Planning for the far future

1350: 

Needless to say, animals are different to us.  They possess no hubris, no superiority and they know (mainly wild animals) how dangerous humans can be (domesticated animals being too punch-drunk to know anything).  Their senses are impeccable, but they can’t judge everything about us because we are so very different from them.  However, they do realise we have power over them.

Unlike animals, we try to improve things and with that comes the violence of maintaining our position-of-dominance, over Nature and especially over animals. The damage we’ve done has come from trying to improve things by wit, strength and ruthlessness. We’ve never learnt to ‘be content with our lot’. And now, at the eleventh hour, our manipulation and bullying have brought us to the brink of catastrophe. The animals we've become dependant upon are the subject of whole economies.  They are raised in ghetto conditions, pumped with chemicals and medications to prevent disease outbreaks in the huge flocks and herds. They then provide humans with toxic food products that are nevertheless still attractive enough for humans to use to excess and be poisoned by. We are caught in the grip of cheap and harmful products which we can no longer do without.

         

Now, some of us want to turn in a completely different direction.  We want to move away from animal products because the industry which makes use of animals is no longer regarded as even remotely ethical.  But it’s like steering an ocean liner 180 degrees.  It has so much momentum that to swing it around is a slow process.  So we look beyond our own lifetime, to future generations of responsibility-takers and life-enjoyers, who we hope will, by that time, be unselfconsciously non-violent.  And let us hope that it will come naturally to them to never even contemplate taking advantage of animals for food, any more than it would occur to them to take advantage of a woman or a child for dominant sexual gratification. 

Harmlessness

1349:

We need to have confidence in order to say what we have to say.  We need to be exemplars of non-violence, and we can show that by sticking to non-violent food, which symbolises the principles by which we live.  Harmlessness is the basis of our eating, shopping, thinking and talking.  But it also must underpin our approach to other people.

But it’s here where we find ourselves in a tricky position, over our ‘approach’.  We need to be assertive and not indecisive, but we also need an obviously non-violent approach.  One way of being effective is to go against our impulse to preach, and become not closed-off to opposite suggestions from the ‘outside adversary’.  As animal advocates and activists, we don’t always have a good track record with our 'approach', simply because of our unwillingness to listen to opposite arguments.  But this is surely the key to effective communication.

         

We most of us still have a lot to learn about ‘the non-violent approach’.  Is that because we hate violence but still have some of it in our own lives?  And do we still have it because we entertain some doubts about non-violence itself, in the manner of, “Nice idea but too ineffective”?

By being neither one thing nor the other, we might move forward far too slowly.  So even though we set a good example in our eating habits, we might not, otherwise, be that different from our omnivore friends.  In our society, non-violence isn’t taken too seriously, because we think it seems a bit whimpish, and by doubting it we emasculate it.  This is why we never get to discover its true usefulness.

It should be more obvious to vegans than anyone else, that in something as simple as one's choice of ethical food, the non-violence as a principle is very powerful indeed.  Very inspirational!

The unthinking approach

1348: 

The original principle of non-violence is behind everything Animal Rights stands for.  With that in place one can’t justify hurting them. And withholding freedom from any sentient being by force comes under the heading of 'hurt'.

No one wants to hurt, but we humans are not used to resisting things we want.  We know we can overpower animals to get what we want.  Most animals aren’t protected by law, so we prey on them.  “Hang it, I’ll do what I’ve always done.  Everyone else does it so why shouldn’t I?”

Straight talking

1347: 

Some of us vegans rely so heavily on speaking with great emotion that we forget how we sound.  This subject ignites passion in us but it ignites warning signals with others, like being about to be drowned.  Straight talking is essential, but we must leave space for opposite opinions to be aired.  And then listen to them as openly as we expect others to listen to ours.

We’re most of us amateur communicators - we aren’t trained to see ourselves as others see us.  We speak from the heart and don’t adjust what we say according to people’s limits of acceptability.  Hopefully, people might show that they genuinely admire the stand we make.  And perhaps they half want to take our side.  But mostly, they want useful information from us, and definitely don’t want to be lectured.

         

If we outline our arguments, we should at the very least supplement them with handy tips on the vegan diet. We need to tell people how to fix a tasty meal, how to find alternative ingredients and cruelty-free products. Then we can explain why we have gone out of our way, and gone this far away from traditional food regimes. And then we can tell them about what's happening to animals on farms.

We have to be careful with details and verifiable facts, to get them right. For example, if we say that all animal products are unhealthy and cruel we need references to back up these statements.  We can’t get away with making associations between animal-based products and certain illnesses, like saying “Meat causes cancer”, unless we can back this up with sound references.  And it’s the same when speaking about animal cruelty, where we need to provide details.  We should have at hand all the important details concerning the sow stall, the battery cage, the biology behind milk, and what happens at abattoirs.

Animal Rights is always going to provoke a strong reaction - we’re telling people why we are outraged, implying that they should be too. We’re telling them that their trusted foods are not to be trusted. We’re commenting on morals and health issues, and no one likes listening to straight-talk from vegans, when it reflects their own compliance with their poor nutrition and animal torture.  All this we can talk about freely, but we need to keep subjectivity and opinion low key, and be able to fill in all the gaps with objective information.

Debating Vegan Principle

1346: 

Why are we so keen to talk about Animal Rights, altering attitudes and changing habits?  Is it to make people feel guilty or is it a wish to implant a sense of optimism in others - “Go Vegan and Save the Planet”?

         

If, in fact, we do see this much potential in vegan principle we’ll probably be busting to talk about it.  Are we then surprised when we find no one wants to know, when we get cold-shouldered?

It seems that so fiercely do people NOT want to know, that everything is thrown at us, to either shut us up or to convince us to return to the fold.  At bottom, the majority of people are suspicious of ‘minority types’, like vegans.  They think we are deluded and perhaps less sincere than we seem.  They see us speaking about kindness to animals but being not as kind towards people. 

Whether this is true or not, the rejection vegans get often makes us try all the harder to come across as sincere people.  And ultimately that is not such a bad thing, since as vegans we may have to learn the hard way, because on this matter of being utterly sincere and not having any ulterior motives, it is central to our credibility.  And credibility is the key to effectiveness.  

Promoting Vegan

1345: 

Once I've established a vegan lifestyle, when it's all in place then I'll want to get political - I’ll be urgent to speed things up on the Animal Rights front.  I'll want to start a small revolution in my corner of the world.  I’ve gone from a wannabe-vegan to wannabe-vegan-warrior.  Now I’m ready to take on the world.  And yet, this isn’t reality, is it?  Or is it?

         

However passionate we are, we should bear in mind we aren’t seasoned politicians with a tough exterior, ready to rip into adversaries.  We’re just ordinary people talking to other ordinary people.  And our ‘adversaries’, who are they?  They’re probably sensitive, free-willed beings, who will decide things for themselves, no matter what we say or how forcibly we say it.  Once we start actively advocating Animal Rights, it’s hard for us not to get pushy about it.  It's easy for us to forget that people can simply walk away from us.

         

However good we think our ‘vegan’ idea is, the whole non-violence approach, etc., it can’t be forced onto people.  Any of our uninvited contributions will seem like intrusions, which might even look like an attack, especially when we snidely ask, “You don’t still eat meat?”

         

However passionately we feel about our views, if they are ‘fired’ at people, they'll sense discomfort.  They'll be put off, even swear off the idea for ever.  And no one wants that.

If you can’t stand the heat ...

1344: 

Becoming vegan is like buying a beautifully engineered car with its engine ready but still cold.  It needs a kick start.  It needs more than fearlessness - it needs understanding.  It needs confidence that the kick-start will overcome inertia.  Going vegan is like falling in love and then having to learn how to live together.  We grasp the big idea well enough, but how do we get our brain around it?  How do we spark the great engine into life and keep it running?

         

We’re just humans with normal frailties and fears, so when we ‘go vegan’ we get energy wherever we can find it.  We talk about it, even boast about it.  But then we have to make it work.  Perhaps we squeeze it too hard.  We try to make it take on too much importance, too soon, because we don’t want our good idea to lose momentum.  We know this idea deserves our best shot, but if we get stressed about it we have to examine where the problem really is.  Maybe food isn’t the problem, maybe the problem is people’s opinions of us or the problem is about the slowness of people to come around to discussing the subject with us.

         

For all vegans, young or old, when the scales fall from our eyes (seeing just how many people who will NOT see) things become stressful.  The conventional world, which is so reliant on animals, so psychologically fixed on animal-use, is hard to live in.  But we vegans have to learn to live with the stress of that. It might be ‘hot’ in here, but heat or no heat, let’s not ‘get out of the kitchen’.

The decision to ‘Go Vegan’ is a very personal one.

1343: 

We start the process of fundamental change, not only in our eating habits but in shopping, in thinking and in what we speak about to others.  When one considers what vegan principle is, one realises that it is watertight.   Over the past forty years of being vegan, I’ve never heard any cogent argument against it.  With the major issues of the day, there are usually solid arguments on both sides, but practising harmlessness via diet and clothing, etc., has no counter argument that makes any sense.

So, maybe we have found a good idea (that nevertheless scares people away for fear of having to give up so many material products they’ve known throughout their lives).  This good idea - being vegan and non-violent, animal friendly, green and potentially world transforming - is indisputable.  But within an almost totally omnivorous world there is a heavy collective consciousness weighing against us.  It’s psychological.  And in many ways it’s physical too, since the very things we all (think we) need, to live enjoyable lives in the form of food and clothing, are simply not available in plant-based form.  Vegans face empty shelves.  It isn’t a problem concerning survival, it’s more a question of doing without items that we’ve grown to like or have found useful, enjoyable and easy to share with friends and family.  We restrict ourselves to a narrowed choice and refuse the huge variety of goods on offer.  So, as vegans, our first question is always the same - how am I going to keep it up?

The ideal is very attractive, the practice though, at first, is less so.  We might know ourselves very well – once we start something we must continue with it, because we'd hate our self if we gave up.   But the dilemma is all to do with resolve.  Certainly, we want to leave violence behind, we want to become a peaceful person, and it will help greatly by eating cruelty-free food, wearing non-animal clothing and shoes.  But how do we deal with our inner feelings of violence, which are woven into us, woven into the social fabric, and drop that entirely?

Perhaps the answer to that first big question is to not run before we can walk.  We only need to start somewhere, and first up, it’s a matter of being ‘celibate’ with regard to animal abuse.  So, we take on a vegan diet, we chuck out all our leathers, change our buying habits, and so on.  The idea continues to inspire, clashing with some residual feelings of violence towards the animal-attackers.  But more prominently are our own loss-feelings.  We want to feel comfortable about our change of direction but realise we can't go all the way immediately.  We need to be able to handle the flak.  We still want everyone to be supportive. We don't want social isolation.  We don't want veganism to feel like a burden.

But gradually the benefits show.  The change of diet isn’t such a big  problem after all, and with a few new products in the cupboard and a few new recipes, we aren't missing the animal-stuff as much as we though we would.  We might still worry that our resolve will fade before the new lifestyle kicks in.  (We probably already know a few people who’ve gone half way and never progressed beyond that. Like vegetarians - great start: sad stop!)

         

We have decided not to cave in, if possible, so we go at it full bore.  We use sheer will-power, anything to get over to the ‘other side’.   Head on, we face our non-acceptance by people who think we’ve gone weird.  And then we face our favourite hobby of making value judgments of others, and have to get over the violent feelings we might have for those who don't agree with us.  We even have to face up to the truth that perhaps one of our main reasons for wanting to go vegan in the first place was that we might feel superior and therefore become un-judgeable.

         

As a vegan, we start to experience changes on various levels.  Tension builds between passion and impatience, where there are addictions to deal with.  To give us that extra lift we return to the people about us.  We try to sell 'veganism'.  We want to say, “It’s worth it.  Go Vegan.  It’s not that hard at all”.  But in truth, it’s hard, for some of us anyway. 

Energy

1342: 

On the face of it, dynamic non-violence calls for right-thinking, which in turn depends upon our ability to discriminate right from wrong.  But this leads us into the quagmire of value judgment.  Vegans, for instance, who are securely inhabiting the ‘right-thinking’ camp, often compare themselves to those who are “not right”.  It makes us look unattractive and even dangerous.

We’d be on safer ground if we spent less time on good and bad conduct and concentrated on the efficiency of our energy-use.  By becoming, in a very practical way, as non-violent as we can possibly be, we tap into high efficiency, where there’s minimal energy-drain.  Violence, whether direct or indirect, whether done by a proxy or done ourselves, is such a huge waste of energy.

Nobody actually advocates violence for its own sake. It’s more like a fall back position that we resort to in times of stress or opportunity.  It either scoops us up when we get lost or urges us forward when there’s a chance to gain benefit.  “Shall I kill a pig/ eat bacon for breakfast?”  Making use of animals for our own pleasure reveals our weak willed side.  Violence is just one of those temptations that seem like we’re getting something for nothing – what harm will come to us if we kill the pig and eat bacon from it?

Whether we follow the road of violence to get out of a present problem or to gain some advantage, we don’t do it because we like being wicked but because it fools us into thinking we can get a quick result.  A free lunch.  We don’t see how it sucks energy out of us.

         

The worst energy loss comes when we try to get away with it, without getting caught.   Meat eaters think they can ‘get away’ with their meat diet without too much damage.  But of course the damage hides behind a rock and leaps out when least expected.  It shows up later, down the track, when it’s likely too late for rescue.

         

“Dammit”, we say.  “If only we’d been less obstinate, listened to our instincts and taken the advice to become vegan when we were younger”.  If only we had not taken such risks with our lives and the lives of others. 

People power for peace

1341:

In a vegan world, our fundamental nature changes – if we want to be peaceful people, we have to stop using animals, because all domesticated animals are eventually barbarically killed.  If we don’t step away from our complicity with this, our peacemaking won’t work.

Until peacemakers and planet-savers stop spending their money on cruelty-based products, things won’t change.  How can they?

Attachment and Addiction

1340: 

Edited by CJ Tointon

We all have the capacity to become powerfully attached to something sensually pleasing, especially when we’re emotionally moved.  It could be a romance, or something as mundane as food.  If it sets off our sense of excitement, we feel renewed - at least for a time.  When the feeling wears off, we want it back!  The memory of the experience enters our mind throughout the day in the form of a longing or an anticipation.  Like falling in love, we're incapable of thinking about anything else.

With food attachment/addiction,  we can experience a powerful level of sensation simply by tasting a new or favourite dish.   People can spend substantial sums of money on a wide range of foods at the best eating houses where the chef is guaranteed to produce cuisine whose impact will have a powerful and pleasing effect.  Or people only have to visit the local fast food outlet to be guaranteed the types of dishes that keep them coming back time and again.  Whether it's golden puffed chickens roasted with whole lemons in their cavities or a simple $2 KFC Grilled Taster Box, there's a certainty there that it’s 'going to work'.  But there’s a downside!  With powerful attraction comes the potential for 'attachment and addiction'.  We experience something we like very much and we'll do anything to get it again.

Whether we're introduced to an exotic dish or an affordable fast food, the memory of its deliciousness along with it’s availability is enough to cloud normal judgement.  These great likings have the capacity to be larger than life, seducing us beyond common sense and on into common danger.  It starts in the head, by suspending reasonable thinking.   "Can I afford that restaurant tonight?  Can I afford to eat this amount of 'fried calories'?  Can I afford to ignore the animal suffering behind this food"?  When we let go of our normal restraints, we give in to addiction and it becomes stronger the more we indulge it.  When we find a food that 'works' for us, it takes on a prominence and after the eating sensation has passed, the attachment remains - pressing in on us!   As with any drug that we get used to, it relieves some of the low level strain of daily living.  But if we can't get it or if it’s denied us, we can experience something akin to 'loneliness' or 'depression'. 

Daily strains, however, have a purpose in life and we shouldn't always try to deaden them.  They slowly train us to make self-protective decisions, which in turn bring us a deeper experience of life, and even deeper consciousness.  When we use rich, animal-based, potentially addictive foods to enhance our life quality, we get a quick fix.  But we lay aside our trusty checks and balances and are led into the classic trap of using something because it's accessible and seems to be there for our taking (or buying).  It’s a little like the seduction of the sirens.  It tempts us away from our intelligent-self and lures us into the comforting arms of 'sensation'.  Today, in our food choices, we have let ourselves be led into an animal-dependency.  Humans have become totally dependent on the present vast army of domesticated animals at our disposal. 

In a nutshell then, we are collectively hooked on any number of products that originate from animals.  There's something fine-feeling and protective (apparently) about wearing skins and furs of animals just as there is something particularly attractive (apparently) about the flavours and textures of animal flesh and various animal secretions.  We perceive, at our most primal level, that our survival depends on eating 'substantial' food and we've been led to believe that this food should come from animals.  We're aware of the other food groups, but somehow we're attached to the belief that without the animal content in our diet, we'll end up malnourished and unsatisfied.  We can make  animal-derived food look 'attractive' and coupled with the addictive demands of our bodies, there is plenty and enough to persuade us that animals MUST always be available for us to use.

"What's the point then of trying to make a case against their use?" you might wonder.  "There certainly seems to be a powerful urge within us to use them!"  Vegans would say that animal-derived foods are harmful to humans on many levels.  They're addictive and totally unnecessary for our survival.  Vegans would go on to say that an alternative, inexpensive, plant-based food regime does exist and that the addiction-element associated with animal-based foods can be overcome with a little self discipline.

Addictions and attachments to animal-based foods stand in the way of humans' development of ethics and good health.  It's the same for the wealthy as for the less well-off.  Each, in their own way, is emotionally and gastronomically attached to certain foods from which they can't easily escape.  

It's a 'mind game' that has to be played out in order for things to change in the omnivores' diet to bring them into the sane and satisfying world of the clear-conscienced herbivore.

The toxic human

1339:

Vegan principles make a start to mending some of the damage done by fellow humans to animals, but more so, veganism shows the utter waste of energy in producing food from animals.

         

Only when a plant-based food regime is up and running in our life, can we then see how we’ve been poisoning ourselves with animal-based foods.  As soon as you look into plant-based diets you understand how toxic animal-based foods are.  Epidemiological studies show that much of our ill health can be traced back to our animal-based diets, showing links between a high intake of animal protein and the incidence of some of today's most deadly diseases.

         

And yet, on this subject there's a deafening silence.  No one will speak up. The experts, the nutritionists, the politicians, spiritual leaders and teachers are struck dumb, since they're all using these products themselves. Even if they've given up meat they're still topping up with plenty of dairy and egg-based foods, so they have to remain quiet about the dangers of using animal foods, not to mention the inflicting of cruelty on these creatures.  Not even our most creative and radical thinkers, scientists and artists are willing to go there, for fear of showing up their own eating habits.  Have you ever seen any of them NOT wearing leather shoes?  Almost no prominent citizens will discuss these issues all the time they are colluding with the whole sorry mess.  Subsequently no one whose words are listened to in our society will speak about the downgrading of this particular set of ethics concerning human abuse of nonhumans.

 

We've come to the point where these ethics appear as a rather threadbare garment unlikely to give us much protection - we’ve substituted ethics with a rather convenient moral code, which  allows us to do whatever we want with animals.  This is sad enough, but when even our most respected spiritual leaders give us the go ahead, it effectively puts us to sleep and diminishes any outrage that we might have felt.  The individual has been subsumed by the collective mind set.  We've convinced ourselves that we must comply. We may no longer speak about protecting the innocent.

         

This is why Animal Rights is so urgent.  The protection of animals (from ‘the human’) is essential, since humans can’t be trusted with animals any more than paedophiles with kids.  As we continue to drive animals insane so that we can have ready access to our burgers and milk shakes, our leather shoes and woollen jumpers, our only fear might then be that non-violence will one day win currency and we'll all end up being vegan. 

Animal material

1338:

It seems that today our human passion and outrage is reserved for environmental issues, not for issues concerning animal farming or animal experimentation.  Sad enough that the beautiful planet is being damaged, and sad too that rapid species loss is taking place, but more insidious is our deliberate and routine attack on animals.  Here we see a mindless perversion of Nature by enslaving harmless animals.  And there’s no end in sight.

No animal product is essential, for any reason whatsoever.  For sure, leather is strong and waterproof but life’s not threatened without it.  For sure, cheese and eggs seem useful for making yummy products but they’re not difficult to replace.  Nothing from animals is so essential that we’d have to compromise our principles to acquire their useful products, and yet animal enslavement and creature-killing has become routine in every human community on the planet.  Humanity is hooked on animal stuff. We can’t see past these animal products, to where they could be replaced with plant-based equivalents.  It’s the same as with kicking any bad habit, you have to first want to kick it and then it’s down to the strength of the mind to bring it about. 

Ethics and Exploitation

1337: 

Humans have the ability to weigh the rights and wrongs of quite complex problems.  Other animals are limited in this way - they can’t necessarily ‘get out of the rain’ as we can.  But humans have come to take this ability for granted, and use it to advantage ourselves, to the detriment of others, animate or inanimate.

         

Humans have come to love their comforts.  Our sophisticated thought processes have allowed us to feather our own nests, and to forget our role as guardians.  Our intellect has become detached from our conscience, giving us the green light to go ahead with things we shouldn’t be doing.  Our species has wreaked havoc in order to get what we want in the way of our comforts.  Now, it's time to make amends.

We need to put ourselves second for a change.  It’s pay back time.  We have to realise that we don't own the animals and resources of this planet.  They are not ours to trash.

         

On a personal level we may agree with this but, collectively, we are in league with the super-spoilers, the mega-polluters and the profit makers.  They have a grab and run attitude; in the main, they regard ethics simply as an obstacle. We, the consumers, have supported them in the past and continue to do so today, in which case they’ll continue until they’re stopped.  Grass roots public pressure can be very effective when it comes to protecting the environment; repair is creeping into our consciousness.  The environment gets good press after decades of neglect.  But that's not the case concerning the abuse of farm animals.  Collectively, we are reluctant to raise these issues, and you can depend on the Animal Industries to make sure about that. They make it a non-issue by emphasising the normality and good sense in using their products. They know that if it gets a foothold in the public psyche, Animal Rights would threaten the whole of the food and clothing industry.  They also know they are safe, since the consumer fears above anything else any threat to the supply chain.  And almost all individual consumers will not act alone without the permission of collective acceptability.  

Values

1336: 

Anyone who goes against the norm will inevitably find themselves between a rock and a hard place - being vegan feels right but puts you on the social outer.  But it works both ways.  Those who stick with convention have to bear the burden of guilt, associated with enslaving animals.  This is where confusion hits hardest, for young people especially.  They follow convention as children, they pick up habits and feel generally comfortable with them.  Then, later, they might start to question certain habits which are connected to values and how they want others to see them.  As we grow older acceptability becomes important - how we accept ourselves, how others accept us.

         

It’s likely we want to do things ethically because we want to feel good about ourselves. We develop values and expect to be judged favourably for them.  But today, with so many different opinions on important issues, with so much to discuss to arrive at one's own position, there's a need to tread carefully; we don’t want to set off any explosive reactions because we’ve raised a tricky subject.  Agreeing and disagreeing are all part of the process of assessing values.  We don’t so much need to agree with others’ values, as we need to find others willing to talk to us about them, without anyone insisting that they are right and brooking no disagreement.

The art of being indifferent

1335:

Being part of The Vast Majority allows people to downgrade the importance of subjects even when they’re obviously important ones.  Animal issues are dismissed as if a fly were being brushed from the sleeve.  It has to be that way, for as soon as this subject gets a foothold, who knows if it might not then become part of polite dinner table conversation.

         

Animal eaters, who represent at least 95% of all people, don’t need to be bothered or intimidated by information about farm animals.  They believe it's essential to eat meat. It's something they’ve known all their lives.  Everyone does it. It must be normal.

The art of euphemism & avoidance

1334: 

They say that if farms and slaughter houses had glass walls no one would eat meat.  More importantly, if we did know what was going on and yet still chose to buy what comes out of these places, what then? Surely, we could be seen as ‘cold hearted’, and most of us don't want to see ourselves that way. But the lure of the product is very great indeed. The foods and fabrics made available because of the work of the farmer and the abattoir. It's difficult to imagine life without animal input. It's therefore very difficult to imagine agreeing with vegans who argue that animals shouldn't be being used.

For public relations purposes, we still call these places ‘farms’ and ‘processing plants’.  They’re promoted as “efficient and humane facilities giving the public the best in food provision”, which seems to fit in with what the customer wants to believe. But this comes at a price. The well documented truth has to be suspended, so the customer can continue enjoying wearing fashionable shoes or visiting zoos or enjoying the finest cuisine. 

By way of some nifty mental gymnastics we allow ourselves to be navigated past the truth, and into a fairy-tale world of benign happy chooks and contented cows grazing in pastures. And all the time we know this is nonsense. But it allows us to buy abattoir products without being reminded of their provenance. It allows us to enjoy the foods which are animal-derived.   But at what cost?  In the privacy of our own mind it's not too comfortable, avoiding both the issue itself as well as those people who want to talk about it. 

I don’t want to know

1333: 

Ugly, noisy, smelly, and to be avoided - this is why animal farms these days are closed to the public.  They have all the charm of concentration camps, which is why only those people who work on them know what really goes on there.  Enthusiastic consumers of meat and milk products have a picture in their heads of The Happy Farmyard (circa 1930) - they don’t want to know about today's industrial processes being applied to the rearing and killing of animals.  If they knew, it would spoil their dinner.

Shall I Carve?

1333: 

Edited by CJ Tointon

How insidiously 'meat' creeps into the human 'norm'.  It's hardly even recognisable anymore as having once been an animal since it's usually only a small part of that animal.  A pork chop doesn’t remind you of a pig anymore than a roast leg of lamb reminds you of a baby sheep.  When you buy a dead, plucked chicken, it's almost whole, yet looks nothing like the live bird or even a dead version of the live bird! 
As a child, I remember looking at the carcass of a chicken trying to picture it alive.  But with its head, beak, feathers, spindly legs and claws missing, I just couldn’t see it.  But since none of these body parts were used for eating, they  had no part to play in the final 'item'.  They weren't part of the 'chicken' one was about to consume.  And there were no internal organs either, all of which had been scooped out beforehand (and sometimes came in a separate bag known as 'the giblets', although what one was meant to do with them I never understood)!

To a child this 'object' was nothing like an animal.  My image of the live chicken was so very different to this almost-whole body that I knew to be 'chicken' and this was sufficient to numb any emotional resistance to the eating-of-the-animal.  It was only later, with a much more developed sense of questioning the acceptable, that details were learnt, acted upon and I became Vegan.

As soon as the process of rearing, killing and butchering is understood (especially with larger animals) or as soon as one sees the whole of the dead animal's carcass being hauled into the butchers shop from a refrigerated delivery truck, then the animal behind the meat comes into much sharper focus.  Is it any wonder that these whole carcasses are no longer paraded in front of the public, or that the heads of pigs no longer appear in the windows of butchers shops?

When I realised what has to occur for a living animal to be turned into 'meat', I wanted to go and see for myself the inside of an abattoir.  It was difficult to get in, but with a few lies about organising a school visit, I was grudgingly shown through the meatworks.   And it was an unforgettable experience!! Today, some thirty years on, that visit would never be allowed to happen. Everything is meticulously hidden from view these days.  Nothing must be seen of the living actually dying.  It only takes one 'driven' ratbag (like me) who is incensed by the ugliness of seeing what happens to the living animal in its death throes, for that same ratbag to spread all sorts of information to impressionable minds, in order to help reduce the customer base of the Animal Industry.

With the advent of Animal Rights Activists, the Animal Industries are fighting back.  To counter our claims of cruelty and ugliness, a benign image is being carefully promoted to draw people to the meat counter.  In their advertising, they show the family seated for dinner with salivating smiles on the childrens' faces, eager for the Sunday roast.  There's an innocuous ritual to be performed.  The cook (usually the mother) ceremoniously hands the two-pronged fork and very sharp bladed knife to the father at the head of the table.  "Shall I carve?" he asks.  The meal is about to start.  With practised expertise, father carves thin, mouth-watering slices off the side of the chicken (or the leg of lamb or the side of beef) and carefully places each slither on the child's plate, as the good child looks on.  In this picture, everyone is smiling.  It's impossible to find anything upsetting here.

This is not a picture of blood-thirsty people or 'killers of animals'.  This is all kindness and generosity and family harmony.  No one would be tracing the steps back to the essential animal torture and murder that has made this picture possible - except the 'driven' ratbag!

A slight slip in our brain function

1332:  

The road to human ‘monsterdom’ started when we chased animals on horseback with guns, grew closer to becoming monsters by making it even easier for ourselves, by herding them, capturing them and breeding them in captivity.  We stole the animals' sovereignty for the sake of our own convenience.  We used our greater brain power to take advantage of weaker beings, in order to enhance our food supply and make things easier for ourselves.  We made the 'lesser' species our slaves, in order to keep them, use them, fatten them, kill them and eat them.

Because each stage of the process happened over a long period of time, each successive generation has hardly noticed the gradual descent of humans into monsterdom.  We became so dazzled by the potentials of having a big brain that we let part of that function slip - as our brain function increased we lost control of it.  Like a car with a fine engine, every effort was put into improving its speed without due attention to the quality of the brakes.  We are now hurtling along at a fantastic speed but have no idea how to slow down.  Our improvements for minimising inconvenience to our selves have lost sight of our essential relationship with the world we live in and rely on.  Our relationship with animals is more like a cold and clinical substance abuse rather than a predation involving a fair fight or a chase.  We've taken away from the non-human element any chance of self defence.  Factory farming is the logical extension of our indifference to the victim.  It's difficult to find a better example of cruelty than those farming procedures which we've come to accept as normal today.

Vested interests persuade consumers to spend much of their money on animal products.  As consumers, we’re either not very educated about where our food comes from or we prefer to stay ignorant for obvious reasons.  We’re lulled into a false sense of security by people whose living depends on selling animal products.  The consumer is happy for these vested interests to do what they do as long as they provide what we can not provide for ourselves. 

Enter the monster

1331: 

Behaviour that is obviously harmful has become approved as being morally okay - it makes us lose our confidence in authority and in Society’s standards of morality.  Watching chickens hanging upside down shackled to a conveyer, their heads being dipped into electrified vats of water to stun them before being conveyed into the revolving blades that will take off their heads - is this okay?  It’s no wonder that people lose faith in Society’s moral codes.

What is so obviously unethical has been legally, officially and morally okayed by our 'authorities'.  And for most people that’s enough of a green light for them to eat chicken.  Similarly when we are told that polluting the atmosphere or spoiling the environment is necessary for the progress of Modern Society, we accept that and it becomes the norm.  Eventually it is no longer questioned.

In the beginning we may have hunted animals on foot, using sharpened spears, and it wasn’t very efficient but it worked to some extent on the predator-predated principle.  All animals lived off each other that way.  Then as time passed, humans overstepped the mark.  We devised ways of using our advantage, to give the animals we wanted to eat no chance.  We devised ways to corral them, capture them, enclose them, enslave them, and kill them at our convenience. In this way the human became a monster.   And the 'innocent' consumer became the monster's assistant.

This is what vegans refuse to have anything to do with.

Violence Stage Five: Weighing Up All Sides of the Argument

1330: 

Edited by CJ Tointon

Differences of opinion are healthy, but we need discussion not war to resolve difficult issues.  Any use of force might bring quicker results but it destroys the process of arriving at permanent resolutions.  Because we can be so easily fooled by the seductive powers of the material world, we have to be aware of the classic traps.  Specifically.  The Earth hides useful materials just under the surface.  We discover them, rip them out, use them.  But soon enough, their promise turns to dust.  What we once wanted so badly is no longer wanted and we discard it into landfill, which then poisons the earth.  And likewise, the bonanza of food builds a strong body and mind.  But if we source our 'food' from animals by violent domination, we destroy our very souls in the process.   Likewise, the male-dominated world can only go so far before it implodes.  Now (when it's almost too late) we need the healing touch of our companions, previously downtrodden women, to help resolve things.  The defining attitude that makes use of violence and once seemed to promise everything, will betray us in the end.

What seems natural enough on this planet - predation - has been 'refined' by humans to the point where our food victims are no longer hunted but imprisoned and kept 'on tap' for use when needed.  Our carnivorous instinct ends up just being enslavement, cruelty and waste.  As our species nears self-destruction, we're faced with hard choices that need radical solutions.  The threat of climate change is forcing us to cut back on our waste.  Our corrupted ethics are forcing us to face the cruelty of our nature.  We're finally being brought towards the imperative of living herbivorous lives in a state of non-violence.

Intellectually, we can see the solution to the problems we've caused.  Once we've restored control over our own lives, we can put these solutions into practice, adopt a new ethic and leave behind the old ways of using force and violence.  By replacing the old methods with those of sustainability, cooperation, generosity and kindness, we can start to effect change.  Only then will we be able to move on.

Violence Stage Four: Harmlessness Towards Nature

1329: 

Edited by CJ Tointon

It's clear that today's world is awash with violence.  There's cruelty in our food, spitefulness in our politics, fear generated by religion and hatred spoiling our loving relationships.  The knee-jerk response is to resort to ever more violence, to find a shortcut means of getting what we need, or rather, what we want.  The real rot sets in when we start to believe in shortcut solutions.  The most dangerous aspect of this response is that it alters perception.  As soon as we stop seeing our behaviour as being violent, we start to ignore the collateral damage it causes.

We use force to achieve results, but they're really second-best results when we think we're incapable of achieving first-best results.  Whether we want something for ourselves or for the world in general, we take up an attitude likely to sweep away problems that get in the way.  If that involves the use of force, we might decide to accept it.  But the process of 'sweeping-away' can be exhausting, so we look around for moral support to boost our energy.  We find it in those with shared attitudes.  And we forgive their violent attitudes if their ultimate aims coincide with our own.  For example:  We give support to a particular political party but ignore the conduct of the party leaders (which we wouldn't normally condone) because they give us what we can't get for ourselves.  Similarly, we can't grow the food we want for ourselves, so we turn a blind eye to what the animal farmers do!!

The strain of daily life sometimes prevents us from analysing our motives too deeply.  We take what we can get and we prefer to act unthinkingly.  And in that way a benign perception of violence creeps into our daily existence.

But this is not a runaway train.  We hopefully have checks and balances and some solid rails to run on.  Something to restrain us.  But what restrains us from justifying the unjustifiable?  Perhaps something learnt in childhood, when we were gentler of nature and more open to the wisdom of harmlessness?  If so, we can be persuaded that whatever we want now, can be attained without resorting to violence.  
This is the principle on which Veganism is based and it's precisely why vegans don't use anything from animals, even if it means going without altogether.  For us, it's the best way to keep our lives as free of violence as possible.  Vegan principle is our restrainer and because it's so simple ('we use nothing from animals') it stands firmly and can not be argued around.

With this ideal in place, many other things are possible, not the least of which is to believe a better world is possible.   Boycotting products connected to violence will eventually bring about a better understanding of harmlessness.  And the longer our lives go on and the stronger we feel about the vegan principle, the more likely it seems that others will follow and inevitably bring a better world into existence.
Methods are as important as outcomes.  High principles matter and always take precedence over pragmatics. Vegans never fight in wars, never regard anyone as inferior, don't do things which will harm the planet, never support abattoirs and never encourage any form of 'mind' manipulation.


Ah, the mind!  The human is both blessed and cursed with a fine mind.  Our dreams start in the mind, our nobility-of-action starts in the mind, but the mind is vulnerable to outside influence.  If rule number one involves harmlessness of action, then the second rule involves doing no harm to our own minds.  Our mind allows us to think for ourselves, so that our core intentions and instincts are used to question everything rigorously.  We can't trust the finding of truth to teachers.  We have to determine what is right and true for ourselves.  It's why we have a mind!  If necessary, we have to question even the most accepted authorities and then, when we are sure that our attitudes are our own, we form our own alternative authority.  Then we can become truly constructive.  From thereon it's a downhill run as we piece together related attitudes and start the long task of shedding the violence-element in our human nature.

1328:

Edited by CJ Tointon

Violence Stage Three: Good Behaviour
We are all proud of ourselves - sometimes - and ashamed of ourselves - sometimes.  The positive self acts in an honourable way, allowing us to be constructive.  We aspire to do great things that make us feel good about ourselves.  But it isn't like that all the time.  Life throws up new challenges, almost as if to test our character, to see if we can stick to our own code of conduct and be consistently positive.  And if we hit a tipping point, where we can't keep up the 'good behaviour', the positive self retreats and gives way to something that makes us act differently.

We start the day in a bad mood.  We don't need any of life's little challenges today!  We hit out!  We let ourselves down!  The evolved-self gives way to the barbaric-self.  We make an exception to our good-behaviour rule today, and excuse ourselves.  Over time, that exception becomes a habit. It becomes routine.  We respond selfishly in order to resolve anything from an unbearable discomfort to the mildest stirrings of the stomach.  We take the easiest path.  We indulge what our baser instincts suggest.  We do what others might do in similar circumstances.  We accept what's available!  The search for calm leads us to any port in a storm and eventually we come to rely on tried and tested methods of making ourselves feel calmer.  Then we find that we can avoid the storm altogether by using familiar substances, such as food and intoxicants.  'Fast food' is one of the most available, cheapest and fastest fixes.  Once we have relied on it,  this choice of food almost guarantees calm and pleasure enough that we can find a moment of peace and keep ourselves clear of any panic situation.


On a fine day, in a good mood, we can enjoy being constructive!  Without the panic or hunger or frustration, we can become the person we believe we really are.  And on these days we can identify with 'violence-free' attitudes.  We can even generate warm, loving and constructive feelings in people around us.  On these fine days we can even indulge in profound philosophies!  We're not afraid of adventure.  We can take on the World.  We can even test our high ideals by sailing close to the wind.  Perhaps we'll sail right into a safe port, and leave the turmoil behind us.  Live without resorting to any violence, be it refraining from killing or simply using no harsh words or thoughts.  But there are other days - and we can slide backwards. To prevent this happening, there has to be a sufficiently strong impulse that kicks in.  Infants can't be expected to have 'core principles' that come into play at such times, but adults would do well to establish them.  Vegans adopt such a comprehensive set of principles.  They help keep us clear of one of the strongest and most tempting flights into violence -  the food we choose to eat!  In plant-based foods there's no blood on our conscience.

Violence Stage Two: Self-control

1327: 

Edited by CJ Tointon

The word violence conjures up images of aggression and the use of force intending to hurt.  But perhaps it starts with being denied something we think we deserve, a fear of losing out, which in turn touches the panic button.  We bring force into our behaviour to get the result we want. If it works, it's likely we'll do it again  and if used often enough, 'force' becomes a habit.  Sometimes, when we're feeling uncomfortable and frustrated and know that if we don't act straightaway our feelings of discomfort will only get worse, the easiest way out is to use force.  A certain determination is needed, so we use force to bring things back under our control.

The seemingly uncontrollable demand for attention by infants may be excusable, but their screaming and crying are a panic response to something that's out of their control.  And, of course, the parent rushes in to alleviate the panic.  When there's panic or when the demands of self-interest need to be satisfied in adults, there can be a throwback to infancy.  But without a parent to come to our 'rescue', we employ force to help us out of our difficulty.  In our urgency to bring things back under control, we ignore the effect of our behaviour on everyone else.

Force and violence are forms of theft.  If we can't generate what we want by harmless means in order to gain benefit, some form of energy must be stolen from someone or something else.  Force!   And if that is what happens when we feel pangs of hunger, we go to the most potent food material we know that will guarantee comfort.  And these foods are everywhere!  They fill the stomach, stimulate taste buds and quell a whole range of discomforts.  In fact, when we face any sort of discomfort we go for the most powerful food we know - animal-based food - with no thought of the animal sacrificed to provide it for us.  The rich, high protein, full flavoured, filling food brings comfort and alleviates discomfort.  And, like a drug, we use it regularly for its predictable result.  It works like magic, but it acts like any addictive drug and we become dependent on it.   We’ll flirt with danger and violence if necessary to get that food which brings us most comfort.


Violence used in the subjugation, handling and killing of animals is efficient.  It’s cruel, it’s crude but it controls the animal which in turn produces an economical and viable end-product for the consumer market which can be 'consumed' to bring any situation from mild hunger to anxiety-filled-crisis, to a swift resolution.  For omnivores,  animal-based foods serve many purposes, not the least of which is their value in resolving emotional turmoil.  You can bet that whatever the problem might be, a meal rich with animal-based foods will put a smile on any omnivore's face, despite the violence and exploitation of animals it took to bring such a result.  And as it becomes more of a habit, they'll hardly see it as 'violence'.  Soon enough, it becomes part of the normal pattern of daily life.  Even though on one level omnivores know what happens to animals when they are exploited and executed, they choose not to bring what they know into consciousness.  They suppress such thoughts in order to draw the best from the 'product'.

THE FIVE STAGES OF VIOLENCE Violence Stage One: Mind-numbing

1326: 

Edited by CJ Tointon

There's violence everywhere in our world today and it's not likely to go away until we stop leading violence-based lives.  If you are eating abattoir foods (meat, fish, milk and eggs) and/or using things made from violated animals (leather, silk and wool) you are part of the violence problem.  That's just logical!  If you refuse to use animal-based products in your daily life, you'll be making a significant statement  - a commitment to non-violence.   Needless to say, violence is not necessary for your survival or well being.

Most people are blind to much of the horror with which they're involved.  They don't want to see, don't want to think too deeply about how they live their lives for fear of becoming disaffected with their favourite violence-linked foods or favourite pair of shoes.  By closing off your mind to information concerning the treatment of farm animals, you deliberately numb your sensitivities so you aren't constantly reminding yourself of the horrors of the abattoir.  If you gave in to even a moment's thought, you'd never sleep at night and certainly never again enjoy your bacon and egg breakfasts or your steaks or enjoy the comfort of your leather shoes.

Justifying the unjustifiable

1325: 

Buying a ‘pet’ from a pet shop means yet another ‘pet’ will be bred to replace the one sold.  Its cage is never kept empty.  Whenever we buy any ‘animal item’ we create a vacuum into which another 'item' takes its place.  Even when we give away a pair of shoes to someone who needs them, it gives us an excuse to ‘go shopping’ for more.

         

Stealing life from animals benefits us.  And to hell with the victim.  It’s the same as exploiting children or desecrating forests for timber - it’s the same human habit of using our advantage to victimise the defenceless. 

What the eye doesn’t see …

1324: 

  

In our society, we are encouraged not to know about animal issues.  Factory farms, abattoirs and animal laboratories are closed to the public.  But it’s unlikely the public are keen to visit them anyway because they’re such ugly places - we can’t object to what we haven’t seen with our own eyes.  We also reckon that if teachers at school thought we ought to know about this, they’d have taught it.  If we aren’t taught something then we reckon it’s probably not worth knowing about anyway.

One thing leads to another - if we discover that dairy products are cruelly produced then everything made with milk is ethically questionable ... and then our conscience will force us to inconvenience ourselves big time.

Imagine then, what happens when the same arguments are applied to our wardrobes.  Health arguments obviously don’t apply here.  Leather shoes, for instance, aren’t ‘bad’ for you, but they do come from slaughterhouses just as meat does.  (Leather is not so much a by-product as a co-product, since its production is often as economically important as meat production).  Vegetarians who still wear leather can’t hold, let alone promote, Animal Rights.  

Middle roaders

1323:

The middle-road meat-eater makes a small compassionate gesture by only eating free range eggs or drinking organically fed cow’s milk, but essentially they continue being indifferent towards animals.  A vegetarian avoids meat altogether but still takes part in the exploitation of animals.  They don’t want to go too far for fear of becoming too different from their friends so they wear leather, silk and wool and they eat butter, cheese and eggs.

         

“If you boycott all of it you’d go crazy”, they say. So, it’s the middle-of-the-roaders, as distinct from the uninformed, who, despite what they know, are still unwilling to act. They can’t face the vegan argument because they see us as a threat to their self esteem.

         

If vegans want to encourage middle-ground people, they must allow anyone who is considering what we say to take the initiative of changing by themselves without being shoved from behind by us.

Poles apart (from a vegan view)

1322: 

For vegans, we are tormented by thinking about the horror of animal life on the farm.  ‘Our subject’ is unlike any other subject.  It isn’t a hobby.  We can’t be casual about.  For us it’s a matter of righting perhaps the most terrible wrong ever known to our society – the enslavement and brutal killing of innocent beings. This massacre is carried out daily on a massive scale.  It’s not something we can ‘agree to disagree’ about.

         

If we are ‘abolitionists’, who think no animals should ever be used, we come across as being unbelievably radical and confronting.  But, to us, the changes we’re proposing are essential.  However, we only need to hold that view, not necessarily force it down peoples’ throats every time we talk to them, or every time animals are mentioned.