1823:
If vegan food seems grim, if
it has that image, then our job is to show that it isn’t. We have to learn how
to prepare it, cook it and discover ways to ‘wow’ people with it. Alongside
that, we should find ways to restore our own personal image, as people to be
looked up to. We are dealing with animals and people, both. Which means our
approach to both should be warm and instructive.
Animal Rights advocacy starts
with awakening an attitude of kindness towards animals, which flows on to a kindness
towards people, along with a certain sense of kin-ness. This is not to say we
shouldn’t be bold and challenging at the same time. Perhaps there’s room to
stir things up, just to get the juices flowing, just to get people thinking
about the absurdity of what they do by eating animals. And then we need to
clear up any misunderstandings about why vegans are vegans.
We may do a lot of talking about food, but obviously there are deeper reasons for being vegan. We’re mainly concerned about animal slavery. Look at any one animal on any farm and we can see an individual animal in a state of great suffering. They, like their human counterparts of many years ago (and even today in some parts of the world) are prisoners. They have no real life, just a forced existence. And because we are so far removed from their situation, we never think about it. If we did think at all, then no one could deny what terrible suffering we inflict on these creatures. The sentience of the animal screams for freedom and a return to a full life, but we hear no screams; we pretend it isn't happening. And worse, we may know of it but most humans have the belief that we shouldn't feel guilty about it. That’s quite a stretch of credibility, especially since the ‘keeping’ of animals is not necessary for human life. The human species, acting as one, have let things slip into a comfortable acceptance of animal slavery. In the process, as animal conditions deteriorate and human health worsens, so those who eat these tormented animals and their by-products have endangered their own health. And brought the heavy weight of hypocrisy down upon themselves.
We may do a lot of talking about food, but obviously there are deeper reasons for being vegan. We’re mainly concerned about animal slavery. Look at any one animal on any farm and we can see an individual animal in a state of great suffering. They, like their human counterparts of many years ago (and even today in some parts of the world) are prisoners. They have no real life, just a forced existence. And because we are so far removed from their situation, we never think about it. If we did think at all, then no one could deny what terrible suffering we inflict on these creatures. The sentience of the animal screams for freedom and a return to a full life, but we hear no screams; we pretend it isn't happening. And worse, we may know of it but most humans have the belief that we shouldn't feel guilty about it. That’s quite a stretch of credibility, especially since the ‘keeping’ of animals is not necessary for human life. The human species, acting as one, have let things slip into a comfortable acceptance of animal slavery. In the process, as animal conditions deteriorate and human health worsens, so those who eat these tormented animals and their by-products have endangered their own health. And brought the heavy weight of hypocrisy down upon themselves.
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