Fashion, normalcy and unthinkingness

698: 

Despite a certain wave of change taking place today, it is still fashionable to be unaware of the conditions in which farmed animals live and die. Fashion says it’s okay to eat meat, to wear wool, to buy fashionable shoes made of leather, to eat eggs for breakfast and take cow’s milk in our coffee. But what about the big food temptations, the salivation stimulators, the rich foods, the treat foods and exotic foods like lobster or wagyu beef? Or simple mouth-watering confections which contain cruelty-based ingredients? By deciding to buy any of these tempting items, we implicate ourselves in cruelty and even atrocity.

At that most private moment, standing at the shop counter, imagining the taste of an item we’re about to buy, it’s likely we won’t deny ourselves something which we can afford to buy. For children, denial is often imposed; many of these items may have been too expensive or unattainable without permission. But as we grow up and those restrictions disappear, we’re faced with something else – a fear of ‘missing out’. We like to have whatever we want, so it would seem strange to deny ourselves on ethical grounds. But this is what people are now doing. They make a conscious decision not to buy. But we are tricky with ourselves. If we want something badly enough we’ll ignore the impulse to check ingredients. We eat what we disapprove of because we avoid knowing. And no one is checking up on us. In our society today, with no pressure to ‘do the right thing’, it’s only conscience that can call the shots.

Conscience is up against it. There is so much to object to that conscience often becomes a weak, barely heard voice that we can easily ignore. It’s been trained to be weak. Which is why vegans have to spell it out so strongly, stressing the importance of implementing a ‘non-use-of-animals’ rule. We have to speak loudly, to counter the majority’s safe haven of normality, to get people to start thinking for themselves again.