Queering the pitch

1208: 

The real friction between non-vegans and vegans is that what they relish we avoid.  Non-vegans still enjoy animal foods and wearing animal clothing.  Vegans avoid all of that like the plague.  Non-vegans have to keep their mouths shut about the violence, whereas vegans can speak-out about the injustice of violent animal treatment.

The main difference between us concerns sentience - most people probably don’t even know what the word means.  If they do, they don’t see that it has any great significance.  Vegans know the word very well, because we’re sensitive to the plight of sentient, domesticated animals.  To us, the mistreatment of an innocent, sentient creature is obscene.

Human nature has been moulded by the availability of animals and centuries of traditional exploitation.  Animals that are in any way useful to humans have been brought into slavery, and for some unfathomable reason, omnivores don’t think this is bad.  And even if they do, they’re used to squashing that thought, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to be omnivores any longer.

         

Omnivores have to sit in the ‘quiet corner’.  The only satisfaction for them is to take full advantage of what’s on offer, and draw as much present-time enjoyment as possible, even though they know it will mean chronic stomach and digestive problems later in life.

If you still eat animal produce, you might not realise the dangers earlier in your life but later, with the onset of all sorts of bodily illnesses, you’ll see how you’ve been wrecking your metabolism, as if by slow self-poisoning.  And what a waste, to disqualify your body from working properly for the sake of the gluttonous pleasures of eating what you fancy.  And on top of this you’ll be denying yourself the chance to be an agent of peace in the world.  It seems sad, to hold back on both counts because of a food attachment or a need to see your feet clad in animal skin.

To a greater or lesser degree, most people have got blood on their hands and plenty of poison in their bodies.  Most are bruising their very souls, simply by ingesting animals’ body-parts on a daily basis.  By consuming the concentrated toxins from these foods, plus the adrenaline from the fear-surge at the time of an animal’s execution, our immune systems don’t stand a chance.  Vegans would say it’s much wiser (and kinder) to keep off the stuff and maintain good health and a clear conscience.

I suppose it’s safe to say that by being vegan, we automatically avoid most of the crap foods on the market, which means we are no longer living under a tastebud dictatorship.

But it’s not only food but shoes and zoos and thousands of other goods and services provided by our animal slaves, that is doing us so much harm.  By using animals, we lose our best chance for a truly meaningful spiritual life.  We run the risk of dying unfulfilled.  And also, on a daily basis, we risk suffering the discomfort of a continually dodgy stomach.