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Once we have an aim, such as going vegan, we’re in a
position to be useful. Once we’re eating from plants, clothing ourselves from
plants, then we’re in action, boycotting all animal produce. Then we have to
learn new ways of preparing food, learn about basic nutrition (for our own
safety) and then, moving on from there, learn about modern-day animal-husbandry
and why it is making life unsafe for the animals.
To set this ball rolling we need
to carve out great chunks of time and energy for the ‘work in hand’ (and that
means learning what needs to be learnt, in order to talk about this subject).
But where most work is needed is
in convincing people of the connections between what is done to animals and
what they, as consumers, buy; as soon as you buy, for example, a quiche, you
are supporting the caging of hens. It’s a benign-looking food item. It’s just
one of many familiar foods that have been on sale all our lives. Most people
wouldn’t have given it any thought beyond its attractiveness for eating. But as
soon as you make the essential connection between the finished product and its
ingredients a question arises; it is tainted or not; you either take note of
the connection between it and the animal or you ignore it.
Now, if you ignore it, then what
is really happening? Does it mean you don’t care that your egg comes from a
caged hen? Does it mean you don’t care if hens are caged?
If you do care then you can only
stop eating quiche. By stopping eating quiche you make a statement of intent,
to apply the same reasoning to any other product which is similarly tainted, in
order to show that you care. However delicious you might think quiche is,
having a clean conscience about what you are eating might be even more
‘delicious’. By making this one decision to deny yourself a pleasure for the
sake of a principle you hold dear, helps
you to think more deeply about the violations humans are responsible for.
By developing any one of the many
links between food and animal-killing you inevitably come to consider Animal
Rights; conscience versus convenience. Each is a strong contender for our
attention. By boycotting cruelty-foods you’ll realise there will be no more
lobster, and no more of many, many favourite food items. If you don’t boycott
the lobster dish you won’t be able to avoid the picture of the lobster being
boiled alive (to kill it).
This is more than human
inconvenience because it highlights the subtlety of our highly sophisticated
taste sensation (pleasure) being put up against our knowledge of the history of
animal suffering (guilt). Once we’ve come down on the conscience side, we’re
ready to become advocates and better able to talk about things sensibly
(non-hypocritically); sensible talk is capable of being interesting talk;
interesting talk can become the inspirational agent
of radical change.
Now,
there is a whole generation of people hungry for information (for the ‘truth’),
and that is precisely what vegans can deliver. (Over thirty years I’ve never
heard anyone suggest vegans are speaking dishonestly!).
Once we’re established as
practising vegans then we can move into advocacy. And that means developing
some communication skills, in order to convince people to stop supporting the
Animal Industry. But initially anyone cam talk about cruelty to animals because
it is so obvious. All we need to do is introduce the whole matter of animal-use
to those who’ve never really thought about it. The more details of routine
cruelty and speciesism we find the easier it is to convince others that the
non-use of animals could become a reality.
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