A sticking point in consciousness raising

1002: 

In our Western world, during the 1960s, young people began to think much more independently.  They could see how moral codes were falling apart, and laughed at them.  But while we rebelled it was without practical alternatives being in place.  The baby was thrown out with the bathwater.  We doubted, questioned, experimented, but didn’t resolve anything - it was mind expansion without the follow-through.

Fifty years on, perhaps our decisions are more confident in that we no longer feel the need to refer to Society’s codes of conduct for guidance.  We now apply our own moral codes to relationships, eating habits and how heavily we think we should tread on the earth.  And with this have come choices in food and clothing, based on a better understanding of health, ethics and environmental impact.  We have more choices, and if we want to we can live a ‘cruelty-free’ lifestyle, we can follow our ideals and speak freely about what we believe is right.  We know that the tide has turned, and that it’s now only a matter of time before trends start to change.

But how far will that change have to go, to bring about real across-the-board change?

We’ve done the superficial changes and asserted our independence.  But we haven’t yet gone far enough to spark a whole new fashion.  An outsider looking on would notice that all the ideas of change are in place but people are reluctant to make the move, especially where food is concerned and particularly animal food.  For all our advances in consciousness and liberation, this seems to be the main sticking point.  This is where humans are showing still-primitive behaviours.  Perhaps this change calls for such a wrench away from familiar daily habits, that despite all the sense it makes in theory, it still seems to be too great a leap into the unknown.

‘Vegan’ is still a difficult concept. In reality, it might seem too much to take on.  And there’s so little support for it in our society.  Probably, in years to come, the idea of plant-based, no-cholesterol food won’t turn a hair.  We’ll wonder why the penny didn’t drop sooner.  And we’ll see the effect of this change of diet having repercussions everywhere.  We’ll look back at societal and attitudinal changes and see how they all started with a new fashion, centred on plant-based commodities, including food and clothing and footwear.

But back to the present - our reluctance to make these changes fully enough is reinforced by both  vested interests and our own addicted tastebuds.  Food and clothing, but mainly food, seems too deeply locked into our habit patterns. Making use of animals seems a big part of those unchanging habits.

For those of us who have ‘gone vegan’, our habits have moved on. But we’ve moved on to the next set of problems, we see what others are not seeing and don’t know necessarily what we can do about  it.  Our sensitivities might have been opened but impatience has increased, as it becomes clearer how slowly large-scale change is taking place.  Our problem isn’t any longer about what food to eat but how well adapted we are for the long haul, when it comes to bringing about the liberation of ‘food animals’, a liberation that can only follow a widespread change in people’s eating habits and ethical drives.