Altruism

897:

If we still think of altruism as a sort of heroic selflessness, that might be too much of a stretch. If I want to protect animals and ‘go vegan’, I might need to readjust my meaning of the word. A ‘new’ altruism wouldn’t be me-centred or you-centred but a sensible balance between the two. It should have one eye on the future and one eye on the ‘now’. Altruism certainly adds to the betterment of future life but it shouldn’t present difficulties and it needn’t expect to be praised. It has its own reward by making our day seem worthwhile.

Altruism is a more efficient way of interacting with our personal environment. If it makes me feel good then it’s likely to have a good effect on the collective consciousness too. But, it should be comprehensive, and be applied as widely as possible; if I’m altruistic, it should be present in all my relationships, and certainly in any love-based human to human relationship, where a friend or partner’s welfare comes first and is always more important than my own. And, to be consistent, I would argue that it should step across the species barrier, so that there’s the same loving, protective feeling for animals, especially those who are unjustly imprisoned on farms.

Just like any animal whose life is under the control of a human, like our dogs and cats at home, these farm animals are innocent. They’ve been denied a life of their own. Their whole life has been taken away from them - the abuse of them is condoned by almost every human on the planet.

Would I put myself out for them? Or would I only be concerned to ask, “What’s in it for me?” You might think one can’t save all these millions of animals, that one shouldn’t be expected to feel the same sort of love for pigs and chickens as one does for the cat at home. But then altruism isn’t about that ‘same sort of love’. Perhaps it’s simply about not ‘doing unto others’ what you wouldn’t want done to you, thus not being able to countenance their exploitation.

Ultimately - why would you want to become vegan? Why would you want to do that to yourself? But, you could equally ask yourself, why not?