Non-violence leads to optimism

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It might seem obvious to most of us, to try to apply non-violence to what we do, by being never pushy, never aggressive and not too assertive. But not everyone would agree with that. They’d be the people who think the non-violent ethic is only about passivity and ‘do-nothing-ness’.
For those of us who try to avoid routine violence in our lives (starting by eating vegan food) a certain optimism creeps into our daily lives. That means optimism about the future too, because we know we’ve been able to change and therefore believe other humans can change too. It’s about having enough faith in humanity, that we, collectively, will find sanity and self confidence, enough to counter the prevailing pessimism.
If we’re optimists it must start at home, in getting rid of violent habits and replacing them with constructive ones; developing affectionate relationships and making a stand against cruelty and waste. Simple changes can be made - recycling, buying environmentally-friendly products, eating more ethically, and as a result of that we can feel better about ourselves and more optimistic about the future.
An optimistic attitude isn’t everything. Veganism isn’t everything. We need habit change to cement aspiration. Habits struggle with every day challenges, and of course, food habits are the main difficulty for most people. A radical change of diet, as with a vegan diet, has the power to alter the very course of one’s life. Collectively it could have a massive impact on all our futures. A plant-based diet will certainly have a dramatically beneficial effect on human health, an even more dramatic effect on the fortunes of farm animals’ lives, but the major impact would be on the planet. Animal farming is taking up so much fertile land and the effluent polluting so many of our waterways but also ruminant methane emission makes for more greenhouse gas than all the cars and planes put together. So vegan food is very good for the planet.
By moving towards veganism we can start to address the big questions, like the ethics of animal farming, slaughtering, vivisection laboratories, zoos, etc. By looking-forward to a world where none of this happens we can see great opportunities opening up for us. It’s a truly spine tingling prospect. It’s almost like déj`a-vu, ‘looking back’ at our own futures. All this may give us the courage to take the plunge and go vegan.