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.
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