757:
The blasé omnivore passes the abattoir and remains
un-shocked. Why? Perhaps because, in the weed patch of violence in which we all
live, it’s difficult to separate problem weeds from relatively harmless weeds –
the ‘holocausting’ of animals is not yet seen as a problem.
With all the violence going on
about us, why don’t we deem this particular violence significant?
Well firstly, unlike meat ads on
TV, it isn’t exactly ‘in our face’ everyday. And even if it does get a mention
in the media one day, it’s easy to forget it the next.
Whenever violence against farm
animals is shown, it’s thrust at the public too confrontingly. It produces fear
and revulsion, but it doesn’t inspire me or shift my perception substantially
enough to impel me to make a personal change to my personal habits. Confronting
fails for most people.
When the Animal Rights message ever
does get through, it is accompanied by a feeling of profound discomfort and a
need to disassociate with the self-righteous and often angry vegan who’s
speaking.
They see (in me, for instance) a
confronting type of person with whom they have difficulty in identifying. I’m a
type. A type they don’t much want to be like. Perhaps in the past, there is a
memory of meeting someone who had said things and become pushy about it, and
that made them feel uncomfortable.
So it behoves me to look at me.
In this context I’ve met a lot of
angry evangelicals and I’ve never liked them. When I’m spruiking ‘vegan’, it’s
the ‘evangelical in me’ I also don’t like. I don’t like me when I’m angry or
spitting chips. Presumably it’s ugly for others to see me like this - the vegan
doing his stuff.
By being so confrontational we make
it easy for people to dislike us? Concealed and, deep down, I think omnivores really
do loathe us and all we stand for, so I think we have to work on being liked. I
do it by seeming a little weirder than I want to be, if only to appear less of
a threat or less unattractive.
It could be true to say that, on
this touchy subject of food and animal issues, public sensitivity is blunt. To
some extent your ordinary Joe and Jo would not be able to admit the extent of
their addiction to yummy animal-stuff.
Joe and Jo are not seriously aware
of food attachments. It only arises when they have a dicky stomach or put on a
bit of weight. Body changes are so imperceptible over the years. We hardly
notice what’s happening. Even if we do want to be healthier we can’t identify
with ‘health-nutter-dom’. So, ‘eat as you’ve always eaten’ sits well with their
consciousness concerning food. It’s very possible we all act dumb when we
purposely avoid certain difficult information, when we don’t want to put two
and two together. Most of us don’t think about what happens to animals when
they are turned into food. Therefore, unless we encounter a horrible vegan who
wants to make us think, then the animal issue will remain a non issue.
And if ignorance is bliss then
it’s best not to find out too much about modern animal husbandry. That’s made
easy for us to some extent, since the most blood curdling details are always
kept secret. They don’t build abattoirs near where most of us live, and usually
the animal farms are well away from town, and what happens, happens behind
closed and padlocked doors anyway. The ‘dark side’ is well hidden.
We all see what’s happening in
our world through TV. Into the bright lights of TV comes the attractive side of
the animal story. We see it every day. We see it as yummy food, advertised by
experts in the trade.
TV today is made up of ten
minutes of programme followed by five minutes of advertising. Billions of
humans simultaneously scream when their programme shuts down and soap powder appears
on the screen. Most of us are confronted and insulted by ads, and yet we are
sometimes attracted by the lovely-looking people who promote products. And they’re
using lovely-looking products. We think, “If such lovely people say the product
is okay, that’s surely good enough for me since I want to be part of this
person’s good-looking world”.
We fool ourselves to suit
ourselves. “I get one main thing from the ad. I accept that the information is
more or less true ... because it is being importantly broadcast nationwide. For
me that spells success. Cool. The product is likely to be safe and almost
certainly satisfying, even efficacious” .
We’re easily swayed. We buy what others
buy.
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