Contempt or love

895:

If I said to you, “What I want for myself I also want for others”, would you say that’s altruistic or unrealistic? I feel a bit stuck with the old meaning of altruism, with its very ‘Western-Christian-Good-Bad’ associations. But somehow it’s some form of altruism that might just turn this whole thing around, with animals.

            If we can get into the habit of doing something regularly that is not selfishly motivated, we get practice in generating our own satisfactions. If we can find satisfaction in empathising, that will lead us to consider the feelings of animals. And once we are empathising, absorbing information about the conditions animals are being kept in, then we can move from having contempt for them to feeling affection for them. It’s the difference between indifference and caring. I wouldn’t say I love animals nor describe myself as an animal lover, but it grieves me that so many are banged up in jail, with only an ugly death to look forward to.

            Now, you may argue that they don’t know their fate. But what if they do? What if, even at that moment before death, they understand the extent to which they’ve been betrayed?

            Perhaps it will trouble us, that we participate in enslaving animals, since I’ve never met anyone who would actually want to cause any animal any harm, and have it on their conscience. Science has shown us it’s unnecessary to use ANY animals for either food or clothing, so by ignoring that science and following social custom, we let emotion and convenience do our deciding for us - to NOT change our attitude to animals. We prefer to have contempt for these sheep and cows and pigs and chickens, not love or affection. Such is the power of food satisfaction! Such is the fear of making changes to our attitudes.