The principle behind the herbivore

852: 

Animal Liberation has come on a long way since the 1970’s but nowhere near far enough to be even close to the liberating of animals. It’s great that the vegan movement has emerged but sad to see how slow it has been to catch on. Early ideals have faded away and hearts have re-hardened. Eating habits are so deeply entrenched that when the novelty (of the philosophy behind true vegetarianism) wore off, old eating habits were returned to.

            A friend of mine tells me that humans are naturally omnivorous, and that’s the platform on which she rests all her beliefs about animal food and clothing. She’s exemplary about her environmental habits and her political leanings, but here, over animal issues, there’s a sticking point - she says it’s wrong to eat meat but ethical to eat animal products since the animal isn’t killed for its by-products (milk or eggs or wool). Oh no?

In that one misunderstanding (or obstinacy) one is able to justify the use of these products, which in turn allows one to justify the using of hundreds of food items using these by-products.

            This is where vegans are thorough in their avoidance of all items connected with animals, because each animal that is used ends up at the abattoir and always leads a life of misery and/or confinement beforehand.

            The idea of a totally plant-based regimen is resisted more hotly by the lacto-ovo vegetarian than the meatless diets are resisted by carnivores. The by-product-eating vegetarian, passionately resisting becoming a vegan, is content with simply going half way, by moving away from the killing of animals for their meat.

            I use the identifier, ‘omnivore’, not to describe the whole person but as the one very important defining attitude of that person. The habits of one’s own life, especially after a few years into adulthood, are strongly laid down; as we get used to using animals for our convenience it becomes ever harder to stop, which is why a rather clumsy justification is adopted for the using of animal products.

As young people enter the adult world they want acceptance. They want to be taken seriously, so the young adult emulates his or her elders. In certain important social ways, as with eating habits, they don’t want to stand out as being different. And yet there might be a stronger force at play here. It might manifest as a rebellion against the ways of their elders, or even their peers, replacing the habits of the majority with those of a minority who have more empathy-driven compassion.