838:
Veganism speaks like no other ‘ism’ because it outlines a
structure for a future civilisation, no less! It lays the groundwork for a
practical non-violent society held together by a single ethic of
non-interference with sentient life forms. A human race no longer dependent on
the animal kingdom, for food, for clothing or for anything, is something in
which we could all be interested.
There are
many huge problems blocking our progress, pessimism for one. Pessimism seems to
be associated with loss of something we are used to and to which we give little
conscious thought; at the very prospect of a no-touch-animal policy we might
feel profoundly uneasy. Who wouldn’t be nervous about the loss of the dominant
position, the privileged position of being able to eat the products of enslaved
animal or eat their very bodies? But consciousness has grown beyond that, freed
to grow in the awareness that animal foods are not essential to our survival.
The science of nutrition suggests an uplift of optimism – and in this single
realisation, not only the animals are liberated but we too. Within the
lifestyle of vegans is a new ‘reason to be’, a chance to caste off the
slave-master millstones around our necks. We can see a chance here for the whole
of future civilisation.
People love
looking into the future. If we see the possibility of good things happening,
that’s optimism. And then it comes down to how we imagine our future could be.
While a weak imagination sees
veganism only as a loss of human privileges and modern-day comforts, it recoils
at the masochism of it all. If you can’t see beyond a life of using animal
products, then veganism will be seen as a threat.
But looked
at coolly, is the abolition of animal slavery unrealistic? Is an egalitarian
treatment of animals so absurd? And if so, why?
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