Having consistency in our philosophy

798:

To be consistent in our basic philosophy (harmlessness-wherever -possible) we have to become open books, so that anyone can pick up, look into what we say and what we believe and how we should behave. And whatever that is, it must be evident in the way we conduct our own lives. Our lifestyle reflects our philosophy. Our attitude (in the West) concerning animals-being-used (whether they should or shouldn’t be used) is the central testing ground of  any vegan proposal.

            The astounding thing is that vegans hurry off into details about cruelty and human health before they establish the fundamentals concerning the rightness or wrongness of animal-use. In fact across the broad spectrum of opinion, animal-use is not being discussed very much at all. Perhaps none of us dares to start here. It’s almost as if we’re all in the middle of a cover up. The media won’t show interest in what might seem a too-radical starting point. In fact they don’t even want to cover this subject at all, unless it homes in on diets and recipes.

Vegans won’t start their arguments from this point for fear of alienating too many meat eaters, vegetarians and pet-lovers, because of course it embraces ALL uses of animals, from killing them to any sort of convenience-use. If vegans won’t go there it’s not surprising that the media won’t, especially when you consider how tightly the media is controlled by their advertisers and their public. In addition, the issue of animal-use is not likely to be picked up since there are very few maverick journalists, let alone vegan journalists. 

            So it’s down to us. Amateur writers. The few vegan advocates, activists, writers and teachers are all that stands between the possibility of a beautiful future and the continuing laissez-faire of animal-use. If we do our best to edge this subject into the limelight and promote animal rights and veganism, then that’s all we can do. From our point of view it might look like an uphill battle, and that might not be something for the faint hearted. But there is light at the end of the tunnel - once the ball starts rolling, the arguments will start to be discussed more fully and logic will lead the way until the taboo is broken. And then the whole subject will become a part of our everyday conversation. Imagine where that might lead us!