How we come to see ourselves

670:

I would argue that today most of our grandest aims are pointless. A blank wall faces most people if only because they can’t see any sort of solution to ‘the problems of the World’. Because of the presence of animal foods (and other animal-derived goods) in our lives, we can’t avoid involvement in violence; if violence can’t be shaken off then any move towards a more spiritually-driven life is meaningless. But for those who have stepped away from this daily involvement in violence there is a chance. For vegans, because we’ve so purposely disassociated from this daily act of violence, there is some opportunity to transform our own lives and be in a position to help others transform theirs. Our boycott of abattoir products is the start of a simple solution, but … there’s always a ‘but’.

We have been walled in. We are few in number and so we suffer from feeling isolated. We are victims of a determined conspiracy against us. We are facing the forces of public persuasion to be ‘normal’. The application of vegan principles to Society would seem to me to be a wonderful thing but to most people it would be seen as a great threat to their way of life. It would mean revolution, so people like us, vegans, are likely to be bad-mouthed by the authorities and the pubic in general. I can imagine how people will be made to think by spreading rumours of cows wandering the streets and tax-payer’s money being spent on sanctuaries for retired farm animals.

Economic factors are very persuasive, but so are ethics. How strong do our ethics have to be, how altruistic or how intelligent do we have to be, to consider becoming vegan? A future point in time, where people no longer keep or kill animals might seem unlikely, and yet where we are at the moment might be the start of a slow movement towards humans becoming conscious of their guardian spirit. If that sense of protectiveness overcame the desire for personal comforts we would begin to see ourselves as caretakers of kids, as caring for climate and planet, and compassionate towards those long-suffering farm animals. In that way we might come to learn who we are and know what role humans will take in the building of the future.