Comforts

1578: 

The controllers of the Animal Industries probably do know the consequences for the creatures they abuse, but do it all the same. For them, empathy and profits don’t mix, whereas most of us do genuinely feel empathy for the enslaved animals. If we aren't living as vegans then we are either suffering from guilt of knowing what we know or ignoring the guilt and instead giving up on the subject (succumbing to our own helplessness to change our food habits).

         

Those who profit from animals are forced to numb their sensibilities - they’ll say “If it works, go for it, whatever it takes”. They choose to make a problem of it - using animals as a resource. For the rest of us it’s not quite that simple. There’s a ‘moral’ struggle between what's right for oneself and what's best for others. The struggle may not be conscious, but somewhere bubbling away in the background, is an awkward feeling about the animals who produce our favourite food products.

         

Almost all people like the meats and pastries and rich creamy desserts, the cheeses and eggs and all the many marketed milk-made products. Tucking into them relieves the monotony and stress of life, and for that reason most people are omnivores. Even when the omnivore can afford to eat ‘comfort’ foods, they know they mustn't look too closely at the ingredients. Perhaps, by eating these foods we briefly make ourselves feel better and stronger. In some way comfort foods are well named since they are guaranteed to replicate the pleasure experienced when last eaten, some items being as familiar throughout our lives as life-long friends. For this reaso, for fear of leaving one's 'friends' for ever, that is NOT on. So we have to ignore the ugly origins of our favourite foods. Even for a moment, if we allowed ourselves to consider the truth behind our animal-food habits, then our sense of morality would be badly shaken; if we dared to look at the part we play in the ongoing animal massacre, our heads would be bowed with shame.

Whichever way you look at it, it's a massacre, even though we pretend it isn’t. And by pretending that we’re NOT engaging in the act of ‘hurting’ (hurting ourselves, hurting animals, hurting the planet, etc) we disengage our inner eye; we refuse to see what is see-able. If it weren't so serious it would be laughable, to think that we can kid ourselves about this, when it's been thought through already, many times, in the privacy of our own minds.

         

Whether we are a producer or consumer, whether one of the elite '1%-ers' or amongst the other 99%, here's a question for all: if the opportunity arose for us to make a small fortune from one single enterprise, we’d go for it. We'd sell our souls for the chance of making some real money. After all, we spend half our life dreaming of what we'd do with it. Money cushions so many of our big fears. It isn’t just 'the wicked' who want to make big bucks. All over the world, humans fear poverty, fear being forced to ‘do-without’ the things they need. We middle-income-ers indulge in the fantasy of ‘high’ living, most often by eating and socialising around rich food washed down with powerful intoxicants. We do anything to relieve the constant fear of insecurity and having to experience the grinding tedium of living as all poor people have to.

And where are the animals in all this? Entirely exploited, entirely forgotten, entirely abandoned. No one is thinking of them since the focus is so entirely on ourselves and our own fears. If we had the chance to make our pile, and escape poverty by way of making use of animals, would we think twice? Surely, we wouldn't be think much about the ethics of animal-using.