to allay this fear. We indulge ourselves in ‘high’ living, rich food, powerful intoxicants. In fact we’ll use anything to relieve the fear of insecurity and the tedium of living as poor people have to.
And where are the animals in all this? Entirely exploited, entirely forgotten, entirely abandoned.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
The wicked
279:
The way the entrepreneurs have made money out of animal farming and the terrible suffering they put upon animals must be said to be truly wicked but the way they’ve manipulated their human customers, embroiling them in their crimes, is possibly worse.
Not too many people will admit playing a part in the tragedy of animal abuse, but they’re involved nonetheless - the customers are buying the stuff and the producers are reaping the profits. No one has clean hands.
The producers have built empires on the backs of animals. With the support of generations of customers they’ve provisioned us both at the survival level and the luxury level. The Animal Industries have taken control of our spending habits. Their influence is everywhere - in clothing industries, in food industries and in shoe companies, providing what seem to be reliable, safe, economic and fashionable products. They give the customers what they want and never let on how the products come to them. They’re allowed to tell lies, especially regarding the nutritional value of the foods they sell, and we suckers can’t believe so much untruth or greed can exist ... so, we believe what we really want to believe, however shonky their assurances seem. The customer doesn’t really know how corrupt the producers are. They can’t believe that they’ll stop at nothing to make profits.
I’d be very surprised if even 1% of humans are truly wicked or so mentally ill or desperate that they’d sell their soul for wealth. But many wealthy people will, because of their desperate fear of being impecunious. It seems they’re willing to abandon all moral constraint to guarantee their own material security. They inhabit the board rooms of agribusiness and allied industries, they force small farmers out of business and establish the intensive farms and processing operations.
For the remaining 99% of us we’re different in as much as we never have the chance to be tempted this way. But if we did have the chance, would we be like them? All of us probably have a few really deep fears – fear of failure, fear of poverty, fear of abandonment, fear of death etc., but most of us don’t have that monster-gene that allows us to destroy things for others, in order to make things safer for ourselves. We might flirt with the devil sometimes, we might be less than fully conscious of what we do, we might deliberately not-know … but most of us are still in touch with our own feelings. We wouldn’t exploit our fellow humans as they do ... but animals? With what we know about animal husbandry today, we have to have a very low empathy threshold to carry on eating the poor creatures and yet feel nothing.
Perhaps most people don’t realise the significance of what is happening behind the scenes. They have no idea how badly farm animals suffer and on what scale they suffer. The customer, wanting to eat what they want to eat, turns a deaf ear to information, they act blindly as if they didn’t know, but in these well informed times that can be a pretty lame excuse.
The way the entrepreneurs have made money out of animal farming and the terrible suffering they put upon animals must be said to be truly wicked but the way they’ve manipulated their human customers, embroiling them in their crimes, is possibly worse.
Not too many people will admit playing a part in the tragedy of animal abuse, but they’re involved nonetheless - the customers are buying the stuff and the producers are reaping the profits. No one has clean hands.
The producers have built empires on the backs of animals. With the support of generations of customers they’ve provisioned us both at the survival level and the luxury level. The Animal Industries have taken control of our spending habits. Their influence is everywhere - in clothing industries, in food industries and in shoe companies, providing what seem to be reliable, safe, economic and fashionable products. They give the customers what they want and never let on how the products come to them. They’re allowed to tell lies, especially regarding the nutritional value of the foods they sell, and we suckers can’t believe so much untruth or greed can exist ... so, we believe what we really want to believe, however shonky their assurances seem. The customer doesn’t really know how corrupt the producers are. They can’t believe that they’ll stop at nothing to make profits.
I’d be very surprised if even 1% of humans are truly wicked or so mentally ill or desperate that they’d sell their soul for wealth. But many wealthy people will, because of their desperate fear of being impecunious. It seems they’re willing to abandon all moral constraint to guarantee their own material security. They inhabit the board rooms of agribusiness and allied industries, they force small farmers out of business and establish the intensive farms and processing operations.
For the remaining 99% of us we’re different in as much as we never have the chance to be tempted this way. But if we did have the chance, would we be like them? All of us probably have a few really deep fears – fear of failure, fear of poverty, fear of abandonment, fear of death etc., but most of us don’t have that monster-gene that allows us to destroy things for others, in order to make things safer for ourselves. We might flirt with the devil sometimes, we might be less than fully conscious of what we do, we might deliberately not-know … but most of us are still in touch with our own feelings. We wouldn’t exploit our fellow humans as they do ... but animals? With what we know about animal husbandry today, we have to have a very low empathy threshold to carry on eating the poor creatures and yet feel nothing.
Perhaps most people don’t realise the significance of what is happening behind the scenes. They have no idea how badly farm animals suffer and on what scale they suffer. The customer, wanting to eat what they want to eat, turns a deaf ear to information, they act blindly as if they didn’t know, but in these well informed times that can be a pretty lame excuse.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Brave
278:
To stand up for animals you have to be vegan, and to be vegan you have to be brave. Not grim, not bitter, not angry, just quietly brave. No tickets on yourself, no sense of being better than anyone else, just calmly brave. But being vegan is not for the faint hearted.
Often vegans have to say “no”. No to meat, no I won’t go with you to the zoo, no to a simple ice cream on a hot day. To us it’s straightforward why we say no. But to others we may seem anti-social, as if we don’t want to join in, as if we’re stand-offish. Being vegan is a bit like shooting yourself in the foot, socially. Soon enough we get a reputation. And if we do get invited round to dinner it’s likely we say “no”, because of the problems it will cause.
Whenever I do mix and my ‘vegan status’ is known it’s apparent that people say things to me they don’t always mean. I hear them tell me they admire what I stand for. “Well done” and “I wish I could do it myself”, but beneath their praise their alarm bells ring – “Avoid this one, he’s a tree-hugger” (or whatever they see me as). After a while I’ve noticed that dinner invitations dry up. Why would anyone want a vegan to come round for dinner? Imagine the problems of cooking special dishes for a vegan who doesn’t appreciate the effort or worse, who tries to discuss with others at the table ‘the principles behind a plant-based diet’. “Booorring”
By standing up for animals, very often I’ll be going it alone. No friends to back me up and I can’t expect cows and chickens to give me much encouragement. It’s all got to come from within myself. I have to be able to withstand people’s lack of sympathy but also the market’s lack of suitable replacement products. Food and clothing depend so heavily on the Animal Industries that alternatives often don’t exist. So I have to search for products and pay more for them too, because there is such a small market demand for them.
On top of all this, I need to support the efforts of other vegans who are trying to raise public awareness. And that’s a problem. The pressures of society are so great that just to be vegan is hard enough without needing to be supportive of other vegans. But it is essential – I may be on top of my diet (and clothing choices) but we all need the sort of help that can only come from fellow vegans. The energy I get from my vegan mates helps me keep up the pressure.
There is little discussion here in Australia about moving away from animal use. Animal activism is generally concentrated on the worst abuses of animals on factory farms and in vivisection laboratories. It doesn’t address the wider problem of fundamental attitude change. And yet if this were established, if it became the fashion to boycott anything coming out of the animal industries, we’d see everything else follow. Once vegan principle is established in the hearts and minds of the consumer the markets would accommodate that - the abattoirs would close and the animals farms would go bust, the animal labs would be defunded and the zoos would be shut down. We’d even be less inclined to acquire pets, become less needy for companion animals and therefore help to dry up the pet trade. But at present we have a very piecemeal approach to the whole problem. There are still too few people willing to rally to the call for a thorough uprooting of animal exploitation. And so, things stay much the same.
To stand up for animals you have to be vegan, and to be vegan you have to be brave. Not grim, not bitter, not angry, just quietly brave. No tickets on yourself, no sense of being better than anyone else, just calmly brave. But being vegan is not for the faint hearted.
Often vegans have to say “no”. No to meat, no I won’t go with you to the zoo, no to a simple ice cream on a hot day. To us it’s straightforward why we say no. But to others we may seem anti-social, as if we don’t want to join in, as if we’re stand-offish. Being vegan is a bit like shooting yourself in the foot, socially. Soon enough we get a reputation. And if we do get invited round to dinner it’s likely we say “no”, because of the problems it will cause.
Whenever I do mix and my ‘vegan status’ is known it’s apparent that people say things to me they don’t always mean. I hear them tell me they admire what I stand for. “Well done” and “I wish I could do it myself”, but beneath their praise their alarm bells ring – “Avoid this one, he’s a tree-hugger” (or whatever they see me as). After a while I’ve noticed that dinner invitations dry up. Why would anyone want a vegan to come round for dinner? Imagine the problems of cooking special dishes for a vegan who doesn’t appreciate the effort or worse, who tries to discuss with others at the table ‘the principles behind a plant-based diet’. “Booorring”
By standing up for animals, very often I’ll be going it alone. No friends to back me up and I can’t expect cows and chickens to give me much encouragement. It’s all got to come from within myself. I have to be able to withstand people’s lack of sympathy but also the market’s lack of suitable replacement products. Food and clothing depend so heavily on the Animal Industries that alternatives often don’t exist. So I have to search for products and pay more for them too, because there is such a small market demand for them.
On top of all this, I need to support the efforts of other vegans who are trying to raise public awareness. And that’s a problem. The pressures of society are so great that just to be vegan is hard enough without needing to be supportive of other vegans. But it is essential – I may be on top of my diet (and clothing choices) but we all need the sort of help that can only come from fellow vegans. The energy I get from my vegan mates helps me keep up the pressure.
There is little discussion here in Australia about moving away from animal use. Animal activism is generally concentrated on the worst abuses of animals on factory farms and in vivisection laboratories. It doesn’t address the wider problem of fundamental attitude change. And yet if this were established, if it became the fashion to boycott anything coming out of the animal industries, we’d see everything else follow. Once vegan principle is established in the hearts and minds of the consumer the markets would accommodate that - the abattoirs would close and the animals farms would go bust, the animal labs would be defunded and the zoos would be shut down. We’d even be less inclined to acquire pets, become less needy for companion animals and therefore help to dry up the pet trade. But at present we have a very piecemeal approach to the whole problem. There are still too few people willing to rally to the call for a thorough uprooting of animal exploitation. And so, things stay much the same.
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