Vegan principle

1356: 

I’ve got a friend overseas I exchange emails with, and he dislikes the idea of veganism - it's the ‘ism’ bit he hates.  Perhaps he’s right. 'Isms' sound religious, but being ‘vegan’ isn’t anything like a religion.  It is simply a set of principles which combine kindness and common sense, or wisdom with compassion.  It seems so logical and exciting that we vegans leap at the chance to tell people all about it.  But we know better than that.  We hold back for fear of boasting about it.  We're up against the common perception here - non-vegans see going vegan as all discipline and hardship, and maybe a chance to show off.  But to us, difficult maybe, showy maybe, overall it’s just one big benefit.

         

It’s very hard to shine a light on something without it making you look glitzy yourself. If what I do looks like altruism (empathy, caring for 'the other') I will seem to be showing off, because it contrasts so markedly with the ugliness of selfishness.  The omnivore is likely to giggle at the strictness of it all, and dismiss it.  But vegans look at it quite differently, seeing satisfying food without the animal content as a big plus.  And what better and more interesting goal-for-life to have than looking out for others, and not only other human beings.  Again, it sounds smug but, bottom line, vegans have put away the 'toys' of their childhood, they've dropped the self interest and ‘soft living’ and found a greater interest; within the staid and hard world of animal abuse, our harm-reduction-living seems to us to be that much more adventurous and exciting.

         

Maybe as vegans our life is a bit edgier.  We develop a sense of empathy.  We push ourselves at a greater pace.  And through our boycotting of animal-associated products, the idea of ‘altruism’ no longer sounds to us at all corny or un-do-able.