Making Way for the Future

1747: 

Edited by CJ Tointon

A nonviolent society is an attractive and possible idea to people who have taken the plunge and gotten rid of animal-based foods. To people who haven't, the idea is a nonstarter - if only because they are willing to accept violence against animals. Nonviolence is a attitude demonstrated daily by the one habit where choice is entirely personal - choosing one's food. Here in the West, in 'developed' countries where choice is free to almost everyone, an animal boycott is possible. If vegans can do it and live well by it, then anyone can do it.

What stops a person becoming vegan? At one level it might be a lack of understanding and trust in a plant-based diet. At another level it's not knowing about the methods used in modern animal husbandry and slaughtering. At yet another level it might come down to a lack of concern for the animals from which so much of our food comes. Today there's no reason why we can't know about the first two levels, since there's enough information available to convince us that vegan diets are safe and that animal farming is cruel. But no amount of knowledge can guarantee empathy. The greatest tragedy of our age is that most humans don't feel strongly enough about non-humans to deny themselves the convenience and pleasure of using animals for food and clothing and vivisection. For almost every human on the planet, complaisance and self-indulgence prevent the idea of a non-violent society from taking hold. Almost every human thinks he/she can ignore the values set down by vegan principle, even when they know it represents an ultimately intelligent and compassionate path.

Vegans are still few in number. It might seem laughable that we could sway people to radically change their attitudes to animals enough to no longer want to eat them, let alone give up their by-products, let alone resist the temptation to wear animal skins and fleeces. Our task of persuading people to think otherwise might seem almost impossible ... almost but not quite.

Half a century ago, just about everyone was omnivorous, but since then many people have changed their attitude towards animal-use. In some parts of the world up to 1% of the population has become vegan. Recently, the increase in that percentage has been relatively rapid, mainly amongst the younger twenties generation.

If there is to be enough people wanting this change to come about, enough to affect the food market and the leather and wool market, it will probably come about as a result of a combination of fashion awareness, animal empathy, a concern for public health, a concern for the future of the planet and as an atonement for the centuries of cruelty and damage done to animals by humans.

A general disillusion with the benefits of materiality brings us towards spiritual values which will inevitably bring change and great social kudos for being vegan. Perhaps from today's perspective, this is hardly imaginable. Today, we might have the highest principles and be as politically correct as possible, but if this matter of 'animal use' hasn't been properly resolved, we will be prevented from any convincing level of self development.

Most of us lay great store on being able to say something good about ourselves - anything to make us seem less superficial. To be able to say that we are vegan without even mentioning the reason for it, shows that we have willpower, imagination, love and enough self-discipline to adopt an extra dimension to our life. By taking on this challenge, by disregarding the temptation-power of so many animal-based foods and commodities, we will surely stand that much taller in our own eyes. One's refusal to be manipulated by the vested interests of the food and clothing industries, denotes a strength of character most of us would value greatly.