Try not to be insulting

971: 

If you start to question any of the ‘standard truths’, you are playing with the prospect of there being NO reliable truths.  From there you have to go ahead and experiment with life based upon a different set of truths, values and possibilities.

With this animal thing, when so many people are still following the old paths, truth gets very mixed up.  And since this subject is so tabooed, one also meets a widespread refusal to discuss the subject.  So, one never gets the chance, the go-ahead, to speak one’s mind, since any condemnation of animal farming seems to be wantonly confrontational.  One is either shut out or shut up as soon as any opening remark is made.  You can imagine how extremely confronting it would be to suggest, “Animal farms are providing us with much of our food but they are little more than death camps”.  Once you make a statement like this, there’s no chance of getting any further.  You can’t expand on that, so you can never reach the next statement about how animal farming is a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions and general pollution.  One can never get as far as suggesting, that by eating so much of this contaminated produce our bodies are going haywire, causing us to lose control of our health.

The devil in the detail is about animal foods being ‘rich’ and mostly fat-saturated, causing people to become too fat on their over-indulgent lifestyles.

Everything which needs to be said can’t be said since it is taken as an insult.  By making a provocative opening statement, I supply enough excuse to NOT listen to ANY of the details.  All the obvious links, between each of these issues, one leading to the next, are cut off.  One never gets far enough with the details to see the next links between animal-food diets contributing to the problem of children in poor countries dying for want of food. 

It’s not difficult to point out the connections, between our own actions and the worst possible consequences, but that’s not the real difficulty here.  If I ignite any part of this subject, down come the barriers.  Most people don’t allow themselves to look squarely at any of it, since they are too keen on consuming animals and all the ‘goodies’.  And that prevents them from condemning the food they love to eat, food that can only be made available by dint of farming animals.  They would never be able to heed the health warnings or the ethical arguments because they either refuse to open the debate or are helplessly standing there transfixed, like a rabbit in the car’s headlights.  They are effectively unable to deal with this level of discussion.

           

Here’s the biggest difficulty for vegans, that we might have a lot to say but no one to say it to.