Don’t trash your reasoning power

751:

One person eats meat and thinks nothing of it. Another would sooner die than touch the stuff. That sounds like a big difference, but is it so large? Here are two extremes of view, using two different reasonings. One accepts that it is okay to use animals for food, others don’t. But food is a very powerful force for all people, not just for survival but for one’s enjoyment; eating is part of the pleasure of life. So, if we decide to NOT eat certain ‘unethical’ foods which are otherwise delicious and affordable, then we ought to be sure we have good reason to deny ourselves the pleasure.

            It’s no good giving up eating meat if you hate the idea of being vegetarian; if you’re forcing yourself to NOT eat foods that leave you with only those foods you don’t like, you will either be ill or unhappy. All of us know we have to feel good about our food choices, or at least not feel denied. But all of us know we have to feel good about ourselves ‘spiritually’, self-esteem-wise. If you’re a meat eater you won’t enjoy your meals if you’re weighed down with guilt. What probably happens, is that the potential for guilt is numbed; you have to be able to put out of your mind where the animal-based food comes from and what they do to animals to extract the food from them. Meat eaters probably have to convince themselves that what they do to animals is an ‘unimportant matter’, and that it mustn’t be given a second thought.

For a vegan it’s different. We perhaps have a more developed sensitivity and conscience. Perhaps we realise the danger of having our mind so easily manipulated by the animal-food lobby.

For my part, I’m seeking a more independent mind out of fear of being manipulated. I’m very suspicious of what my fellow humans are capable of and are willing to condone. The way I see it, humans are not only the most dangerous animal but the most cowardly – we’ve picked on the weakest sentient beings and taken advantage of their weakness. And then pretended not to have realized this!

            My concern is that certain problems about our world are so deeply entrenched that even if solutions to those problems were clear they wouldn’t be implemented. If the problem concerns something to our disadvantage, like giving up certain pleasure-inducing foods, the  thought of that is just too uncomfortable to contemplate. There is a common fear that once a thought enters the mind, it can’t be expelled; it takes a course of its own. And therefore, it’s important NOT to let it in, in the first place. Matters pertaining to food and animals mustn’t be allowed to get that far – these must be perceived as ‘unimportant matters’.

If there is a problem, a question concerning the eating and using of animals, people might prefer to live with it. They would probably say that veganism is too high a price to pay for peace of mind, and wouldn’t consider it or discuss it or take it seriously. But it isn’t just peace of mind that’s at stake, it’s the danger of losing one’s power of reasoning or acting upon the results of reasoning.