Vulnerable

791:

We have a world dominated by hard-nosed attitudes. Vulnerable people, who fear change, take on the hard-nose way of looking at things, emulating the tough-guys who run the show; one of the ways people can demonstrate their toughness is by upholding the status quo. We are encouraged to accept the violence in much of the food we eat and the clothing we buy. Vegans may be vulnerable too but at least we’ve made a break with the tough-guy fashion-setters. Our vulnerability comes from being too much ‘out-there-on-our-own’.

            I think we must show that the ‘tough’ attitude is a cover for cowardice. No one is truly vulnerable or should feel alone, and by showing this without using value judgement, it gives hope. There’s more courage and more company out there than many of us realise, and we discover this when we start talking with others about the important topics of the day. When we’re engaging with one another we connect. And when it comes to this particular subject, whichever side one might be on, the place of animals in human society is something which fair-minded people can discuss. The incentive for these discussions would be our common wish to show up the futility of tough-think, and to see how un-vulnerable we all really are. And yet vulnerable is how many of us still feel. And there is a positive side to it too. The more vulnerable we vegans might seem to be (out-there-on-our-own), the more likely we’ll be able to empathise with other ‘vulnerable people’. The key interface here is the amount of empathy we can feel - introspective thoughts concerning our own selves alongside thoughts about others. In a world of hard-nosed attitudes we each feel separated from one another, each trying to out-hard-nose the other. In an egalitarian, co-operation-based world, even if the vulnerable look a bit weak at first, later, when we validate vulnerability, we become more interconnected. Empathy-awareness belongs to the coming future. In the future we’ll surely be displacing the hardened, carnivore-minded people with those of a gentler disposition.

Although the hard-noses are on the way out, today we’re still identifying with them. We feel trapped by our own hard-nosed-ness: and we might have to stay that way for a while yet, especially if we’re attached to the status quo. One of the worst aspects of this is our justifying of the use of animals and eating them (it’s tough to kill and then eat our ‘kill’). By having a contempt for certain animals, we can continue to draw a certain comfort from eating them.

But, as soon as affection and intimacy become more fashionable amongst humans, so the hard-nose will fade into obscurity, and then the real dialogue can start.