To change attitude

20.

Attitude can be turned around by the sheer power of love, but that sounds too slushy for most animal activists so they go the other way, settling for second best; they try to swing attitudes around with ‘fear’. “Stop eating animals or you’ll die a terrible death” ... “vengeance will be upon you”, etc. But whether or not we use that dubious sort of encouragement, the fact remains that we, as vegans, do enjoy a certain immunity from the day-to-day fear of being brought down by common killer diseases. If one is constantly afraid of putting on weight or clogging arteries or raising blood sugar levels then one is going to be too preoccupied with personal concerns to direct much energy towards ‘the other’. Empathy will take second place and concern for ‘food’ animals will be displaced.

I wonder what is lost when we grow up? Perhaps we lose spontaneity, lose the rebel in us and concentrate too much on personal problems. Do we accumulate too much emotional clutter and in the process lose our earlier ideals? In our self-obsession perhaps we hardly notice the love being leached out of us as we lose sight of animal issues.

As vegans, we do feel heartbroken for the ruined lives of farmed animals and this more than anything, drives us to work on their behalf. But others have their own private reasons to make a lifestyle change which may not be driven by compassion for animals. It might be more to do with keeping their figure trim or avoiding heart disease and that might not lead to a permanent change of heart. Nor will such a change be powerful enough to inspire others to change, since it will merely seem like a sensible life choice. It won’t necessarily help to stop others using human advantage at the expense of non-humans.

Perhaps it seems to the omnivore that ‘not-using’ animals for food is about denial. But it’s much more a step towards altruism and perhaps towards a shift in our motives for doing the things we do. The idea of working happily and energetically for someone other than our self and for the benefit of the less advantaged, can be deeply satisfying. Instead of the rape and pillage mentality of the more primitive human, we can see a more inspiring role, that of the human acting as guardian, protector and carer, wherever needed.

If we humans are consciously taking part in the transformation of our species, it won’t be for our own self edification. It’s more likely we’ll be taking on a whole new attitude to equip us for repairing the world we’ve damaged. At this pivotal point in our history humans may be coming together to transform the Earth into a safer and happier place than ever before, and needless to say, the first step would be to resist the temptation to use animals for food.