Original Thought - Part One

1440: 

Edited by CJ Tointon

If the idea of original thought is frightening, it's probably because we are led to believe that no further thinking is required on any subject; like animal-based food being a necessity in the human diet!  To believe that this might not be so, is unsettling.  How could humans have got it so wrong, to believe that survival cannot be achieved unless we kill and eat animals?  The idea that humans can not only survive, but lead very healthy lives on an entirely plant-based diet, seems quite preposterous to most people.

But a group of people did come along with an original thought and they put their bold propositions to the test.  They set out to show that there was a conspiracy of interests which held in place a false belief that humans cannot survive without eating meat and milk!  And this was enough to force the issue - making the enslaving of animals acceptable.

But the idea of imprisoning pigs and chickens and constructing barbed wire compounds for cows and sheep (in order to hold them captive, then kill and eat them)  is distasteful to many people.  But it was thought to be a 'necessary evil' - until the assumption was put to the test by people who were prepared to move heaven and earth to find another way.   And so it happened that a few brave and determined pioneers did just that.  Later generations have much for which to thank these first VEGANS.  

                                                                       

As soon as plant-based (vegan) diets were found to be 'safe', it allowed for a lot of other less essential (animal-based) commodities to be replaced.  There was an acceptance that clothing, footwear, toiletries and cosmetics no longer had to be made with animal by-products.  People could free themselves of the tyranny of speciesism. There was no longer any need for 'meat' and it was found that animal skins and animal fibres were not necessary for our survival.  A whole range of useful(?) products made from boiled bones and various animal secretions, could now be exchanged with 'cruelty-free' replacements.  All our requirements could be 'cruelty-free' and our lives no longer needed to be blighted by guilt or complicity when we drew up our weekly shopping list. 

But it was never going to be plain sailing.  Once safety and availability are sorted out, there's still another thorny problem to deal with.  The one in our heads!   In theory, we can get all the good stuff we need without using animals.  We can be healthy.  But can we be entirely satisfied?  There's a whole world of pleasure and sensation out there, in some way connected with animal products.  To drop it all means breaking ingrained habits and escaping the many seductions and addictions connected with familiar animal products.  For many of us, this is not easy.  But if it can be done, the rewards are great.  Perhaps the most profound benefit is that our lifestyles become 'squeaky clean', clean of cruelty and therefore clean enough to let us side totally with oppressed animals.  This opens the way for us to work for their interests without any feeling of personal hypocrisy or double standards and extends to other positive attitudes for the greater good and for one's own self development.